His desire to dress as, and imitate, down to the tiniest detail, these characters from his storybooks (without any, honestly ANY, suggestion from us) completely astounds me. John does feed his habit by reading him books and keeping a store of great films at ready. I feed the habit by agreeing to help make improptu hats or costumes on request (and try to tolerate his intense attention to accuracy during the process). Lately I've been struggling with the best way to render full beards out of paper or other found materials, as they are essential parts of the costume according to Lincoln...but are deeply uncomfortable to actually wear on one's face. The whimpering and squirming and almost-crying that accompanies the beard fitting sessions testify to the importance of such accouterments and the difficulty in getting them just right. And I,in such moments, (and Grama now too), in the interest of keeping the peace, frequently teeter on the brink of canceling the whole thing all together. But sometimes beards are shaped to his liking, and then the pleasure derived from arriving at the picture in his imagination is so satisfying to watch.
Today. the inspiration:
And the incarnation:
