the dress decision

Most moms I know love it when their kid looks über cute. Don't deny it - you know you do. And I feel comfortable posting something like this because (I hope) you all know that I value what is inside WAY above and beyond the outside - you know, the fact that the beauty within is way more important than the beauty without ... on the outside.

Last year, Ben and I bought Ro a "fancy" dress for her to wear on her birthday (December 3), for Christmas functions, etc. I have to confess, it was a spur of the moment purchase. I was in Winners, saw this adorable dress, and bought it. Ro LOVED it, and she is still wearing it, 1 year later (though it falls mid-thigh now - a little risqué by my standards). After seeing how much usage she got out of her one fancy dress, we decided to do it again this year. However, saying yes to the dress has proven to be more difficult.

SIDE NOTE: I have purposely not included Ro in the adventure of finding the dress. Right now, the sparkliest contender would win. :S

My plan was to buy her dress at The One of a Kind Show from a Canadian company called Redfish Kids Clothing. If I didn't live with a boo-jwaa (imagine Tar-jaa for Target, this is for budget) I would buy a lot of stuff from them. But my plans to attend this year were trumped by better plans (relaxing with my fam, putting up our Christmas tree, not paying $12 to get in and $13 for parking before I buy a single thing) so I thought I would shop the old-fashioned way. I bought dresses at Winners (yes, plural), Bonnie Togs, and the Superstore (just for you, Julianne), but none of them felt like they were "the dress". Yes, they were cute, but some were too season-specific (Christmas), some looked too mature, some overused the sparkles (I'm guessing my almost four year old would disagree). I then looked online at Old Navy and Gap (another confession - yes, two in one blog - I love babyGap. Their designers do a bang-up job designing SUCH CUTE clothes. We have been able to take advantage of the fact that Ro still fits into their toddler age 5 clothes) and of course, babyGap came to the dress rescue.

I went to Square One today (okay, you can stop laughing at me). I hadn't heard that Black Friday was coming to Canada. After struggling to find a parking spot, I then entered the zoo, walked into babyGap and laughed. The line to cash out took up half the store, and their were clothes everywhere. Well, Vi and I weren't in any rush, so we made our way to the fancy dress section, picked 3 with matching shrug cardigans, and joined the line to pay for our purchases. 35 minutes later, we left the store. The kind woman ahead of me in line not only held my purchases, but let me ahead of her when we got to the front (did I mention there were only 2 cashiers working...and people were deciding at the cash if the savings warranted their purchases?).

So, after 2 days of shopping, and 7 dresses later (that is exactly 6 more dresses than it took me to find my wedding dress), we have narrowed the field. Here are the contenders:

Ro likes dress 1:

I like dress 2:

Ben likes dress 3:

Disclaimers:
Both Ben and I like dress 2 and 3 and have no problem with the other.
We both don't like dress 1.
Ro is happy with any dress.

Want to join in and have a say? We'd love to hear your thoughts.

Which dress will get the yes?
Tam