shirt crazy

TJOML is into dressing herself nowadays. What little she can manage, that is.

And she has very specific tastes (fixations?), seems like...

Last week, I dressed her as usual, one early morning, to get her ready for school (i.e., daycare). It was just a pair of durable corduroy pants and a red t-shirt I made for her a while back. Nothing fancy.

All went well until it came time for bath that evening. She was very reluctant to remove the red t-shirt. Only her love for bath helped her overcome this obsession with the t-shirt and that too only when I put the shirt in her view right beside the bath tub.

After the bath, when it came time to get her in her jammies, she screamed her lungs out asking for that t-shirt. I simply had to hide it in her hamper so I could wash it: she had had a messy lunch at school that day and it showed.

Some distraction, tickling, playing and reading to her took care of that night.

Next morning, when I had brought out fresh clothes to dress her in, she spied the same red t-shirt i had hid (carelessly) in the hamper and indicated in no uncertain terms that she had to wear those exact same t-shirt right then.

No harm. I figured, I need to pick my battles. If she wants the same shirt, she can wear the same shirt 2 days in a row... so what if her daycare care-givers think I am a sloppy mom? Right?!

Now, loop back to the fourth paragraph from the top in this post :-)

Yep, she wanted to wear it again for the 3rd day in a row. It took some brilliant misdirection and creativity to get her mind off the red t-shirt and pack her off to daycare in a fresh set of clothes the next morning. (It's a good thing toddlers her age have short attention span and short memories...)

Anyway, this week again, she found another tops of hers given to her by her Pattee (my mom, TJOML's maternal grandma) from india. She put it on last night, wouldn't take it off to put her jammies on, so, I had to put her jammies over her tops. And this morning, again, she would not let me put her in a different t-shirt... well, you get the picture.

It must be more of a control thing, as they say... so, I do try to give her choice. But when faced with a vehement, "No Amma. No. Maiine. Shirt", I end up backing off and smiling inwardly at the strong-headed mini-me that TJOML is becoming these days.