Insomniac minds want to know: What do I do with all those other dresses?
I spent 45 minutes with Bobbin this Sunday, in her room, in front of her closet, trying on every single dress she owned one by one, so she could see how well it "spinned".
This is, apparently, a very important characteristic in a dress. A dress with too little spin is destined for the back of the closet, to be shunned at every occasion, regardless of any other decoration or attributes it may sport. The mere sight of it may even induce a dreaded toddler temper tantrum. The amount of sparkle, colour, pattern, type of fabric, and number of adornments, while all important factors in determining the toddler-appeal a dress may have, doesn't even come close to the importance of the "spin factor".
While Bobbin owns several quite pretty dresses that at an earlier age (as in a couple of months ago) she found quite appealing, now that she has entered this more fashion-concious state of development she has but one dress hanging in her closet that she will actually wear. The rest have been set aside for lack of "spinningness".
Spinningness is essentially how close one can get one's dress to appear as a perfectly flat 2-dimensional circle centered at one's waist, while one is spinning around in a circle at full toddler speed with arms outstretched.
Spinningness is not to be confused with poofiness. Poofiness is an entirely different characteristic, and not at all an appropriate substitute for lack of spinningness so don't even try.
If you think of a circle whose radius is the length of the skirt as the desired goal, the closer one gets to achieving that goal with one's dress while spinning, the better the dress. I,e:
For a dress to have even moderate spin appeal, it's radius while spinning must be greater than it's height during spin. Using the above chart as a guide, a dress should have a Spin Quotient of at least 0.75. Anything less and the dress will be deemed unspinnable and thus not suitable for wearing. The closer to 1 you can get the better. Dresses that have been labelled as unspinnable may, however, be determined to be suitable attire for stuffed animals so don't completely discard it.
And of course, next week, it may come back in fashion and she'll be asking for it explicitly and no other dress will do. You just don't know, do you.
Comments
Well, you could always send the less spinable dresses to The O'Reilly Factor ;-)
Posted by Sarah on September 18, 2007 8:24 AM.