Tie-Dyed Underwear: Yes, you read that right. Now, I’ve tie-dyed a lot of things in my life, but never my underwear. This was all my friend Marie’s doing. She knows that C.J. often has mixed feelings about his underwear. He no longer wants to wear girls’ underwear, but also finds boys’ underwear to be very boring. So, Marie bought a package of white Hanes boys’ brief and let C.J. tie-dye them. They are now his favorite. Marie is my favorite.
These Shoes: He can’t get enough of these shoes. I’ve told him he can’t wear them to school when it starts. He didn’t like me saying that. The end.
Dreamcatchers: C.J. has always been my good sleeper. When we brought him home from the hospital, he consistently slept five consecutive hours at night. His doctor wanted me to wake him after four hours to feed him so he wouldn’t starve to death. I didn’t and he’s still alive. He’s never been one to have bad dreams. On the contrary, he reports that his dreams have been known to feature cotton candy, cats and Kesha. One night we were watching the Twilight movie New Moon in which Jacob gives Bella a dreamcatcher and explains what it does. C.J. was hooked. He bought himself a pink dream catcher and put it on his headboard. He’s just like Bella Swan. On vacation this summer, among his souvenirs were a dreamcatcher bracelet and another (much, much larger) dreamcatcher for his bed. When asked if the dreamcatchers keep his bad dreams away he said, “Yeah, I think so. But I don’t know why they are called night-mirrors, my dreams never have mirrors in them.”
Wigs: Read my last blog post to see just how in to wigs C.J. is. Plus, over the summer, a drag queen taught C.J. how to put a wig on “the right way.” He puts his thumbs up, rests the base of his thumbs against his forehead, when I put the wig up to his forehead, he hooks it with his thumbs and keeps them there as I pull the wig down in the back. Then, and only then, does he release his thumbs. He’s perfected this technique and looks forward to using it for many years to come.
Puppets: At present moment, C.J. wants to be a puppeteer when he grows up. He got his favorite puppet as another vacation souvenir and rarely goes anyplace without her. Her name has been Lucy, then Bucket, then Harry, then Lucy, then Caroline. She is currently nameless. She is a cheerleader, which makes C.J. kind of want to be a cheerleader, but he wants to be a puppeteer more.
SO SO Happy Back-To-School Backpack: C.J. loves everything that the SO SO Happy brand has to offer. (I mean, I do too, they make cool stuff, embrace individuality, build self-confidence, inspire positivity and acceptance among all beings). He can’t wait to rock this backpack on the first day of school. He’d like you to know that “you can also wear it as a ‘frontpack’ to look like you are carrying the happy monster like a baby and that always makes people smile.
Raising My Rainbow 
Also, let CJ know that he has awesomely fabulous hair.
Your son is more fabulous than I could ever hope to be.
Love the tie dye! I looked for ages for brightly colored boys underwear, and finally had luck with a UK company called Next. In the US, you can shop on their website nextdirect. The multi-packs aren’t cheap, but they are good quality, and yes, the Fluro Trunks include pink!
I love the night-mirror comment! Reminds me of the funny things my kids used to say. Like toilet wiper instead of toilet paper. Good luck to you all as your children head back to school.
More than 4 hours of sleep between feedings causes an infant to become gender non-conforming. 😉
The shoes make me laugh – because I remember in 1st grade in the late 70s, I begged, begged, BEGGED my mom to let me wear clogs to school (I didn’t even own any clogs, but that was beside the point). No luck. 😦 The fact that I was klutzy enough to give MYSELF a black eye while playing on the school playground wearing regular shoes may have been a factor. The pink monster backpack totally rocks though, I kind of want one for myself! 🙂
I had blue plastic clogs in the late 70s when I was about 5 or 6. I was running on my neighbor’s driveway and fell, giving myself a bloody mouth.
Great shoes AND backpack. Parenting done right!!!!
I know you’ve touched on this before in more than a few posts, but I have to ask: Now that C.J. has such long hair, does he still mind being perceived as a girl at first glance? I couldn’t help but notice it in the photo at the bottom. Seeing him with the clothes, backpack and said hair, he didn’t look like a boy at all; there wasn’t even a hint of “male” in that picture.
It will be very interesting to see where his life progresses through the years, assuming you still have a blog then. He certainly has an awesome sense of style!
Sad that my transgendered grandson to granddaughter 7 years old is not going to be allowed to wear her new clothing to her daycare because her day camp is worried about confusing the kids attending school 😦 She was so looking forward to rocking her new clothes and shoes and saved her new puppy dog necklace to wear for her first day at day camp as a girl. I don’t want to tell her that she cannot be the fabulous girl she is now and has to wear her boys clothes to finish out the summer at day camp? It would crush her! I am so mad about this and need some advice. Thanks!
Your best bet would be to contact your local PFLAG for advice. Good luck!
This is probably the week of day camp. How did it go? Was she able to wear her usual clothes and puppy dog necklace?
Yes she did go dressed in girls clothing and the day camp, although hesitant about Katey coming dressed as a girl did agree to allow it. The kids have been amazing no one has teased her although the next big event will be the start of school next Tuesday. The principal asked my daughter if she was sure she wanted Katey to start school there due to concerns as everyone knew her as Ayden. After the acceptance Katey experienced at day camp we are going to wait and see how the kids at school do with her new identity. We are hopeful! Thanks for inquiring!!
Oh wonderful… I’m so glad to hear that! I hope Katey has a great first day back at school too. And you’re welcome 🙂
Loves the underwear. Almost makes you want to wear them on the outside.
Ooooh! I think some tie dying may be in my future! (It has interested me that my eldest hasn’t expressed a desire to switch underwear)
Oh, and my eldest loves wearing her backpack on her front and running into her friends with it (who are similarly rigged). *eyeroll*
I’m aghast, aghast I say, at the eschewal of the low strappy heels for school. Not everyone enjoys
Leaping and frolicking. And in school one spends a good deal of time on ones tuchas so I do think a low heel is fine for the earnest-yet-sedentary student.
Haha this is pretty darn adorable!
You know about the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Los Angeles, yes?
Best pace ever !!
I’m loving his hair!
So I’m a little late to the party (a recurring theme of my life) but I just finished your audio book. l absolutely loved the whole thing. So glad the princess underwear story was in there! I am moved by your honesty about how difficult this journey has been at times and how you had to struggle to overcome fear as I could relate strongly to that. When you spoke about worrying whether he’ll find love when he grows up, I was especially moved because I’ve always felt as a mom one of the most important things I can do for my son is help him learn to foster strong connections with people, family, friendships, romance. I don’t care what gender person he finds love with, that is completely his business, but I certainly hope he gets to experience that.
Sometimes it’s hard as parents to have perspective on a genuine reason to worry and what is just our fear getting the better of us but as someone just following your family’s journey, it seems so clear to me that you’ll never have to worry about CJ finding love. What I see is a kid with such amazing spirit that he inspired his family to change the world so they did. I see a kid who’s parents show him every day that he is someone who is loved for exactly who he is. I see a kid who has worked his way into the hearts of people in 180 different countries all before he was 8 years old. As far as finding love in this world, I think CJ’s off to a pretty good start.
I LOVE CJ’s backpack and I want one! And, you can tell CJ that I would NEVER let my daughter wear those shoes to school. Sneakers only, kiddo!
So, my daughter has a gender creative boy in her class this year (4th grade). He has a pink backpack, sparkly sneakers and loves princesses. I was happy to hear that she doesn’t think it’s a big deal. she was just describing the kids in her class and she talked about him the way she did everyone else, that was just part of the description.
I managed to find Jeremy bright silky mens boxers at Dollarama (a Canadian dollar store chain) in hot pink, electric purple, and lime green. Best find ever. I pretty much bought their entire stock out because the chances of finding those again are nil. But those tie-dye undies are cool. I wish I’d thought of that when Jeremy was little. He always complained about how boring his underwear was and how the boys character undies only have the character on the backside. And he’d have loved that backpack, although the chances of me getting him one now at 17 years old are also nil LOL
Oh I adore his little pink monster backpack. I need one of those!
CJ and I have something in common. I used to dye a lot of fabric for quilting, and whenever I had extra dye to soak up- I’d throw in a pair of white underwear. So most of mine is snow dyed, or tie dyed. 🙂
I JUST WENT TO JUSTICE AND BOUGHT MY SON TYE DYE UNDERWEAR THAT ARE THE BOYFRIEND CUT. HE LOVES THEM. THIS WOULD OF SAVED ME SLOT OF MONEY. THANKS C.J, FOR THE IDEA. LORI I FEEL I LOVE YOU R LIFE SO MUCH. I WISH I COULD HAVE MET YOU WHEN YOU WERE IN MASS.
DO YOUKNOW WHEN YOU WILL BE ASROUND CT.
That is the best idea ever! I’ve been trying to find pink boy underwear for my 4 year old for ages but they just don’t make them.
I love his list. It’s so fun to see what 7-year olds think is popular. Who wouldn’t want rye-dyed underwear!
My son tie dyed his socks at camp along with the t-shirts. I never thought about doing underwear, but his is not plain. We found some he liked with pictures at The Gap & Gymboree & Target. Cool idea
OMG. I can’t wait to tie-dye my underwear… I agree with CJ most mens underwear is boring!!!
CJ wins the Best Backpack of the New School Year in my section of the innerwebs !~! It’s perfect in that you can cradle it too. Does it get better than that ?~! I Think NOT. Blingies, like those stupendous sandals, are par-tay shoes, sneakers for running and safety are what I choose for school shoes. What’s your second choice, CJ ?
Reblogged this on Lee S. Marshall's Blog and commented:
Parenting: you’ve doing it right.
These are wonderful things to be excited about! I could of stopped after the underwear and sparkly silver shoes. Trending indeed!
Love CJs choices and the underwear is awesome. Watch Hanes come out with tie dye underwear soon.
Learning that there’s a brand called SO SO Happy just made me so, so happy!!
CJ has such beautiful hair!
I wouldn’t be happy about *any* kid wearing those shoes to school. You need a nice pair of sneakers so you can run and jump and have fun. Save the party shoes for the party.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping sneakers being bright colours and jazzy and sparkly. Which reminds me – I have boring canvas sandshoes, a tube of paint, another of glue, and a packet of stars. Excuse me please – I’ll be busy for a bit…
Yes, sorry CJ but the general verdict is that those shoes are NOT for school. However gorgeous they are.
We have Lelli Kelly shoes here, though. Have you seen them? They have started doing them in school version (In the UK, most schools have uniforms, so it is black shoes all the way) with detachable sparkly black butterflies and bows. They are glittery, gorgeous and fairly practical.
But sneakers are better for running in.
Love the underwear.
Oh, and loom bands? Surely loom bands must be trending Chez CJ?! They are everywhere here…
One question for CJ, please. Where does he stand on the film Frozen? Thanks.