Morning Wardrobe

“Inwe,” I half-yell from her room, “do you want to wear pants?” I hear a “no” from what is probably Larien’s room. “Well, what you want to wear?”

“A dress, with Little Mermaid panties,” is my answer as she appears next to me. “Let me see. (Dramatic pause.) I haven’t worn this one in a while.” She pulls from the closet a yellow, smocked, sleeveless dress with the tag still hanging from under the arm.

“That will be nice.” Now comes the hard part: trying to get her to wear something that matches underneath, as it is 50 degrees outside. “This is good to wear under it.” I hold up a long-sleeved white shirt.

“No, this one!” Inwe pulls a red short sleeve shirt from her drawer as a magician would pull a rabbit out of a hat.

“Ummm, I don’t think so. It doesn’t match.”

“That one doesn’t match, either. There’s no white on the dress.”

“Look, Inwe, the dress has a white collar. This shirt does match.”

“Okay, but I want to wear stockings.” I choose not to protest the red, striped stockings. There is at least a yellow stripe in those.


The “ummm” up above that I utter is important. If you ask Larien a question, such as “Do you want to go outside”, sometimes she says, “Ummm”.