At seven-and-a-half months, Larry Thornton doesn’t realize we are living in a pandemic; he only knows that this is a golden age of dress-up.

“To help us all get through these troubling times, we’ll be dressing up Larry as different famous people, using things we find in our house …. Please let us know if you have any requests for #LarryLooks,” Larry’s dad, Pat Thornton, tweeted in mid-March.

From his junction triangle home, Larry has pulled off a variety of looks including appearances as Sia, Slash, Dolly Parton, Elton John, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cher, Abraham Lincoln, Ginger Spice, Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar and a jolly-looking Severus Snape from Harry Potter.

Larry often uses props: guitars crafted out of diaper boxes, wands made from sticks, glasses made from pipe cleaners.

His mom, Maggie Maloney, is an elementary school teacher who is very crafty, and his father is an actor and comedian who has amassed a sizeable wig collection from years of sketch comedy.

“People keep asking us how we have so many baby wigs,” Maloney says.

“They’re adult sized wigs.

“Larry just has a really big head.”

Maloney is on maternity leave, so self-isolation doesn’t feel like a huge adjustment, but she figured it would be good to have a family project to focus on, something to keep the worry and feelings of helplessness at bay.

She confides her favourite look of Larry’s so far is probably Elton John.

Maloney used a cracker box to make a suitably wide collar and scraps of lining from an old coat to wrap it with silver.

Larry wore a star-patterned sweat suit, unzipped to his chest for a deep V-neck, and completed Elton’s 1970s’ look with a pair of large sunglasses.

Maloney sews by hand. Glue and loose stitches feature, too. The dresses are all backless, not the sort of costumes that would hold up at Halloween, she laughs.

When he’s not entertaining as Napoleon or Britney Spears, Larry enjoys crawling backwards, fake laughing when his parents laugh —“It’s not his real laugh,” his mom says — and taking things out of boxes.

Maloney wasn’t sure if Larry would tolerate the wigs, but he has really taken to them, along with the paper hats.

“He just comes to life,” when it’s costume time, she says.

The more challenging the costume, the better.

Larry sets the schedule, according to his moods and naps.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Maloney tries to stay one day ahead with costumes, and, so far, has done more than 30. They take the day’s photo next to the window in Larry’s bedroom and post it to social media on Thornton’s account.

“Pat is getting so many messages from people telling him this is brightening my day, or my family looks forward to this every day, which we can’t believe,” she says. “We’re really tickled.”

People appreciate Larry’s celebrity impressions: “These are a welcome distraction. Please thank Larry for me!” one person tweeted. “Wonderful! Please do Guy Fieri,” wrote an admirer.

Maloney says her heart goes out to the parents of older kids during the pandemic, who know that something is going on. She feels lucky for many reasons.

A big one is Larry is as happy as he has ever been.

“We’re really over the moon. Everybody loves their kid obviously. He’s a long-awaited baby,” she says. “He’s really saved me during this time. Yesterday, we were walking the dog, and he was in the stroller just beaming up at us.

“You can forget about what’s going on, when you’re smiling at this baby who is just so full of joy.”