Neurotic? Perhaps.

School starts Monday. Boo hoo. I am not ready for the whole busy, schedule driven mess. I will no doubt accomplish more, while blonde rascal is at school, but "accomplishing" is overrated. Spoken like the seasoned slacker that I am.

So today I got all of blonde rascal's school clothes out, planned outfits, cut off tags and threw it all in the washer. I am obsessed with clean, neat, cute outfits for school. Katie bar the door after school or in the summer when his "play" clothes look like something I have dug out of a dumpster. But for school? Fogetaboutit.

I went through his sock drawer. Threw away all holey pairs. Then picked out the few "white" pairs. I did have to buy some new socks and separated them from his play socks.No, that does not say school sucks...it says socks, SOCKS! There is not a bleach or power detergent around that will get that boy's socks clean after he has played outside all day. So yes I did separate all his nice white socks from his play socks.

Even though during shorts season at school he will wear the "no show" style socks, I still can't allow dingy socks to be worn to school. Neurotic? Perhaps. I mean seriously, you know they take their shoes off sometimes at school. How terrible to display holey, dingy, stained, nasty, mismatched socks. Gasp.

I think this particular neurosis of mine started when I worked at Parent's Day Out when Blonde Rascal was a tot. There is no excuse for sending dirty & disheveled kids to school. Some babies would come to PDO unkempt and smelly(I don't mean dirty diaper, I mean all over!) and I just could not bear it. At that age it is not the child's fault but purely a reflection on the parent! That revelation was seared into my brain.

My top 3 list of absolute cleanliness no-no's for my own child:
1. No dirty and/or long fingernails. Evah. Yuck.
2. No left over tattoo sticker things on the body. Ewwww. That screams of no bath.
3. NO sticky band-aid funk remains. You know, the sticky brown outline left behind after band-aid removal. Double ewww.

I will never be able to jump on the "green" laundry soap campaign. Blonde rascal's clothes must always heavily & obviously smell of laundry soap. Love me some Gain. And stains? Not on my watch. I will scrub and scrub to remove stains. And if the stain is inevitable, then the item goes to the play clothes drawer. No stains on school clothes.

Ahhh..........there is the collection in blonde rascals room....freshly laundered, stain free, sweet smelling school clothes! And shiny new tennies....AND a new backpack! AND on that note parents, seriously if you send your baby to a daycare of any type then please for the love of pete routinely wipe out that nasty stank diaper bag. Eww. Likewise I am somewhat neurotic on keeping the b.r.'s backpack clean and all tidy like.

Perhaps if I had more than one child to wrestle and wrangle to get ready each morning for school then I would not be so neurotic. Oh well, at least I can admit my problem. It is the first step you know.

The piece de resistance?
Oh you'd better believe my clean, stylin' little man will wear this everyday. Again it goes back to my PDO days. I had a sweet adorable baby boy in my room whose mom put this on him every morning and we all LOVED it. It does not smell baby lotion like nor like cologne...just clean like soap.

I have been putting this on blonde rascal every school morning since kindergarten. He pays no attention to it, it is just a normal part of his morning hygiene routine. When he notices it says "baby" that may be the end of it. The only place I can find it is CVS. Of course a bottle lasts a year.

I think my favorite clothes are from The Children's Place. I have found they hold up really well. That is impressive. The C.P. is soooo affordable too. Love that.

There it is all out in the open, my obsessive, slightly neurotic nature regarding blonde rascal's school clothes/cleanliness. I am prepared and at peace now.

Good news is we did NOT go to Chuck E. Cheese last night. Instead we went to Main Event which is really more age appropriate for b.r. AND they serve adult food. As compared to C.E.C. where you have the opportunity to indulge in greasy pizza and a lovely ice burg lettuce salad bar. Yum! My pal Meredith had my back though, informing me that they serve beer at the Chucksters. Who knew? All those years at C.E.C. could have been so much more enjoyable. Incidentally, they serve beer at Main Event too. ; )

We went to Target today to buy dog food, a twenty-nine cent pencil bag and snacks for b.r.'s class. So how did my bill come out to be $88.47? Sweet nibblets it is because Target is magical and I love it. Speaking of, I think I will be ordering these. Clemson girl, who is undeniably a riot and her blog makes me giggle, swears by them. This story regarding the wonder pants made me shoot coffee out of my nose the morning I read it.