School Picture Day

Thursday of this past week was school picture day at Ethan's school.  Oddly enough, Jac had his school picture taken before school even started on 6th grade registration day.  I found it ironic that he had his 6th grade picture taken before he had yet spent one day as an actual 6th grader.  Picture day for Ethan has historically been an "event."  While some kids could care less or spend very little time thinking about what to wear, Ethan is cut from a different cloth.  Pun intended--and by the way--he's cut from my cloth.

Case in point, his school picture from two years ago, in first grade.  A couple days before when I mentioned picture day was coming and suggested he start thinking about what he wanted to wear, he immediately responded, "I already know what I'm wearing."  Now, knowing Ethan as I do, the fact that he had put so much forethought into it already was not surprising but it still gave me a little thrill just knowing he cared so much about it.  On the other hand, I knew that it would be IMPOSSIBLE to talk him out of whatever ensemble he had cooked up in his mind.  He said, "I'm wearing a tie and my sandusky."  I know what you're thinking--at least one of the things that you're thinking.  "What on earth is a sandusky??"  Ethan couldn't remember the word "sport jacket" and so he called it a sandusky.  I knew he had a navy one and a red one in his closet--hand-me-downs that had been given to Jac but that Jac had never quite...appreciated the way Ethan had treasured them.  So, on picture day I made sure he had an appropriate shirt ironed, helped him with his tie and 'sandusky' and told him repeatedly that since it was supposed to be like 90 degrees that day it would be perfectly acceptable to take off his jacket, tie, and even dress shirt if he got too hot.  He was wearing an undershirt under his dress shirt, obviously.  At the same time I was thinking to myself, "His teacher is still forming opinions of her students.  Maybe I should send her a note just to give her some insight into Ethan and his wardrobe selections."  In the end, I didn't.  I just send my first grader off to school with his older brother and a prayer.  The prayer was mainly for his protection as 6-year-olds in sport jackets and ties at the bus stop and on the playground probably have a higher statistical incidence of injury.  Here he is in his carefully selected ensemble.

When they returned home that day I pulled Jac aside and asked him how the other kids reacted at the bus stop.  He said, "Mom, everyone loved it.  They kept telling him how nice he looked and how cool he was dressed."  You see, Jac was as leery as I was of sending Ethan off to school dressed up to this degree, but in regular Ethan fashion, everyone just thought he was cool.  The coolest thing about Ethan is that he wouldn't have cared in the least what anyone said about his outfit.  He dresses for himself and no one else.  If you're wondering, he returned home the same way he left--with his ensemble intact.  He was nearly covered in sweat but he couldn't bear to remove any of the items, even for recess.  He's reprised this outfit over the last couple years for other dress up days at school.

Last year was pretty uneventful but this year had it's own funny moment.  He wore a green and white small checked long-sleeved Polo dress shirt and the first thing he said to me about picture day was, "Mom, you will never guess what they served for lunch today...Bar-B-Q!!  Can you believe it?  Bar-B-Q!!"  He said that Dr. Sefrit, his principal, said, "Well, that wasn't very well thought out."  Giving elementary school students Bar-B-Q on picture day.  I asked Ethan if he had gotten any on his shirt and he said, "No way.  I got the chicken nuggets and dipped them in BBQ sauce but didn't get any on my shirt."  Apparently, his teacher had encouraged all of her students to stay away from the BBQ.  Lindy thought that was pretty funny--the lunch ladies all working furiously to make more chicken nuggets since there would likely be a run on those over the BBQ.  He also said he was a little surprised that there was a kid in his class more dressed up than him.  You see, he's gotten used to being the one who will always be overdressed as opposed to underdressed for whatever occasion presents itself.  I could hear the pride in his voice as he described what the other boy was wearing--kind of like he had a prodigy who now appreciates the finer points of having style and respect for how you present yourself.  This aspect of him is hard to distinguish between whether it comes more from his father or his mother.  I like to think it comes from me but I married Lindy for more than one reason...his ability to dress with the best of them being one of them.