Speaking of Church Clothes

When Garrett was 4, (And 2, 3, and also sort of 5), he was pretty particular about his clothes.  I remember one Easter Sunday pinning him down getting him dressed and he was yelling that "NO ONE ELSE WILL HAVE ON FANCY CHURCH CLOTHES!"  and another time, he was probably 2, his daddy was getting dressed for church and he told Joel, (in bold, of course), "When we get to Nana's after church I'm taking off this church shirt, these church pants, and my CHURCH UNDERS TOO!"  (Hopefully it's obvious here that we don't actually have church unders- all unders are fair game on Sundays.)  When I was going through size 4 and 5 pants a few months ago it boggled my mind how many pairs he'd had.  Then I remembered it was the 'pants' stage- he was so particular about pants and he wouldn't wear (or it wasn't worth the battle for sleep deprived me), so I just kept buying them hoping to find the magical pair that he'd love.  (The only such thing we've ever found is basketball shorts.)

As Garrett has gotten older he's gotten easier in many of these areas, and while he still talks in bold quite often, he isn't quite so particular about his clothes.  Or so I thought.  Friday was picture day at school.  I did a spectacularly awful job of back to school shopping this year, and he had exactly zero shirts to wear in his basket.  Then I saw, hanging up, a nice looking Joel-esque green shirt with white stripes.  Button up, long sleeved.  I pulled it out, ironed it, and grabbed a new pair of jeans out of his basket (Hello, size 8 slim!  WHAT?!?).  I knew it wouldn't be his favorite, but it was picture day!

I woke him up, kissed on him a bit, rubbed his back, and told him his clothes were on the end of his bed.  Then I left to wake up his brother and get breakfast started.  Pretty soon I heard a loud groan.  "Noooooo!"  And then some wailing.  Hmm.  I ran upstairs, and sure enough, Garrett was up in arms about his picture day outfit.  "These are CHURCH CLOTHES!  I don't have to wear CHURCH CLOTHES TO SCHOOL!"  While he writhed in pain just thinking about these church clothes on his body, I calmly explained that I got to chose today, it was picture day, and I reminded him that if he chose to throw a fit he'd have consequences.  And then, just because I'm the nicest mom that walks the planent, I said that I'd put a comfy t-shirt in his backpack to change into after pictures.  He calmed a bit, and begun to think about it, but in true Garrett style, had to sweeten the deal a bit.  "That's only a deal if I can change out of my floppy jeans too!  Basketball shorts!"

It was like 50 degrees, definitely not short weather for a 6 year old, plus changing a shirt is not a big deal, but having to change your pants would be quite a distraction in the classroom.  No go.  "Nope, you can wear jeans today.  Besides, they aren't floppy.  They are JUST REGULAR JEANS.  That people wear.  That you'll wear lots and lots of times this winter."

"BLLLWWAAAAAHHHH!  NO DEAL!  NO DEAL!  I'M NOT WEARING FLOPPY JEANS!"

Apparently we aren't past the whole weirdness about clothes thing.  Apparently I've just learned to work around it.  But I can still win.  Friday?  He went to school in his 'church clothes'- 'cold shirt' and 'floppy jeans' and looked pretty darn cute.  (And yes, since it was my volunteer day in his classroom, after pictures I hurried him into the back room, stripped off his CHURCH SHIRT and put on his faded, comfy school t-shirt.)