Ever since my sons were very small, I have been dreading the day that they decide to take charge of their own style and begin to reject my choices. Little did I realise that although the boys are almost two years older than their small sisters, in fact it is the little girls who have the stronger opinions about what they will and will not wear. In fact, it is lovely to present the boys with new items of clothing – they gasp with joy and are ecstatic to show off whatever they have been given, to lovingly detail the colours and patterns and to receive our approval. And little Embla is not difficult to dress at all. Olympia, on the other hand.. well, the child has very decided opinions and they vary from day to day. She seems to gravitate toward fleecy onesies, even in the height of summer, and no morning is complete without her taking me by the hand and bringing me to the kallax boxes where her clothes are stored, so that she can choose an outfit for me to dress her in. And she responds neither to suggestion nor compromise.
In fact, last weekend the little monkey made me take her all round the shops wearing nothing but a nappy, a pair of sandals and her brother’s raincoat! She must have been sweltering, but she was adamant that she would wear nothing else. Sometimes I feel like it’s not worth fighting with her; it clearly means so much to her to be able to select what she wears. As one of four in a busy household, the child is no stranger to compromise – so sometimes we just indulge these funny little whims. And it’s certainly amusing to observe, such as when she recently took a fancy to a 3-6m snowsuit and wore it, unzipped, all morning. It was so tight that she could barely move, but she thought that she was tremendously clever and in her eyes, she looked amazing. Such a funny little girl!
So I’m aware that we are on borrowed time with regard to dressing the four of them exactly according to my taste.
Blaou sent me a message on instagram recently and asked to send some clothes for the children to wear, in exchange for some pictures on instagram. They are a Swedish brand that define themselves as ‘creativity, shape and colour’ and I was really intrigued as to what they would pick out for my kids.
They definitely didn’t disappoint! We don’t have very much red in our wardrobes, so I was surprised to see how well it suited the children. Balthazar was super impressed with his pirate stripes, and we all had fun examining the more abstract shapes on the other items of clothing and deciding what they might be. Olympia tugged at the shoulders of her jumpsuit once or twice but then decided to wear it without complaint, which came as a big surprise and felt like an enormous triumph and relief at the time!
We had the most gorgeous summers afternoon eating our picnic and playing in the clearing, before it was time to head home and to bed.
