Monday, October 8, 2012

Underwear is Fascinating


        Underwear is Fascinating

 

            Alex was about 18 months when he was talking about super heros and that he needed a cape. I did not want him to have a cape or anything else wrapped around his little neck so I tried to put him off by going in another super hero direction. He played along and I thought the cape thing had been forgotten. Okay, I was a new mother, I didn’t know better. Next thing I know he is running up and down the hallway with his cape. He took one of my bras, slung the shoulder strap over his head with the rest of the bra trailing down his back. Cape accomplished. I just shook my head, as I do so often these days.

 

When Alex was three he went with his soon-to-be step-father and I out of town and stayed at a hotel for my birthday. We swam, went out to dinner and had a great time. While back in our room he started to play with his Happy Meal toys. They were those ‘The Dog’ tiny stuffed animals. Cute. Anyway, he made a house for them and was so proud of it. When I saw it I had to work hard to not laugh. He had taken a lovely push-up bra and laid it flat on the floor so that the boobs were facing up and had a two little dogs backed in where boobs would have normally been. Dog apartments or boulder-holders…you make the call.

 

            Drew walked out of the bathroom pulling up his jeans and as always I was nearby. He looks up and lets out a little squeal and says ‘I don’t want you to see my underwear!’ I say to him that only this morning I saw him running naked through the house and now he is suddenly concerned with modesty? He glosses over that and the fact remains that I am not to see his underwear even though I bought it, washed it and picked it out for him that very morning, I am still not permitted to lay eyes on it at this particular time of day. Whatever makes you happy Drew, I’ll avert my eyes.

 

            My sons have gotten a little bit older so I decided to upgrade them from little brief underwear to the cooler and hipper boxer briefs. I bought a couple of packages and they are the cutest little things, I mean, they are cool, boys get to the point where they don’t want to be cute, they want to be cool. Anyway, I washed them and present them to Drew and Adam. Drew loved them which meant only one thing, Adam was going to throw a fit. ‘How come I have to wear them? I like my underwear!’ I told him to just give them a try, wear them a little and see how you like them, even as I was saying this I knew what would happen. He’d put them on and tell me he doesn’t like them, which is exactly what happened. Fine kiddo, wear your tighty-whities.

 

            When Alex was little he liked to help me fold the laundry. Unusual but true. He would fold his underwear and the hand towels, little things for a little boy. Sorting socks was a favorite because it would become a game to see who would end up with the socks that had no matches since those were most likely eaten by the dryer. The night I stopped having him help me was the night he held up a pink thong and said in a most confused little voice ‘I, ah, don’t know how to fold this. What is this?’ I was slightly embarrassed and didn’t want to tell him at that point what it was, I felt it would thoroughly confuse or enthrall him and I was not looking for either of those things to enter into the equation.

 

            When I was married to my first husband his brother and sister-in-law would stay with us when they were in town. We had the most fun and usually laughed ourselves stupid. My brother-in-law was a Marine and quite a big guy but very funny and very good at trying to embarrass me. I tried to head this off at every possible turn. Unfortunately, there are times that I was not diligent enough in my paranoia. One evening I was at work and realized that I left my underwear in the dryer. This was the same day that they would be arriving at my home. I was petrified to say the least. I hoped against hope that I would get home and no one would’ve seen fit to have done any laundry. This was not the case. My in-laws were in bed when I got home, my husband was not home yet. I found a pair of my panties hanging from the ceiling fan in the dining room, another pair on the knob of the bathroom door and yet another pair shut in the door to my bedroom at eye level so that I would be sure not to miss them. I knew I was in for it the next day when I saw him and there was just nothing to do about it but hit it head-on. Before I saw him that next day his lovely wife let me know that he had opened the dryer and said ‘Oooooo…Carol forgot her underwear and I found it’ in a singsong voice and that he had worn a pair around the house on his head for a while. She did keep him from hanging all of them up around the house or making a scavenger hunt out of it for me to see if I could in fact locate them all. I had the best times when they stayed with us, honestly.

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