complicated cool

we are slowly but steadily making progress with quinn braving the stairs on his own. he uses a broad selection of flashlights, mama singing jingle bells from the kitchen, and make believe invincibility spells to make the trip solo. saturday morning he practically galloped upstairs, and (gasp!) changed out of pajamas into clothes, on his own, so we could go to the farmer’s market. he came back down wearing navy blue pants, and a navy blue (inside out) polo shirt. he needed me to tie on his batman mask, and the navy blue was “supposed to be like black and gray”. he added black socks (ok so they had white penguins on them, but they were bat socks) and we headed for the batmobile.

it’s not the actual putting on of clothing, or the choosing of clothing, or any of those nuts and bolts of getting dressed that seem to bother quinn, but the lack of ability on the part of “getting dressed” to rise to the top of the quinn priority list. getting dressed as batman, now that has potential. but getting dressed so we won’t be late? not so much. he has had the ability to get dressed for years, and yet he rarely does so without assistance (read: i choose the clothing, i bring it to him, and i put it on him or hold it in front of his face until he puts it on).

yet, twice in one weekend, he did his own costuming. when he came down that night with his pajamas on, he had chosen his lightning “the queen” shirt and his tie dyed pants (several inches too short) to go along with the penguin socks. “the style of my outfit is called ‘complicated cool,’” he let us know.

i think you could also describe the attire of our christmas/solstice tree as complicated cool. the afternoon that rich brought it home in his truck, he waited until i was upstairs reading harry potter to quinn in his bed before bringing it inside. after i finished harry potter, i started putting on the lights, and shortly thereafter an elf who had just gotten the hang of braving the stairs on his own peeked into the living room. “i don’t want to miss all the christmas stuff.” i told him we would be decorating the tree tomorrow, and said i could even wait to put lights on, but that i had been planning on the lights being on when he woke up in the morning as a surprise. “don’t do it without me. but, if you want, you could do it as a surprise.” (complicated cool?)

in the morning, he did not jump directly into opening door number 9 on his advent calendar, and instead we decorated the tree for a while. he appreciates rich’s collection of star wars ornaments. i appreciate that rich has managed to accumulate 10 times as many ornaments as i have. must be the age difference.  it’s nice to have a full-looking tree.

er, rather fuller in some patches than in others. such as where quinn hung “the bird family” in super-concentrated manner.

darth vader and precious moments. complicated, yet cool.

sending lots of love and christmas/solstice light.