In researching my
Bali Staycation inspired by Tea Collection, I learned all about batik pattern making, and was so excited for Savvy and I to wear similar styles on our Indonesian staycation day (because, let's be honest, I love any excuse to coordinate with my mini-me). It may have been a bold choice to have us both wear dresses to the playground at 9am on a Friday morning, but as you'll see from the photos below, the dress withstood pint-sized playtime unscathed and I only looked slightly overdressed (ok, maybe a LOT overdressed).
I approached our morning with mindfulness of our daily rituals and routines, inspired by the Bali way of life that is very ritualistic and reverent. Savannah takes after my husband in the sense that they do the exact same things, the same way, every single day. So after helping daddy get dressed by opening up his closet and eventually handing him his shoes with the reminder "DADDY SHOE TOO" as if he would forget to wear them without her nudging, we were ready to give him our goodbye kisses and head to the playground like we do _every_day_.
Savannah has been more chatty than normal as she weaves together sentences as long as 6 words. Since I was on a mission to photograph her pushing her new
Tea dress to its maximum cuteness and test its durability, I captured a multitude of her exaggerated facial expressions and mannerisms because she was talking up a storm.
In a gesture that must be mimicking my own, she holds her thumb and index finger close to her eye whenever she says the word "little". Here, I imagine she's talking about the "liiiiiiiddo" details dyed into her
Laut Batik dress. In addition to the flower pattern, there are small nuances like dots, swirls, a few fish and a pop of trendy neon.
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| Cracks me up how she squints her eyes and wrinkles her nose when I tell her to smile for the camera. |
As you can see from the photo below, this dress is designed for looks as well as play. An elasticized waist detail creates shape while the full skirt allows for a full range of motion. This is so key for little girls who need to be able to play regardless of what they're wearing.
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| Big step! No problem. |
The sprinklers beckoned Savvy as the sun began heating us up, so I changed her into her green crocs that matched the lime green details on her dress before she went splashing around.
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| The look of determination. She's prepping to carry her stroller down the subway steps like a city mama. |
The water at Catbird Playground was freezing!!! But she kept going back for more and luckily her
Laut Batik dress, which is named after the sea, didn't weigh her down as it got wet. In fact, the soft cotton sheeting retained its billowiness, so it didn't stick to her legs, getting tangled as she trotted around. It also didn't change color when wet so she didn't
look soaked. These are important qualities in a summer outfit because you never know when you're going to need an impromptu cool down. I didn't think the sprinklers would be on this morning because it wasn't supposed to be a hot day, but I'm not the type of mom to say "but honey you can't play in the sprinklers because we didn't bring your bathing suit." I'd rather let her play, then improvise a way to get her dried off.
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| I love how she arches her back and curls her lips when she says "whoaaaaaa". |
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| And here's a genuine smile :) Soaked, cold, and thrilled! |
Our Bali staycation day didn't bring her to the sea, but she certainly embraced the spirit of the island with plenty of splashing around and soaking up as much fun as possible during our morning playground ritual.
Stay tuned for Bali Staycation Part III...
If you missed Part I, read it here:
Exploring Indonesia
{Linking up with
Mode Monday and
Visible Monday}
(Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post. Tea Collection provided clothing for review purposes. All opinions expressed are my own.)
