Red Bow Ties Were COOL in 1973.

Paul_John_Portraits_0002, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

So I broke out the box of hilarious photo badness that is my poor husband's legacy of childhood portraits again tonight. This one is pretty fantastic.

First: my brother in law is the older child. The one who looks like a girl. For the record, he's not a girl. My mother in law must've missed the memo on that one when she was styling his flowing locks.

OR, she was so baffled by how to work with my husband's crazyass hair that she didn't even notice the older child. I mean, oh. my. goodness. That poor child's hair is all over the place. Seeing this makes me very okay with him losing his hair. The 1/2 inch of hair that I keep cropped close is actually such an improvement when you look at it that way. So, yeah, he's lucky to not have to deal with that stuff anymore.

Now, please try to work your eyes to their necks. I know, it's hard to focus there -- there is A LOT going on pattern and texture-wise here. I was so distracted by the fact that both boys have wide wale corduroy jumpers on, by John's awesome shiny shirt so cleverly clashing with Paul's criminally ugly diamond pattern that I didn't even see the ties for a while.

See now, my mother in law is a lot of things. She's really kind. She has a good sense of humor. But oh MAN is her fashion sense suspect. Remember when those terrible matched nylon running suits were in fashion in the early 90s and how people who never broke a sweat were wearing them? Well, she had a few sets of those, the most memorable being a teal and pink number that made a swish-swish noise as her arms and legs moved. All I'm saying is, I'm certain she spent a lot of time picking out these outfits and was not even drunk when she did it. I suspect she felt the ties were the element that really brought together this look.