I a pirate! Arrrr!

This morning when I went to get Reagan after she woke up, she looked like this:


This is an achievement because when she went to bed, she wasn't wearing that shirt. She was wearing pajamas. The tightest, most form fitting elastic banded pajamas we could find to discourage her from stripping. In order to get her pajamas off, she first undoes all the snaps down the front. Then starts to strip off the arms and when she gets stuck she lays on her belly with all fours behind her in the air . She's caught in the pajamas like she'd been hog tied at the rodeo. After about five minutes of wriggling and corresponding wriggling noises, she eventually works the pajamas off. Usually the diaper then comes off and gets tossed at the diaper pail. Unless we had the foresight to put the diaper on backwards. Then instead, after her many tugs it just hangs off of her with a judicious amount of butt crack showing like she's training for a plumbing apprenticeship.

Today though, she kept the diaper on. And she dug out that shirt from her laundry (which, as much as I hate doing laundry I'm not discouraging a recycle here and there). I'm sure it was inside out and crumpled, but she managed to put it the right way and put it on properly. When I saw her she pointed to her shirt and proudly exclaimed "I a pirate! I a pirate! Arrr!"

Very cute. My toddler is a pirate today. A messy, glittery, pirate (yep, the eye patch is glitter and you find it all over you days after she's worn the shirt). If it had been a weekend or Friday I would have said, "Great, your half dressed. Put on your pants and let's go matey!"

Unfortunately though, it was a Thursday. Thursdays aren't good pirate days. Why not you ask? Well, because she goes to a school that requires her to wear uniforms Monday-Thursday, and they are pretty strict about it. So when she declared today to be pirate day I said, "Yes, you are a pirate! Arrr! Let's put this dress on and finish getting dressed." I figured as long as she had the pirate shirt on underneath she would be fine with putting a school jumper over the top. Oh, no! That wouldn't do at all. She bawled as Bill put the jumper on her all along crying "I a pirate! I a pirate!"

Once the jumper was on her, she took five minutes before she had it stripped back off. She proudly pointed to her shirt once again bared, now cheering, "I a pirate! I a pirate!"

What's a mom to do? I did what I think any mom would (I think?). I put a pair of uniform pants on her and sent her to school proudly bearing her pirate shirt. I should have added a headscarf bandanna and an eyepatch or a parrot on her shoulder to complete the look. Sometimes I suck.

I sent a uniform shirt along with her. I sent Bill with instructions to tell them if they didn't want her to be a pirate today that they could change her shirt, but that we weren't going to do it. Surprisingly, she came home a pirate today and we were void of a uniform violation notice. I'm glad to see that.

We absolutely love the school and wouldn't possibly send her anywhere else. When I learned that she would have to wear uniforms I was disappointed because I love to overbuy for and overdress the girls. But I figured if they wanted our girls to wear uniforms, then so be it. I figured creativity could be expressed in so many other ways, it doesn't matter what they wear. Today was the first day that I really questioned that logic. I think if Reagan wakes up one day and wants to be a pirate, then she should be a pirate. But on the other hand, what have I done to set a precedence for her not wanting to wear her required uniform and buck the rules?

I guess it all comes down to whether or not I want to encourage creativity or encourage following rules. Can't I do a balance of both? I'll add that to my to-do list for today.

Most importantly, who am I to tell her pirate day can only be on Friday?

Arrrr!