Yesterday, he scratched it; and this was my favorite thing from yesterday.
I've seen it before and gotten my hopes up, not that it matters to me much what he wears. I've seen many a kid on picture day at school dressed to the nines while Cal shows up in a nice t-shirt and jeans (I do have some standards, albeit few). His choices in what he wears day in and day out are one way he expresses himself. He's currently a sweatpants and a t-shirt kind of kid, and that's okay with me. Sure, I think it'd be nice if he wore jeans and his nice waffle-weave shirts, items of clothing I remind him he has every month or so; but that's only because I like that style -- he just doesn't. I only ask that every once in awhile he step outside of his comfort zone and wear something dressier, if only out of respect for whatever (e.g. church) or whomever (e.g. a cousin's wedding) he's heading off to do.
When on Sunday night, Cal picked his black, button-down, dress shirt, a tie and jeans to wear the following day, I thought to myself, okay, well, at least he knows he's got nicer clothes, fully expecting that he'd replace the whole outfit with the aforementioned pocketless, stringless, too-short sweatpants and a long-sleeved, worn t-shirt when it came time to actually get dressed. It turns out, the only part of his outfit that he replaced with a different article of clothing were the jeans, opting instead to wear a pair of khakis... formerly labeled too "puffy" to wear. He even threw in wearing his black slip-on dress shoes to complete the outfit.
His delivery of himself in his "dressier" clothes made it even better, too. Having just finished my early-morning run, I was in the kitchen cooling off and entertaining Ella who had gotten up earlier and more pleasantly than usual when I heard and saw him emerge on the landing of the stairs. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was something to the effect of "Dun-dun-dun-DUN... look at me, Mommy!" in an announcing-his-presence kind of way.
There he stood, dressed to the nines himself and motivated to find his black "boots" (those black slip-on dress shoes). I told him I thought they were in his closet; and we then all headed upstairs, Cal to find his shoes, me to shower and Ella to shadow me.
By now, Dan was up and just starting to get ready for work. I figure he probably helped Cal put his button-down, dress shirt on, so he knew how Cal was dressed. When Cal emerged in our bathroom with his shoes in hand, I excitedly told him he "looks so handsome!" Cal responded by asking Dan if he'd wear a tie, too; and being the good daddy that he is, Dan put a shirt and tie on himself.
Cal was so proud, dressed like his daddy. And his daddy was so proud of his son. Once we were all dressed and ready for our days, Cal and Dan went downstairs to get their work badges (we made one for Cal awhile back), and Ella and I followed on their heels to take their picture. Here it is, a picture of Cal dressed like Dan... or really, Dan dressed like Cal, my favorite thing from yesterday:
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