Trashion/Refashion Show 2011

As far as I can tell, Sydney was never nervous for an entire second.

Me, on the other hand? I was so tense the entire week leading up to the fashion show that I sprang a muscle in my neck brushing my hair one morning. The morning of the fashion show, I ate a nice breakfast, then decided that eating was probably a majorly bad idea.

Basically, I was that kind of nervous in which you sort of feel like you are going to die, you are so nervous.

For Sydney, however, the day was basically just a series of one candy-colored piece of happiness after another. Thanks to the Hair Arts Academy, which donated its services, there was hair styling!!!

Just check out that kick-butt booster seat.

Syd doesn't really have enough hair to bother, in my opinion, having it curled to peek adorably out from under her crown, so I asked the stylist to simply braid it in pigtails, pin it up, and lock it into place, thus introducing Sydney to the wonders of scented hair-spray:

Designers were also permitted to have their hair and make-up done, I believe, but notice, please, that this Momma has her hair firmly braided and hid in a kerchief, and her face firmly placed behind the lens of her camera:

On Sydney's face, I asked for dramatic pink eye shadow and pink lip gloss. Sometimes kids don't like to have their make-up done (can you blame them?), but seriously, look at the expression on my child's face as she's getting her eye shadow applied:

When the stylist is done she asks me if it was the look I was going for, and I say, "I LOVE it, but you've got to get Miss Syd's approval, too."

The designer gives Sydney a hand mirror and asks, "Do you like your make-up?"

Sydney checks herself out from all angles, smiling at herself all the while, then looks up at the designer and says, "Glitter."

Did they have glitter? Why, yes, as a matter of fact they did!

The glitter didn't photograph for me well, but it's brushed all over her face, so imagine it on top of this, The Runway Look:

She's making that face because she doesn't want to close her lips together because she doesn't want to smudge her lip gloss. Seriously.

While Will and Matt had tons of fun out front with the hula hoop troop and the community art project, Syd was busy with the backstage photo shoot:

 She goofed off and giggled with her little runway buddy--

--and had some time to contemplate the less fabulous and more tedious aspects of modeling, such as waiting for the shindig to begin, already!

Finally, it was time. I had my game face on, but frankly, I thought that I was going to puke. I would have vastly preferred walking the runway myself, naked, to sending my four-year-old down it completely unsupervised and at the mercy of her own common sense. To make matters worse, when you're backstage, you can't actually SEE onstage--what if she falls and then begins to cry? What if she just stands there for a really long time, and then begins to cry? What if she just wanders off, crying?

Fortunately, I had my man in the audience, bootleg taping the whole thing. Here's what he saw:

Sydney's little runway buddy was the real trooper, since Sydney, who knew her marks VERY well, did her darned best to haul her partner around and keep them both exactly where she wanted them to be. And yes, Dear Reader, at the end of the walk, she does blow a kiss to the crowd. I didn't spend all those evenings with cable watching Toddlers and Tiaras for nothing.

At the end of their walk, off they march:



And then back in line we get, because our portion of the evening isn't over until we've walked the Models and Designers Walk:

No, I'm not escaping--we were required to hoof it back to the Silent Auction area and schmooze for a bit. Syd was still wired, happily collecting her bouquet from Daddy and letting people examine my stitching and hems and all up close and answering questions from the admiring public, but Will, who had won the award for World's Most Patient Big Sister hours ago, was getting pretty exhausted, and so off we snuck back home.

The small child refused to let me take off her make-up, but she did let go of her bouquet so that it could go in water, and she and Willow were sound asleep approximately six second after their little blonde heads hit the pillow.

And that's when Matt ordered a pizza, and I FINALLY relaxed.