Independence, Please.

The desire for independence....it is what the "terrible twos" are all about (and a slight emotional imbalance that provokes tears for no other reason than "my eyes are sad"....but that is another post.) Children most often desire to express their independence through clothing choices. I experienced the unique fashion statements of children during my teaching years on many occasions. A particular favorite was one mid-morning when a child began to wail from his desk (which happened often in my classroom), "Mrs. Phillips, my niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight-night shirt!" Seems little Johnny had worn his prized "night-night" shirt to school (which was a 1982 Billy Joel concert shirt, by the way) and had somehow cut a hole in it with his scissors. The rest of the day went downhill from there for that little boy.

Saturday Tobe and I were shopping at our local trendy grocery store (alone!) when we passed a mother dressed head to toe in designer wear. Her son, however, was sporting a pair of spiderman goulashes with Pajamas. Seems like pajamas is popular among the under three foot crowd because one of our neighbors practically lived in a pair of thread-bare Superman PJS this past Spring.

The desire to dress oneself has hit casa de phillips. Isaac likes to peruse his closet in search of the day's clothing options. Earlier this week we had to have a quite serious discussion...which involved tears...over why he was not going to wear his large red winter coat in 95 degree weather. It took many discussions this summer to explain why one does not wear socks with nice brown sandals. This morning we set out on our walk with Isaac sporting a pair of dinosaur pjs (pretty common since he always wears his PJs when we walk first thing), a fire hat (his "fi-red" hat), one sock, and carrying a garden hose attachment and a flashlight. However, let it be noted that if you walk with your child who happens to be wearing a fire hat (backwards...always backwards) and pass a firetruck, the kind firefighters will turn their lights on for you (fortunately they did not turn on the sirens or we might have had a repeat train incident).

Guess what else defines the "terrible twos"? An extreme dislike of your mother's digital camera. I attempted to capture the outfit on film (memory card???) in all its glory, but Isaac was having none of my picture taking efforts. Good thing he is so cute.