The Democratic Republic of Siena

Siena has recently developed an imagination. Or rather, she's recently shown us that she has an imagination. And like Siena generally, it's very cute but also a pain sometimes.

The cheif benefit of Siena's imagination comes early in the morning. For the longest time she's woken up at 6:30 a.m. like clockwork. Until recently, she'd announce her waking by screaming for Mommy; we could hear it all the way down the ahll with both bedroom doors closed. But about a month ago, that stopped. So we'd peek into her room after a little Bonus-Sleep and find her happily playing in her crib with the gang--Baby, Lil' Baby, Shopping-Cart Baby, Monkey, Lil' Monkey, Winnie-Pooh, and Lulu. Sounds like some rap mogul's posse, doesn't it? Anyway, Mama and I were more than happy to take that extra half-hour of sleep to let Siena engage her creativity.

But this imagination hasn't developed without its frustrations. Now that the dolls have their own personalities, they have the capacity to make decisions. Which Siena encourages them to do. Every day.

Typically in the morning, I get Siena dressed and Mama drives her to school. For some time now, I've had to give Siena a choice in what to wear. Fine. But now it's not enough for Siena to have sole decision-making authority. This two-year-old now has to reach a consensus with at least two of her dolls as to every article of clothing she wears. I wasn't aware of this change in the family by-laws, but it's been a royal pain.

It's tough enough for me to pick out an outfit for a woman; I still somehow give the wrong answer when Mama asks if a certain outfit makes her look fat (I know, like anything makes Mama look fat.) But now once I've picked out two acceptable outfits, Siena will insist on having one of her dolls make the final call. So Jackass is standing there with four hangers of clothes in two hands while the Principessa caucuses with Shopping Cart Baby. And socks? Forget about it! Not only does she need an armful fo dolls to pick 'em, but the dolls have to actually pick the socks from the drawer. Adorable? For the first month, sure.

Churchill knew that the only good thing you could say abotu democracy was that it was better than any of the alternatives. Let Churchill try and dress Siena a few times, and maybe he'd have a few nicer things to say about benevolent dictatorships.