Clothes Optional

Today we are just hanging out at home. I am going to skip working today because my mom isn't feeling well and since I work in their home and take the kids with me, I just don't want to risk David or Kyle (mostly David) coming down with something.

So instead, I need to dust (yuck), laundry should be tackled (yuck again), and I should really clean the floors (yuck yet again). We have yet to get out of jammies. Except for David. He's half out. By his own doing.

Keeping shirts on that child is like keeping Kyle away from his Hot Wheels. I know a lot of kids choose to make the "clothing optional" choice. Especially at younger ages. David has started doing this in the last 4-5 years. He probably would've done it sooner except he probably hadn't figured out the fine motor points of getting his shirt off yet. I'm guessing it's a sensory thing with him. Hot weather or cold weather. It doesn't matter. The shirt is coming off. I'm actually ok with it in the dog days of summer like we're in now. His room gets really hot in the afternoons and he has a hard time controlling his body temperature. But the winters are horrible. His room is cold in the winter. Yet, the shirt still comes off.

I don't know what to do about it. It's fine at home, but in junior high, it's not really socially acceptable to do. As long as we're at home, he always wins the war. If we're out, we can put the butterfly harness over him to try to help. He still pulls on it, but it is much more difficult with the harness on. I think they try their best at school to keep the shirt on him, but sometimes, inevitably, I think it's just easier to let him have it off. He has us all wrapped around his little fingers I guess.

Now this is a process I watched him do this morning.

                                  Step one: Pull it up over the face and get it all stretched out good

                                    Step two: Take a breather once the shirt's all stretched out nicely

                             Step three: Get it pulled up over the head and say a little prayer that all will go well

                                        And the final step:  Proudly wear a smile for a job well done.

Now, Kyle would never run around in just his pj bottoms or undies. He is much more modest than David. He's fine when it comes to wearing swimming attire, but that's where he draws the line at half nakedness. My skinny Kyle needs some clothes on him to ward off the cold I guess.

You can tell that we've had a wonderfully unremarkable couple of weeks when I choose to blog about David's clothes. So if you read this, sorry. But I will take the unremarkable couple of weeks any day over some of the others that we've experienced!

And, YES, David's room is always this messy when he's in there. His laundry basket of fun is always emptied out and spread throughout his room. It only gets picked up at night so we don't fall on something while staying awake with the party animal.