larger view

I am a bit of a matchy-matchy kinda girl. In other words, my shirt and socks usually coordinate, as does my cardigan and sometimes even my shoes, if I can help it. But I am not a prim and proper dresser by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, one friend calls me a 'preppy hippie', because although I wear a lot of tie-dye's, I always have a matching cardigan to go with it. Unfortunately, I tend to inflict this neuroses on my children as well. Having two girls is fodder for dressing them alike--coordinating them down to their pacifier. But I am not a total freak, I do occasionally relent and let them pick out their own mis-matched outfits. For example, lately, my 3 -year-old's favorite shoes are her “Dorothy's,” as she calls them. In other words, her red sparkly shoes. It's something every girl seems to go through around this age. I remember my older daughter having the same obsession for her similarly sparkly silver shoes. In fact her shoe obsession has grown, but that's another blog altogether. Anyway, in the spirit of self-expression, I let my 7 year old wear her kimono to school yesterday. The pink silk Japanese style dress was given to her by her Grandpa a couple years ago. I was surprised it still fit her, but it did, so I told her she could wear it, as long as she put leggings underneath. I was afraid the slits on the sides might end up ripping if things got too crazy on the playground. But when I got a call at 9:30 that morning, it wasn't the slits that were the problem. The zipper had broken, and despite the school secretary's best efforts, it couldn't be repaired. So I took her a change of clothes and made sure she wasn't too scarred by the incident. She seemed fine and got dressed in time to go join her classmates for the 10:00 recess. So I guess the moral of the story is, if you're going to let your child dress in something a little eccentric, maybe pack a change of clothes into their backpack!