Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Never Look Up to See a Flock!

It's migration time again in the midwest. The large swarms of small blackbirds (cowbirds?) came through three weeks ago. They drove Lily crazy with their constant flitting about like a school of fish in the air.

Now we've moved on to the large groups of Canadian Geese coming to the lake at the park behind our house. Honk! Honk! Honk!

When X-man was little, he used to call them Honk Honks! It was very sweet. He'd be toddling around to his sand and water table out on the sidewalk. We were one of two houses in the neighborhood then and Bob the Builder was here every day with a new truck. So we'd go outside and play in the gusty Savoy wind and he'd call each construction truck out by name and watch them while he went about his business of kicking balls, drawing with chalk, rolling down the "hill" in the front yard, getting the mail, playing with the hose, etc. Even when it got cold, he'd be out there sniffling away and putting his own CAT trucks in the dirt of the "done" garden while I put the tomato cages away for the winter.

This morning, X-man wore his "fancy" clothes to school for his first grade photo. Ever since he was 4 and accidentally zipped his bits by accident on a pair of jeans he refuses to wear denim or pants that zip. Luckily for me, there are a few brands out there that will make pants that aren't sweat pants or track pants without any kind of button or zipper. But X-man's never been to a non-island wedding. And since he was tiny when he's gone to funerals, I never felt the need to buy him dress shoes. He doesn't have many fancy clothes. Fancy for us is a Cuban shirt over a pair of khaki shorts.

Anyway, when we were in San Jose this summer, he tried on a sports jacket, with a fedora and a pair of out of this world funky sunglasses. He looked adorable. But we were in a department store and the coat was more money than I wanted to pay for it. Fast forward to October, when suddenly the jacket is 65 percent off. So I ordered it. And then I ordered him a button down shirt. He was rather excited about the shirt this morning because when you cuffed the sleeves, it had an entirely different pattern. "I'm like a secret agent! I'm like that guy on White Collar that starts with an N."

I giggled. It was a very cute observation. So I went into the closet and got the fedora he picked out from Target not too long after our trip to California. It's the only actual clothing purchase he's really cared about. He wore it out the door when our neighbor came to pick him up to walk to school. And then when he got to school, he got worried he'd be breaking the "no hat" rule, even though I told him he could put it in his backpack like his winter hat. Instead, he gave it to the neighbor... for safe keeping.

I will admit, I bought the shirt and the jacket a bit big, so we could get more use out of them, too. But holy cow, he looked really cute. If my hand-me down phone took better photos I'd post one. But I'll have to see how it goes. (And if he lasts more than 5 seconds with the sports jacket on once he gets to school. I bet the whole class knows his "secret" before lunch.)

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