Our Son Harry

When I was a kid, I loved to dress up.

One Saturday morning when I was 6 or 7, I remember donning a fancy, hand-me-down dress complete with lace, tulle and little bells underneath it all. Was I a princess or a bride? No. I opened the curtains to our huge picture window and trotted around the living room, pretending to clean. My hope? I wanted anyone who drove past our rural Mt. Vernon home to think that we had a fancy maid. At the time, it didn't dawn on me that a)maids don't wear frilly, fancy dresses and b)this would be some type of major child labor law infraction.

I was involved in theater in high school and then carried on my love of dressing up to more intellectual situations, like float trips, mardi gras, girls nights out, or any other let-loose occasion. In fact, I still have a box in the basement complete with a blond afro wig, rainbow suspenders and at least a dozen hats.

We had assumed that our little guy would inherit Troy's interests - sports being on the top of the list. After all, he has the Frerichs' testosterone tradition to carry out. It never occurred to me that he might have a bit of my dramatic element as well.

That was, until this past Tuesday.

Our little guy doesn't have the usual two-year-old's taste in movies. Yes, he loves his Winnie the Pooh, Sesame Street and Curious George. However, he also loves Indiana Jones and Star Wars. We decided quite some time back that he would be "Harry Jones" for Halloween. This past Tuesday, the 4th installment of "Harry Jones" came out, so we ran to Best Buy to pick it up. While out, we stopped by Stride Rite to get some brown shoes, which would also be the finishing touch for his Harry Jones Halloween outfit. Then we officially declared that we would have a "Harry Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" DVD release party that evening.

After dinner, Troy got the DVD ready while I went with "Harry" up to his room to put on his complete outfit. After all, what better time to try on your Halloween costume than this?

And then a funny thing happened. As he walked down the stairs, he swaggered. As he showed daddy his new outfit, he developed a smirk. He strutted around the living room as the music began on the DVD, cracking his whip and occasionally stopping to give Troy and I "the Harry look".

We watched about half of the movie, and fast-forwarded through the other half filled with alien skulls, skeletons or rapid gun fire. Then there was a fight to get the pj's on. After all, what adventurer wears pj's?

This foreshadowing of a future actor has also been evident in how Hayden loves to watch himself on video. We've been going through old video tapes and making sure the camera is ready to roll for the big birth day. Last night while Troy and I watched our usual Thursday night shows, the little man insisted that he watch old home videos on the tiny screen of the video camera.

This is one thing he did not inherit from me. I've never liked to see myself on video, but he obviously holds no objection. Not once did I hear him comment that he didn't like the sound of his recorded voice or that his diaper made his butt look big.

Anyway, I know that he will most likely go the way of sports and other more "manly" pursuits - which is great. But I also love knowing that there is a part of him that loves to pretend and that is proud of every move he makes! I hope he always holds on to that, and I will do everything I can to see that he does.

And stay tuned for the complete "Harry Jones" look, coming Oct. 31st to a blog near you!