Playing Dress-Up

I've been wanting to post some of these pictures for a long time. Buddy LOVES to dress up, as most kids his age do. His little female friends and his cousin, Aly, are all princesses. Buddy and his little boy friends are all pirates or superheroes. We really don't have many cool costumes at our house. Buddy will probably get some for his birthday here in a few months, but for now, he just makes do with whatever supplies he has on hand. His imagination is so incredible, it's almost sad that soon he'll have "real" costumes and won't have to invent his own. Let me show you what I mean:

When we took our road trip to Reno a little while ago, Buddy sat quiet and patient in the backseat dressed up like Captain Jack Sparrow the ENTIRE ride (10 hours there and 9.5 hours back). Notice the "dreadlocks," "earring," and hook. He stared at the papers from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" DVD boxes and apparently recounted the movies in his mind several times over. For any of you that know Buddy, he doesn't normally sit still (or sit quietly), so we were just amazed he -- or anyone -- would be able to experience the movies quietly in his mind.

While were in Reno, grandma tied a blue piece of fabric around his neck and that became his "cape." For the past month, he's worn it almost constantly. He "flies" all around the house and jumps off all the furniture. There are few things as funny as watching your little boy run as fast as he can, meanwhile looking backwards to watch his cape "flapping in the wind" behind him.

Apparently on this occasion Buddy couldn't decide if he was a pirate or a superhero. He's sporting the dreadlocks, earring, pirate belt, sword, hook, eye patch, AND the cape. What you can't see in the picture is the fine attitude that accompanies him when he's in character...

And then I got this turtle costume free a couple of weeks ago. It's been too hot to wear it until just recently. Buddy thinks it's really "cool," but he said it wouldn't work because it didn't have a "mask" with it. You know how Ninja Turtles have the masks over their eyes? So Buddy decided to make do with his rooster mask he made at preschool. Is it just me or that hilarious?

And one more anecdote: We were at the gym the other day and G finished up before I did. They have small TV monitors, so you can watch what's happening in the kids' area. The screens are so small you can barely find your own child, not to mention see what's actually happening. But, on this occasion, Buddy was pretty easy to spot. He was the kid running back and forth around the room with somebody's pink blanket tied around his neck like a cape. As soon as I finished my class, G told me to watch the monitor to see how long it would take to find Buddy. It took about two seconds. All the other kids are standing around... and then there was our little boy with a pink blanket trailing behind him -- criss-crossing the monitor so fast it almost became blurry. We asked him about it later and he swore up and down that he had "asked permission" before he confiscated the child's blanket.

I wished I'd thought to check the monitor for a poor little child sobbing in the corner because "Superman" had stole her blanket.