The Uncomfortable Pants

My daughter does and doesn't care about what clothing she wears.   Things she cares about are texture and how a material feels as well as how comfortable it is on her body.   She also doesn't want to be too cold or too hot.   Other than that, she has no interest in fashion.   Or shoes.   Getting her to wear shoes is another topic but I'll digress because I had a realization the other day.

She needs information.   We gain the majority of our information about our surroundings through sight.  That little bit of additional information she gets from feeling her surroundings with her feet is important enough to her that she's willing to take the bumps and bruises she gets from running into things without shoes on.   We require her to wear shoes sometimes, but I'm trying to be flexible if we can for most situations. 

My daughter came downstairs today with some "pants" on.   They were a thin dark green legging kind of material that I didn't remember her having before.   Blake was in the living room with me when my daughter came in, plopped onto the chair, and laid back in one of those comfortable positions with her legs hanging in the air that are only comfortable to her and no one else. 

It was then that we both realized she had been outside (dressed, as required) changing swings out in the back yard on the swing set—in tights.   Blake and I both immediately said, "you need to put some pants on," Blake with a little more uncomfortable intensity than I did, which made my daughter mildly upset in an embarrassed way.   

I quickly corrected our tone with some positivity, saying what she had on were tights, just like Nora wore every day, and that Nora also wore a dress with them so that the dress was longer and went down to cover more up.   I told my daughter she could wear the tights ("because that color green looks very nice on you") and that putting underwear under tights was typically what you did since the tights were see-through. 

My daughter was interested in the dress comment.   She didn't know Nora wore dresses—how would she? She had no idea Nora wore tights and dressy shoes every day.   She doesn't know what any of her friends wear, save that Keira "hates dresses" she had told me.   

My daughter asked me if we could go get the dresses from the closet in her old room (now solely her brother's room) and could we bring the dresses to her closet?   We went through all the dresses with me telling her she couldn't take three of them to her room because they were reserved for special occasions.   She had been feeling them all as I described the features of each dress.

The next thing I knew, she was in the back yard with a dress on, climbing back up to the top of the A-frame to change another swing.   It wasn't until later in the day when she came in that I noticed she was still not wearing underwear.   I don't know how she didn't get splinters in a few very uncomfortable areas, but I'm going to require underwear going forward. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son was picked up from school by Blake today so they could go to the grocery store to get ingredients to make tacos together tonight.   Knowing Blake was on the job, they didn't just make traditional tacos.  There was pork with pineapple, sauteed hot peppers, and sliced steak.   My son wrote the ingredients and instructions down on a sheet he'll be taking to school tomorrow to tell his class what he did for his cooking assignment.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was in a reasonable mood today and told me some things about what she could and couldn't see.  She can see more if it's darker/dim/low light and said she can see forms like trees and walls.   Then she told me, "I think I have a sixth sense.  Sometimes I just know something is there, even though I can't see it at all."   She couldn't explain what gave her that extra bit of information, but we both agreed it was good she had her sixth sense.