Saturday, March 20, 2010

He's pretty fly for a toddler guy.

I find it impossible to dress myself these days. I wear the same jeans/tee/shapeless cardigan every frapping day, which would be okay if I didn't live in the most fashion-conscious city on Earth. I'd love to be one of those women who can go into a thrift store and find pull together a look, or who has 10 good pieces that they mix and match. (I once had a woman tell me that all I really needed was an Hermes bag. Right. I'll get right on that.) But aside from my favorite floppy brown cap, I rarely find things that feel like "me."

My son, however, looks fly.

Seriously, I dress the hell out of that kid. Granted, it's easy to dress well when your shirt only costs $3. Oversized fedoras, jackets, anything from Stella McCartney for Gap. (Thank you, sale rack.) I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't hoping to influence his taste. Let's face it; one less jerk walking around in an Ed Hardy shirt would make the world a better place.

Still, I feel a little guilty imposing my style choices on the little guy. We splurged and bought him a mini kick scooter the other day. Several kids in Owen's class have them and he is obsessed. He wakes up from nap talking about them, cries big fat tears on the playground when he can't play with one... So when it came to picking out the color, I figured I'd let him choose. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "What color do you like?"
Owen: "Blue!"
Me: "Mmmm... How about orange?"
Owen: "Blue!"
Me: "What about teal?"
Owen (confused): "Blue?"

We went with orange.

This is going to come back and haunt me, right? He's going to hit second grade and start wearing his pants hanging off his tush because I dressed him like a tiny professor. But until he walks over and buys a Bob the Builder sweatshirt with his own money, I figure I get to have my say.

In the meantime, I need some spring clothes. Any thoughts on what to wear when the weather's hot?

3 comments:

Carlien said...

I also go through stages of shapeless dressing.. and feel so disappointed in myself when I 'wake up' and really look at what I am wearing. Sometimes I'm just too lazy to make more effort, but sometimes life with toddler just seems to go too fast for decent dressing.
(Why is it that my daughter can be fully dressed, have teeth brushed and a tidy bedroom, and I am still in my pjs with bed hair?)

Anyway, what I'm trying to do now is replace some sloppy t-shirts with slightly more tailored blouses / shirts. I found some cute tops for summer last year - just a different fabric and a few more details on the sleeve and neck-line make for a big change. I feel more dressed even though I'm usually still wearing the same jeans and 3/4 baggy trousers.

Missy said...

You and #2 would get along famously on a shopping expedition. She loves LOVES orange. We even painted her walls orange. I am finally getting used to it.

Unknown said...

I like the way you described with the color. It must be the mom's thing. We thought we would let them have their way but we just can't help it anyway. Stumbled upon your blog while I was browsing for my baby recipes blog. I would really appreciate if you could check out Healthy Baby Food Recipes