Clothes horse in the kitchen

The other big thing in Jolly's life right now, besides the two languages, is that he's very excited about clothing. He has very clear opinions about what he wants to wear, and rather than fight a whole lot of Noooooo every morning, he picks out his pants, shirt, socks and often cardigan from a selection of seasonally appropriate garments. Every night he picks out his pajamas. His moods are variable, but he seems especially to like things that are soft and textured and brightly colored... AND, I'm really pleased to say, he has a very good eye when it comes to selecting thing that go together, aesthetically. It's only very, very rarely that I have to dissuade him from a clash, and usually holding the two things next to each other makes him pick a different shirt or socks or whatever. Super cool! I'm totally into color coordination and style, so it's fun that my kid seems also to be equally interested in clothing and how things match. Most of his friends (who are mostly a bit older, too) do not yet pick their own clothing, but I'm proud to say that Jolly is usually as well kitted out as them. At least it's not obvious that he's the kid who picks out his own outfits.

We also recently moved our Elvis dress-up magnet set down to the bottom of the fridge, since Jolly FINALLY seemed to get that he shouldn't eat the shoe magnets or smaller accessories. This has been a huge hit. When Ephiny and I bought the magnet set on our very first vacation (a road trip to Graceland in Memphis, TN), we did not envision that it would be a favorite toy of our child 11 years later... but I'm very very glad we bought the slightly frivolous item now! Elvis now frequently wears his 70s sunglasses, his military hat, his spangly jumpsuit top, his karate shirt over the spangly jumpsuit top as a jacket, his jailhouse-rock pants, and his military boots. And then he holds the ukulele or the hound dog. Jolly is sometimes concerned that there are no sock magnets, but otherwise, it's the perfect toy that leads to hours of entertainment in the kitchen.

The other thing that leads to hours of entertainment in the kitchen is helping with cooking. He's really interested in the mixer and in the blender and in the food processor and in the oven and in the rice cooker and all the tools and appliances. On Friday, we made cupcakes, and while I did the measuring out of ingredients, he did nearly every other step, besides breaking the eggs and the scooping of the batter into the tins. He did dump a cup of water over the counter before we clarified that it had to go IN the bowl, but it was easily cleaned up and we got it right on the next try. We didn't bother with frosting the cupcakes, just sprinkled sugar and nonpareil sprinkles on them before I put them in the oven, and they were delicious!

Also, I'd like to say that our child now knows TWO colors: gelb (yellow) and blau (blue). He knows the words for some others, but they still have a high probability of being wrong, and he doesn't acknowledge red at all yet. :)

Final addendum: Jolly still tears paper often enough that paper dolls are still a no-go, but I think when he's a little bit older he'll probably find those very fun. He's definitely enjoying looking through my Royal Wedding commemorative Catherine and William paper doll book. They're not yet cut out, but he likes talking about all of the clothing items in the outfits. I was thinking it was a fun splurgey gift for me, but I'm glad I can share my enthusiasm for the Most Noble Order of the Garter cape with my child. It is indeed an awesome cape!

Final FINAL addendum: Drat, there are not a lot of male paper dolls out there! I definitely forsee Samurai Paper Dolls and Knight Paper Dolls in our future. Otherwise, I think we'll have to opt for the royal and presidential paper dolls, which feature equal numbers of outfits for both Napoleon and Josephine, or whatever the couple in question is.