Ghosts of Dresses Past...OR...One Thing I'm Thankful for This Year

Given the holiday season, I can't help but think about all the things I'm thankful for. Of course, I'm thankful for the standards: my children, family, friends, home, health, etc.... I'm also thankful that Roan is growing up. This weekend, I was telling my friend, Shannon, about Roan's obsession with wearing dresses. In telling him a couple of the stories about the Snow White dress, the tiaras, and high heels, I was able to wrap it up by saying "but he doesn't do that anymore." OMG! He doesn't do that anymore! That is something I'm incredibly thankful for!

For those of you who don't know my boy, when he was about 18 months old, he tried on one of Libby's dress-up dresses...and unfortunately, he never looked back. He had a Snow White costume/dress-up dress that he wore INCESSANTLY. He wore it everywhere we went, he wore it until it stunk, and he didn't care what anyone thought about it. Luckily, I had a little experience working with kids with difficult behavior... so we worked on wearing a dress only at certain times. Of course, he wanted to wear it at preschool, which was not allowed. So, we started by wearing the dress over his clothes, on the way to school. Once there, we'd take the dress off, put it in his backpack for the day, and pray he made it through. As soon as I picked him up, we'd have to put the dress back on. Eventually, he was able to leave the dress in the car, then at home... you have no idea how difficult this was! Peer pressure meant nothing to him. He didn't care who commented or made fun of him. He loved his dresses. He developed quite a collection...the Snow White Dress, the polka dot dress, the Belle dress, a white wedding dress-up dress, the princess dress...he wore them until they fell apart.

Here's a shot of him in one of Libby's play dresses. This was a signature pose. Be sure to note the shoes. He could run in high heels better than any one of Charlie's Angels!

And this is what he called his "Minnie Mouse dress". Oh, how he loved this one! And of course, the high heels. ..and don't miss the tiara. We were on our way somewhere...he had permission to wear this outfit over his 'normal' clothes in the car. Once we got where we were going, he had to take everything off and put his regular shoes on.

This is a great one... we were at the Knollmeyer's house in Jeff City celebrating Libby and Clara's birthdays. We had been swimming and hadn't gotten Roan's clothes on yet...so he found one of Clara's dress-up skirts and immediately put it on. Never mind that it was sheer. So I quickly captured the peep show for posterity...

And finally...the Belle dress. This was his second most favorite dress of all time. He wore the Snow White dress until it literally fell apart. He found this dress at a garage sale and wore it non-stop for months. In fact, he wore this dress with gold high heels during the July 4th party at Karen & Orrin's. He's now famous in the Houghton family for that. He will be 16 and still living down July 4, 2008.

Even in the midst of the dress drama...there were things to be thankful for. I'm so glad that Roan (and Libby, too) have minds of their own. They know what they like and don't let the judgment of others influence them (too much!). Roan and his dresses forced family and friends to accept him for who he is and love him anyway... It taught me (the control freak) to pick my battles, to decide what's REALLY important, and to just let some things go... despite trying to see the positives here, I'm just SO thankful that I can finally say:

"He doesn't wear dresses anymore!!!"