Olivia - the clothes she was able to wear yesterday really were a big deal for her. Clothes have become this big thing with her, but not in the way you're probably thinking. She has a closet of great clothes that we bought a season ahead and did really well finding great clothes at great deals. A couple of months ago she began wrecking them at school. I know, "She's 6, come on, she's not perfect."

But, when she comes home day after day with dry erase marker on them that won't come out, then fine tipped marker, then grass stained knees, then strawberry sauce from lunch all down the front of a shirt, then mud all down one pant leg, then a big circle of I guess dirt in the middle of her chest on now 3 shirts that won't come out, and then finally a hole in the neck of a shirt which she did by poking a pencil through, Hello!!! There is a problem. I got her five "play clothes" outfits, including the grass stain pants, the mud stain pants, the holey shirt, and the marker shirt, and she has been wearing those five outfits to school since. But, I still want her to be able to wear her other clothes and take care of her things.

I've tried all sorts of things from having her pay for a couple things which we had borrowed from a friend, talking to her about responsibility, time outs, etc. I am out of ideas... So, I thought maybe having her wear something special for Valentine's Day would help. I asked if she wanted to wear a special outfit and she helped put it together. We talked about being responsible and taking care of our things. And I told her that this would be a start toward helping me trust her with clothes again and she could work toward wearing nice clothes at school again. She did great!!! She was so proud of herself! And she said, "Yes! I get to wear nice clothes to school from now on!" I said to hold on, that that was not our deal and that this was a first step. I said that if she was taking care of her things that next week she could wear a nice outfit again one day, then the next week two days, etc. She understood and was still excited.

So today, Olivia went to school in one of her five outfits: a light aqua turtleneck from Gymboree that was the first of the center smudge shirts, and a pair of jeans. She came home with stains all over, literally, the front of her shirt. I asked what on earth happened to your shirt. Get this - she said she had been given gum by the teacher and "spilled" or "it leaked" on her shirt. So basically, she was drooling from gum??? That is crazy. She has never ever done that with gum. What is the deal???!!! That shirt is really going to look lovely if those stains don't come out.

And speaking of stain remover, any ideas for really great ones??? I've always had good luck with Shout. Girlie spilled chocolate milk all down the front of a new Cinderella sweatshirt that she wore to day care not long ago, and all of it came out. But, most of these stains Olivia has put in haven't.