Accessorize

I've concluded most children prefer to be unclothed. It makes sense, since they so recently got to float around naked in a perfect little womb. Jackson, still wears shorts and T-shirts nearly every afternoon (I suppose the house is cold enough in the morning to induce more clothing), and generally is really happy if he can get away with just undies on.  Getting clothes on Allie is like wrestling a greased pig. She screams and wriggles with an enormous amount of fortitude every morning, diaper change, and night time. The poor babysitter was totally unprepared this past week.


Despite their tendencies toward clothing freedom, I'm always amazed at how much they love to accessorize.

I personally find accessories laborious, easy to lose, and expensive. I try to only use them when completely practical. So, I find it odd that my kids are constantly finding things to accessorize with. Hairbands and headbands are always on some strange part of their body. Keys, scarves, giant shoes, toys, all can be accessories. "Real" accessories are always exciting, like the ever sought after star glasses, 



And hats. 

 I don't think this is unique to my children. I distinctly recall my sister Lindsey donning all of my underwear as her dress up clothes (strewn along her 2 year old arms so graciously); I cannot even begin to describe the insane accessorized outfits my sister Kelsi came up with as a child.

So why is it so exciting to accessorize as a child? The immediate answer seems to be part of their ever present experimentation with adul-tness. But it probably has more to do with why adults accessorize... which I don't think I can pin down. Is it just fun? Is it to make statements of uniqueness? Maybe to just dress up an outfit? Do accessories make people feel special--including little people?
Whatever the reason, I'm sure I could research it and find a number of psychological theories. The good thing is, I finally know what to get Allie for Christmas.

Totally wrapping all the old accessories I don't know what to do with!

December-ness

 Sometimes there are moments in December that feel like this:

All is right in the world of Christmastide and family life!

But I must admit that for much of December I feel like this:

Desperately needing the aid of these trusty rescue workers to come salvage what's left of the month and put up blockades so I don't try and burn all of our family time with who knows what.

Perhaps if I just got all my resources together, I could build some solid defenses,

 So we don't end up squeaking through December like our trusty snowman:

Thanks Annalee and family for an awesome start to the Holiday madness! We had a wonderful snow-filled Thanksgiving weekend up in Buffalo, full of food, films and much family fun. And though it didn't look promising, our limbo-ing snowman withstood gravity our entire trip. Bring on December! If frosty can, so can we.