School clothes shopping--ugh!

Back to school shopping is ridiculous.  What is awesome about homeschooling two of my kids is that there is no such thing as back to school.  They don't have anyone to impress with new clothes!  Now, my kids do get new clothes, but rather than a mad dash in August they get clothes when they need them.  I am not afforded that luxury with Aaron (well I could be, but EVERYONE else gets new clothes for school starting, so I usually get him a couple of new things too).  Taking boys clothes shopping is no fun.  Taking an autistic boy clothes shopping....well....I think I'd rather put some needles in my eyeball!  Usually I would just grab clothes at the store, bring them home and we'd be good to go.  Well, Aaron's put on a little bit of weight, and I can't seem to find him jeans that fit.  So that means he had to go with me.  I decided to hit JCPenney and Sears because they have husky jeans, and I figured if I went to the mall that no one goes to, it would at least be a little bit easier. 

I was trying to get out of the house quickly, so I wasn't really paying attention to what he was wearing--until we started walking into the mall.  Of course he was wearing yesterday's clothes.  Not only did he wear them yesterday, but they looked like he had been wearing them for weeks.  Awesome.  So here I am walking through the store with this kid with dirty clothes on, big old Winchester ear protectors on, making screeching noises.  Public humiliation.  Aaron follows me around as I'm grabbing clothes as fast as I can before he bolts away. I've got probably 10 different pairs of jeans for him to try on, and a couple of shirts.  We head into the dressing room and with EVERY SINGLE item of clothing I had to say, "don't take the tag off.  Aaron!  Don't take the tag off!" over and over again.  It took doing this at three stores before I was successful in finding him a pair of jeans that actually fit.  He was tired, and so was I.  At that point I didn't care that they were $27.99 a pair!  (Ok, I'm cheap when it comes to clothes that he will grow out of in 4 months).  So two pairs later we headed out of the mall and on to Target (another favorite of his--not).  By the time we got home we had been gone 3 hours and he and I were both done!  We're headed to meet his teacher and drop off school supplies now.  I can't wait until Thursday!