A Hat

Jeff has always had a bit of a quirky sense of style.  When he was little he'd yell and scream when I took him to get his hair cut.  The stylist would spike it up a little to check for length and generally joke about "should we leave it like this?"  He'd start crying because he needed his hair to be "flat".  Only recently has he started letting me play with his hair.  Even last time he got it cut he asked for blue hair spray and spikes!!

So, Sunday afternoon Erin was futzing around in her room and hung up a little dream catcher she'd gotten for her birthday.  A few minutes later Jeff is asking me for markers, and I remind him that he knows where they are.  Next thing I know he's coloring in this piece of foam packing material that held the dream catcher.  Fast forward a few minutes, and he's wearing it on his head.  Sort of like a visor.  OK.  Cute.  Creative.

Well, he's had it on his head for 2 days.  He wore it to casting for Bye Bye Birdie, tried to wear it to basketball camp, wore it to the gym and home, and then at the Summer Reading Kick Off party last night.  Sadly while jumping in the jump house the hat tore (I'm amazed it took that long).  Yet he was not to be dissuaded.  We went into the library and asked for some tape.  Now he's wearing foam packing material that has been taped together.  This morning he also decided it needed to be recolored since the marker was wearing off.  Since it's raining this morning the marker is again washing off and starting to run down his face.  Yet the hat lives on.  Last night I even went in to kiss him goodnight when I went to bed and there he was, sound asleep with foam packing material perched on his head.

The amazing thing, is that no one has said to me "What's that Jeff's wearing on his head?"  Whether our friends have just come to know Jeff as a bit quirky (ok, not just Jeff, all of us) or are simply not quite sure what to say to the mom of a kid with foam packing material on his head I appreciate the fact that they are just letting him be him.

I just hope he takes it off by high school graduation.