dress sense

I have this particular housedress that has somehow become Sage's special favorite: a skinny-strapped, short white number--patterned with purple leaves and brown teddy bears--that I actually would not be caught dead wearing in public. Possibly it's that very contrast with my usual all-black attire that makes Sagey love it so--whenever she watches me getting dressed for a day at home, she will try to dig up the housedress and say, "Mommy, I want you to wear this one."

Generally, I'll oblige. So I was wearing the aformentioned dress as we were watching TV yesterday. "Mommy," Sage wanted to know, tugging at my hem, "what is this called?"

"It's called a housedress," I told her.

"Mommy!" she laughed, as if I had just said the silliest thing imaginable. "It's not a housedress; it doesn't have houses on it!"

"No, no," I tried to explain. "It's a dress I only wear in the house, so we call it a housedress."

"No, Mommy," she informed me decisively. "It has bears on it, so it's a bear dress."

And of course it is. Silly me.