Molly has developed a new method for choosing her clothes. For a while, she wanted me (or Ed) to choose her clothes for her and lay them out as outfits, so that they would match properly. Now she has decided that she wants to dress monochromatically. Each day she declares that Today is the Day All the Mollies Wear some particular color -- blue, pink, black, yellow, purple, whatever. Other unifying themes are occasionally acceptable: it can be the Day All the Mollies Wear Flowers, for instance. And today my mother took her to a play, so in the morning I pulled out a yellow dress with pink flowers on it, white tights, and a pink sweater, and she put it all on without complaining.

The problem with the monochromatic theme is when she insists that she wants her shoes and coat to match with the rest of the outfit. She has limited numbers of each, and also the spring jacket that fits her best is green, and as she doesn't have very many green clothes it is never the day that all the Mollies wear green. To make matters worse, Kiera has developed an intense fondness for this purple fleece jacket with a hood that fit Molly last year. It sort of still fits her, but not particularly well. Kiera likes it a lot, and with the sleeves rolled up, it fits her okay. They now fight over the purple jacket every time we're going to leave the house, unless it's a day that All the Mollies Wear Pink in which case the pink pullover fleece jacket is acceptable.

Molly actually really could use a new fleece jacket (that fits her properly) and I've been debating whether to try to find another purple one, so that Kiera could have the too-small-for-Molly one and Molly could have a new one. I'm thinking maybe I'll try to find a rainbow-colored one, so that regardless of the Color Theme of the Day she can't refuse to wear it. Of course, Kiera will then want THAT one.

Do mothers of boys have this problem?

So, according to the Ten Commandments, I'm supposed to refrain from coveting my neighbor's house, wife, manservant, maidservant, ox, and ass.

Does that mean I'm also not supposed to covet his exquisite hand-lettered gold-leafed illuminated Bible?

This is such a cool project. It manages to appeal to both my inner religion geek and my inner magpie simultaneously. (Kind of like elisem's necklace Sinners in the Hands of a Mildly Startled Buddha, which I also covet.)