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The Adventures of Pajama Man

One thing I love about being a parent is observing the different personalities of our children.  In our family, we have children who are social, shy, outgoing, intellectual, humorous, sensitive, quirky, organized, artistic, patient, excitable, and more.  Today, we will talk a little about Andrew.

Over the past few months, Andrew has developed an extreme affection for his pajamas.  He doesn't really have a favorite pair--maybe spiderman, but he will wear any of them.  Today, for example, he is wearing a combination of two types of pajamas that Grandma Mergenthaler has made for the boys over the years.

Last week, he wore his Spiderman pajamas for about 3 days before I insisted that they be washed:


Andrew has always had an interesting taste in clothes, as you know from our "What Not to Wear Series."  Now, he doesn't bother with clothes--only pajamas will do.

You can imagine that this presents a problem when we have to go anywhere.  I have to plan ahead for a struggle in getting Andrew to put some clothes on.  If we are just going to the store or a basketball game or something, I will allow Andrew to wear his pajamas under his clothes.  This works OK for cold weather, anyway.

The only time the pajama habit is really difficult is when Andrew has to go to preschool.  I won't let him wear his pajamas under his clothes for two reasons:  1)  He would be too stinking hot, and 2) Within minutes of me dropping him off, he would stash his clothes in his cubby and remain in pajamas at preschool.

What do you think his fascination with pajamas is about?  At first, I thought he just feels more comfortable in loose, elastic-waisted clothing.  So I made sure he had some nice looking elastic-waisted pants and comfortable shirts in his normal clothing.  He wears these clothes to preschool, hesitantly, but as soon as he gets home, he is right back in pajamas.  He has even taken to packing a bag for himself with pajamas in it.  He stashes this bag in the van and changes into pajamas in the car when I pick him up.

A friend of mine suggested that maybe he feels safe in his pajamas.  That makes sense to me, so I will allow him to feel safe and secure as much as possible.

Now, about preschool . . . Andrew is attending the best preschool I have ever observed.  The teachers are exceptional!  They are positive and kind.  The program is well-organized.  The student-teacher ratio is very low.  As a result, the kids that attend the preschool are well-behaved, creating a perfect learning environment.  The curriculum encompasses everything I would hope my preschooler would learn in preparation for Kindergarten.  I cannot think of one bad thing to say about this place.  It is wonderful!!

Each month, the theme includes a certain color.  The children learn a song about this color and on the last preschool day of the month, the children dress in their color and sing the song for their parents.  See Andrew's video below.
If you compare this video to Ricky's Thanksgiving performance, you can see how differently Andrew and Ricky behave in these types of situations.  I'm glad I have both types in our family!

On this particular day, Andrew happened to be the child assigned to be the snack.  When you are the snack person, you are also the share person, the line leader, and the special helper during calendar.  I took some pictures of Andrew's special day.


Another thing that Andrew loves is The Magic Treehouse series.  You know how he loves to organize things . . . Well, he may not be able to read these books yet, but they go with him nearly everywhere.  He "reads" them to himself at night.  He organizes them into piles, stacking and restacking.  We don't have all the books in the series, but he loves them anyway.  He loves them so much, that he chose to bring them to share with his preschool class.  He already likes his teachers, but when he saw how nicely his teacher spread out his books to display for the class, he fell in love.
He also chose to share our Santa hat and his blue and green sunglasses.  The sunglasses have a funny story.  Last year, they disappeared (as do many things in our house).  They were gone for so long that we had all forgotten about them.  Andrew discovered them this year as he and Ricky helped to get out the Christmas decorations.  Somehow, they had gotten dropped in a Christmas box!  That's why Andrew likes to wear the Santa hat and sunglasses together.
A few more pictures . . . .We had a smattering of snow today.  We haven't really had snow yet this year, so Andrew and Sean couldn't hold back going outside to play in it.



In case you are wondering . . . . Yes, Andrew is wearing pajamas under his snow clothes.

Comments

Chelsey said…
The pajamas must just remind him of his favorite place to be...home. He'll be reading before you know it if he takes those books to bed with him every night. Aren't children so much fun? While it makes me happy to see them progress, I still get sad every once in a while to see them growing up because I know one day that means they won't need Mom anymore. Brad's reminding me though that Grandchildren will come sooner than I even realize. How scary is that?
December 12, 2011 at 10:52 AM
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