I returned to the Freret Market today. I am already in Christmas mode (I am NEVER this on top of things) and thinking about gifts for the people on my list. One person is my friends’ two year old daughter. They live in Colorado and have been to almost as many Mardi Grases (how do yo pluralize Gras?) as me, and this coming year will be their daughter’s first one.

Last time I was at this market, I spied a onesie with a favorite theme for Mardi Gras–the ubiquitous child’s ladder:

Growing up, my family had the Mack-Daddy ladder. The seat was large enough to sit five children and it spanned two ladders! These days, the two-seater is all you really ever see.

Last Mardi Gras my cousin told me that she had a single-seater, and it was not on a ladder but on a pole–really a broomstick handle. And my uncle would hold her up in it. We are fortunate that she survived her youth to tell us about it!

I went especially to the market today to get this hand-embroidered ladder on a child’s t-shirt. Unfortunately, we got there late and the woman selling them had already sold all the t-shirts and all she had left was a single 12-month onesie. Well, I wasn’t there to buy it for Sun. But what’s a girl to do? Of course I bought it. She promised to make more in the child’s tee by next month’s market. Let’s hope I can get one for my friend’s daughter so that her and Sun can wear them together at their first Mardi Gras.