Clothes and Questions

A lot of money and effort could have been saved if I had known how few clothes Turtle would be willing to wear this summer. She wears only one pair of PJs every single day, taking them off every morning the instant she wakes up, so they stay clean and ready to wear that night. And all those new shorts and t-shirts? Forget it. Despite changing clothes about 6 times a day, she has a very particular set of clothes she is willing to wear, and she will specifically ask for her purple dress or pull her heart t-shirt out of the dirty clothes hamper (even when I try to hide it at the bottom). I am generally mortified when we leave the house, not because I don't like what she is wearing (a raggedy purple striped dress with old stained pink shorts, primary-color-striped legwarmers, blue socks and purple crocs actually looks cute on a toddler), but only because I know she has much NICER and more appropriate clothes that she flat out refuses to wear. If she would just horridly mismatch her nice clothes, I'd feel much better.

I know the 6 times a day changing routine is just a phase brought on by the thrill she feels that she actually CAN take off all her clothes, pull new clothes off the hanger, and put on a complete outfit, including socks and shoes, all by herself. It is pretty thrilling for me too. I only force her to change clothes when the one-size-too-small t-shirt and oversized bloomers she has selected are just too inappropriate to leave the house. Other than that I try to go with the flow.

I haven't talked much about Monkey lately - she is thriving in a different way. For one, she is taking naps again, and that has improved her mood and behavior a thousand fold. After nearly two weeks of non-napping, I taped black garbage bags over the nursery windows in desperation, hoping to create such a cave-like atmosphere that she would be forced to sleep. I don't know if it was that or her general exhaustion, but she did sleep that first afternoon after the trash bags thoroughly blocked her light, and she and Turtle have had long naps and late mornings in the nursery every since. She is a different (happier) child now, and has become much easier to live with.

Monkey has also started asking questions about words now, and that is new this week. When I read a book she will ask, "What is 'reluctant'?" "What is 'insisted'?" "What is 'thought'?" It is eye opening (and compassion-inducing) to realize how many words I've been reading and saying that she may not understand. So, when I think she is being obstinate -- wanting to stay (pre-garbage bag) in rest time for only two more minutes, as opposed to 15 more minutes -- she may just not understand. "What IS fifteen, Mommy?"

P.S. How do you explain, "thought"? Also, what do you say if your kid asks you if God is going to come visit?