The Son announced the other day that he needed new underwear.  Well, knock me down with a feather.  This is a kid who will do just about anything to avoid having to be involved, even remotely, with new clothing and/or shopping of any kind.

His acknowledgement of needing new underwear was the surprise; the need, however, was not.  Here’s a boy who’s grown about 11 inches and put on at least 15 pounds in the past two years — still squeezing himself into Hanna Andersson size 150 undies!  In case you’re not familiar with Euro sizing, that’s a 5′8″, 115 lb. 13-year-old wearing a size designed, at maximum, to fit someone measuring 5′2″ and weighing 95 lbs.  If The Son were a cartoon character, that underwear would make him a soprano instead of his real-life bass.

Speech Therapy — $60.00
His second session.  I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see him emerge after 45 minutes with a paper filled with writing!  The therapist had given him an opening line and had him take it from there.  It was productive and I could tell that The Son felt good about the session.

All this week I’ve been questioning my decision to give this therapy a try.  After all, I have to pay out-of-pocket and The Son really doesn’t have an official diagnosis.  Signing up for speech therapy was a real leap of faith.  As petty as it sounds, it’s going to be easier to spend that money if I get to see concrete results like this every week.

Old Navy — (20.99)
This was our first stop on the Great Underwear Search of ‘08.  I took the opportunity to take in the wool peacoat The Daughter bought herself on New Year’s Eve — one of the toggle buttons was barely hanging on.  I was hoping for an even exchange for another coat.

The good news was that the employee happily exchanged the coat without a hitch.  On top of that, the price had been reduced even further so the clerk provided me with an Old Navy gift card for the price difference.

The bad news was they didn’t have a single package of men’s briefs in a size small for The Son.

We ended up striking out at Ross and  K & G Men’s Warehouse, too.

T.J. Maxx – $6.45
Here we finally (hopefully) hit underwear paydirt.  The selection of size Small briefs was pathetically, well, small.  We ended up rejecting a package of Nautica briefs because the waistband was actually wider than the fabric.  Who designs these things and why would they make the waistbands wider than the actual brief?

The Son finally decided to give the Alfani basic briefs a try.  They only had one package in his size.  It will be just my luck that The Son will like this brand and size and I’ll spend the next 3 months trying to find additional packages.

You know, when I signed up for the parenthood gig, I was prepared for temper tantrums and sleep deprivation and snotty teenagers but no one told me I’d expend so much time and effort searching the globe for a particular brand of underwear or spend a month’s salary trying to find an acceptable pair of socks.

Baseball registration — $165.00
After three years I’m almost used to the idea that baseball starts in January.  Well, registration and try-outs are in January.  The meetings will start in March.  Then come the practices.  I’d better get out the hair clippers and make sure they’re oiled because before you know it I’ll be shaving the boy’s head in anticipation of the official baseball season.

Here’s to hoping that his team wins a few more games this year.