Thursday, 12 August 2010

Luca in a kilt..........really this time

Today brought about a peculiarly early finish for myself, in preparation for my booked appointment at McCall's kilt hire in Aberdeen. Ross, my best man, kindly collected Luca from nursery while Donald, my usher, met us there. In fact it was a nice surprise to see Luisa (his wife) had come through too, as had Harry, their son and my Godson. Here they are below:-


Still barely a hair on his head despite his Dad's decent (albeit greying) thatch, yet Luca was born with an unruly mop of curls despite his own Dad's lack thereof. How exactly does Genetics work again?

Speaking of Godsons, I'm still waiting for Cade's measurements, along with his brother and Dad for their kilts. Lucy, you need to get measuring and email me - I'll get them booked.

And Mike - it's still not too late for you to change your mind. I'm more than willing to book a kilt and sporran for you too!

Luca of course will cause us consternation come October 30th. He and Ross arrived a few minutes late tonight, predictably timing their arrival perfectly to see me walk out the changing room in my kilt. "Daddy!" yelped Luca, "What's that, why you wearing a skirt?"

He ran over and felt the tartan material between his fingers, glancing furtively up with suspicion in his eyes. Eventually he spoke again. "Take it off"

His refusal to try on a kilt was predictable from this point, and despite all our assurances he remained extremely sceptical. Eventually, however, it was his turn. Desperation set in as I pleaded with him. "Luca, what do you want? If you try on a kilt without making a fuss I'll buy you something". His eyes arched upward. "Chocolate"

Promises made, he and I retired to the changing room to put the kilt on. "Just for a minute Daddy, OK?". His embarrassment and awkwardness ran deep as we opened the curtains to present him to his waiting audience. He literally sprang into my arms, and buried his head into my chest. Here he is below:-


The promise of chocolate brought him down long enough for the checks on length (etc) to be made, before he hurtled toward the changing room and swished the curtain shut behind him. Gratifyingly the reintroduction of trousers brought him out his shell, and he proceeded to play with his Uncle Ross and Harry. Here they are below, with a box of toys cleverly supplied by the hire shop:-


It was nice to hear how well behaved he'd been with his Uncle Ross before we met up. He doesn't spend much time alone with his Uncle, so it's nice to see the bond there. However, his daily allocation of good behaviour had clearly been used up by the time we left, and despite Donald's cajoling he was insistent he wanted to go home rather than allow us to go for a meal at Pizza Hut together.

Of course we did still make a detour on the way back to the car. He wasn't going to allow me to forget my promise of a chocolate purchase, and his face adorned a smug, self satisfied smirk as he munched on his "Ben 10" chocolate lollipop as we drove toward home.

**Useless fact of the day - Each handmade kilt takes a total of about 15 hours solid work to complete**

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