A Day of Firsts

Lydia successfully completed her first day of 2nd grade yesterday. I am cursing the fact that we don't currently own a camera, because the outfit that she chose has to be seen to be believed.

On Monday night, she disappeared upstairs and came down with a very stylish black dress and her black boots (or "high boots" as she calls them.) This was fine, except for the fact that the high boots are lined with fur, and the cold front that was going to pass through on Tuesday wasn't forecasted to arrive until late afternoon. I pointed this out to Lydia, explaining that fur-lined boots will be great in just a few weeks, but for a 79 degree day, with a dewpoint in the 70's, she may find herself a little overheated.

"Fiiiiiiiiiine!" and back upstairs she went.

Seeing where this is going, I decide to go upstairs and move things along. When I get there, she has chosen a red t-shirt, a leopard print baby doll type shirt to go over the t-shirt, and completing the outfit, a leopard print mini-skirt that I bought her for last Thanksgiving.

Probably, the horror registered on my face immediately, because she was quick to point out that this outfit, with it's leopard print/slightly different leopard print combo made it look like an outfit. Like she had just sauntered into a store and found the whole thing already pieced together on a mannequin by some junior stylist with a fondness for animal prints.

I tried to redirect her a bit: to different outfits altogether, and also suggesting different tops or bottoms to complement the leopard (squared) outfit she had chosen.

"No, mama. Those outfits are more like, fun, you know? And I want to save those for the 2nd or 3rd day. For the first day, I want to be taken seriously, like I'm not going to mess up, or talk back to the teacher. This outfit will make me be taken seriously."

There's nothing more deadly serious than 2 animal prints together in the same outfit, is there?

My response to her surprised even me. Of course, my inclination was to dig my feet in and explain to her that less is more, 2 leopard prints in the same outfit is too much, they'll think you're a mental patient, and on and on ad nauseum until one or both of us was in tears. But in a surprising moment of clarity and parental intuition I said, "You know what Lydia, if you want to be taken seriously by your friends and your teacher, and this outfit will help you do that, then I absolutely think you should wear it."

And so she did.

And you know what? She came home in one piece. No one had teased her. She reported that her teacher was very nice, and she had a good day.

What the hell did I think was going to happen? Honestly, the hyperbole of my own thoughts is unbelieveable to even me sometimes.

So Lydia completed her first day of 2nd grade and her mom, for the first time, chose to take the path seldom-traveled in our relationship and let Lydia be Lydia with no negative consequences at all.

Congratulations to us both.