Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Sweet Payback



Today my little man woke up and asked, “My dress on, Mommy?” 

Jake has this crazy quirk of demanding that he get dressed as soon as he hops out of bed.  We’ve argued, negotiated, and reached an agreement that only after Momma has finished her first cup of coffee will we proceed with the Wardrobe Selection Battle.  (And that agreement was a huge breakthrough, let me tell you.) 

His usual requested attire: tractor shirt, jeans and cowboy boots
Now that summer is here, we’ve made some slight changes: tractor shirt, jean shorts, and boots


Most mornings I choose two shirts and two bottoms and he gets to pick the shirt and pants he wants to wear.  (This does not always go smoothly, hence the name Wardrobe Selection Battle.  Some mornings, I just go straight to the tractor shirt and jeans just to see his little face light up.  Other mornings, I can’t muster up the effort to stand there waiting for ten minutes while he tries to choose, so I dig the tractor t-shirt out of the dirty clothes.  (I have retrieved this t-shirt out of the pile of stinky clothes many, many mornings.)  I knew we had a problem when his preschool teacher said to me earlier this spring, “Jake sure does love his tractor shirt.  He said you got it for him.”  I corrected her, saying, “Oh no, what he means is that Mommy got it out of the dirty clothes hamper this morning because he was in tears and so was she.” 

I know exactly what he meant this morning when he said, “My dress on, Mommy.”  What he wanted to say was somewhere between “I want to get dressed,” and “Will you help me put my clothes on?” 

Despite the fact that I know exactly what he meant, I’m holding onto this one, tucking it away for a later date.  It's little things like this that make all those difficult mornings worth all of the effort.  Like a return on my investment.  Or is it payback?  I'm not really sure, but I do love my little guy to pieces, strong will and all!



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