Peter Pan, Vacuum Cleaner, and Looking Unusual

P approached me around bed time and was dressed in a long nightgown (which must have made her very warm) and she had put her hair into  ponytail.  She said, "Mom!  I look like Wendy!  Look at my dress and my hair!  Peter Pan is going to come and he'll be so proud!  I'll never be a pirate!  Unless it is a good pirate....like a pirate princess like you!"

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(Straightening up the living room)
P: We have to pick up the big stuff first?  Or the vacuum will break?
Me: Yes.
P: But we can just try to vacuum everything and if it breaks, maybe dad will get a new one.
Me: We don't have money for a new one.  We'd probably have to sell one of you girls.
P: Okay.  I'll try not to break it.  But if it breaks on accident, pick Juj to sell.

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My kids' clothes rarely match.  They pick out their own clothes.  This means that it is not unusual for us to go out and about with Juj dressed in a princess shirt and batman pants, while P is wearing an old dragon costume backwards.  They also do their own hair.  P will give herself a ponytail and put a few bows in her hair, with a necklace on her head, sort of like a crown.  Juj will have combed and arranged her hair in a way that is...disheveled looking at best.  I try to direct them, but they usually know exactly what they want to wear.  I can tell that they have a clear picture of how they want to look.  I'm okay with that.  I can't shoot down the kind of initiative they take in getting dressed.

Sometimes, though.....

Sometimes I just want to have them looking normal enough to snap a picture of them looking clean and put together like everybody else's children.  I want to go to the park or the store with them and NOT have a million costume pieces to monitor.  I want to avoid the stares from people who might think that the level of my children's independence is a little extreme  Yesterday was one of those days.

P had dressed herself creatively.  She had a nice skirt on with a mismatched shirt and a bathing suit over that.  Her hair was...whimsical...the way it always is.  The skirt she was wearing was just given to her and it came with a matching shirt.  It was cute.

Me: Peyton, why don't you save that skirt and wear it tomorrow.  The shirt that matches it is in the dryer.  Maybe we can find the pants that match the shirt you wearing for today.

Peyton:  Okay.  Good idea.  I don't want to look unusual.

Me: You don't?  Well....is it bad to look unusual?

Peyton: ...Yes?

Me: It is?

Peyton: (Sigh) Course not!  I just don't feel like it today.

Whew.  Good.  I would hate to think that I put out her creative and independent flair.