The Jacket

I’ve had this blazer in my possession since Dash was a baby, waiting for the day when he’d be big enough to wear it. It was mine when I was just a little girl in Catholic school, and despite the navy wool’s association with school and religious confusion, it has its own memories that revolve around orange-tinted 80’s evenings and wood-panelled station wagon rides.

Now he’s big enough to wear it, and he’s become obsessed. Above, you can see him in action, a couple of weekends ago. We were filling up the kiddie pool in the yard and he was in his bathing suit and the jacket. A regular Liberace. Sure, it’s a funny outfit, and but it’s nearing 100 degrees every day around here, and I can only imagine what people are thinking when they see me totting around this four year old in a wool coat.

I have tried to dissuade him - we’ve tried other, more lightweight jackets. He has a red hoodie that zips up the front, a windbreaker and a sleeveless fleece (Baby Gap in the house, y’all) — none of them are distracting him. He needs the fake-silk lined wool coat, and nothing else will do. Last week, when we tried to get him into the car, I attempted to take the coat off because it was just too hot. I pleaded, I told him he could put it back on when we got to our air-conditioned destination, nothing worked. He yelled at me, you guys. And he’s at that age where more and more, I find myself losing battles, because the word “No” from a four year old is deafeningly firm. What do you say to “No” when it’s delivered with such frankness, such assurance? He’s not yelling, he’s not upset, he’s just flatly telling me no. He sort of shakes his head the way I do when I feel bad about denying him some treat or privilege. A sad, ‘poor you’ shake.

As many of you who have seen me with Dash already know, this is my weakness as a parent. You want to wear the wool coat in the hot car and refuse to take it off? Ok, we’ll just blast the air conditioner and get Mommy a t-shirt that says “I tried, he’s smarter than I am.” Some things are easy to say no to, but as parenting has taught me, there are always exceptions.

ah, you’re giving me a lot to look forward to with my son (currently 4 mos. old) in the coming years…

Yeah, the integration of “No” into the vocabulary is a definite shift in the whole parent/child dynamic.

How does opening your eyes as wide as possible and shrieking “Nein!!” work? Because when I do it to random kids at H.E.B., it generally stops them cold in their tracks.

OH how I would trade the Orca whale mating call/dogwhistle sound for the word “no”. (And once my 5 yr old learns to say the word “no”, I’ll be back whining about that too, I’m sure.)