We've gone through Hell Week and emerged, relatively unscathed. Work was horrible. Putting Luke to bed was horrible. Having Dave gone was horrible. Trying to buy Luke a bed and dealing with Ikea was horrible. But hey, it's all behind us now. Luke is semi-compliant at bedtime again, we have a new bed for him which he'll try for real one of these days, Dave is home, and I still have a job for now.
We took a break from all of the yuckiness yesterday by heading over to Suzi and Boom-Boom's house for the Superbowl. Suzi and Bill decked out in purple for ... the Minnesota Vikings? Luke decked out in a red football jersey for... the Redskins? Dave wore white in honor of...hmmm...the White Sox?...and I was in pink for (as Bill suggested) the Walla-Walla Pansies.
Luke's cold had gotten worse and even though he insisted that his nose had "turned off" earlier, it started running again, and he was even running a slight fever by the end of the night. But he was positively undeterred in having a (non-football-related) great time. He's serious about drumming on the big fancy set and the little bongos. He's very interested in any cooking that happens outside (read: grilling). And he's perfectly happy just running around doing goofy stuff.
Picture him in his blue footie pajamas, wearing Suzi's long pearl necklace, reaching into her jewelry cabinet, pulling out another necklace, carefully closing the door, trotting back into the living room to present someone with a new necklace, then heading back in to her room to repeat the process. Now picture him with the same PJ's and the same necklace, leaning jauntily against the ottoman, chatting and gesturing around the room with his big mug of milk. He's like a witty pajama-wearing raconteur, quick with a joke and easy with a crowd.
Now I'm trying to buy kids' sheets for Luke but I'm getting a little caught up in what it means I think about his personality. Licensed characters are out. I don't want him sleeping with the Wiggles. And don't even get me started on Elmo. Diggers are a possibility. Castles would be a possibility too, but he's more interested in the castle, not the dragons. Would that be too scary? I'd think bugs on sheets would be a little scary, as would dinosaurs. Ikea had some sheets with creepy one-eyed monsters that seem to be begging to be the subject of nightmares. Also he doesn't have any real allegiance to a particular sports team at the moment (except the Walla Walla Pansies) so it feels weird to force it.
If I could I would design custom kids' sheets: some with barbecues and flippers and mixers; some with guitars, drums, violins, pianos, and horns; and some with another non-gender-stereotyped subject matter that I have yet to come up with. Not to get all Brokeback Mountain on the world, but why do the boys have to have sports or train themes, while the girls get all the pretty flowers and colors? Why can't a kid just wear a necklace, enjoy cooking and music, and still be the coolest guy on the block?
No comments:
Post a Comment