578. That Shirt Is Mine

When you have two sons that are close in age, you can get double the use out of the clothes, effectively cutting your clothing bill in half. $88 for a Janie and Jack sailboat sweater? No problem, it ends up being $44 for each child. Overpriced down winter coat, not on sale? Here’s my Amex card, and let’s get the matching gloves. Halloween shark costume made of real shark imported from Hawaii? Done.

So it should come as somewhat of a surprise that Tall is in Short’s clothes instead of the other way around.

Paint the scene: Tall (age 7 ½) has a favorite shirt, a shirt with a surfer on it. This shirt fit him two years ago. Now it is too small. However, he refuses to give it up.

In the meantime, I am feeling guilty about poor Short only getting hand-me-downs. In a moment of weakness, I buy him a brand new Target shirt with a grizzly bear. Short is not with me when I buy the shirt. I grab some random kid and hold it up to him.

“Excuse me?” I hear myself say. “How old are you, can I hold this up to see if it might fit my five-year-old?”

He tells me he is twelve, and I, being the obstinate person that I am, hold it up to him anyway and guestimate.

This is what I end up with when I get home:

When I ask them to switch shirts, they balk.

“This is MY special grizzly bear shirt, Mom! I love it!”

“You bought me this surfer shirt two years ago on my birthday, I’m keeping it!”

The Husband walks in on our wardrobe battle.

“I guess we know what you’ll be blogging about later.”

MOV