(future) Sharp Dressed Man

Just for funsies today, let's play a quick round of Jeopardy, shall we?
Okay, I'll start. Give me "Sentences I NEVER expected to hear come out of my son's mouth", for $1000, Alex." 
[Alex Trebek looks down his nose, fixes you with his superior stare and pompously intones in his best Gameshow Host Voice] "This morning, 10-year old Derek came down to breakfast shivering in his tee-shirt--due to the September early-morning chill--and said this..."

[You consider and discard several potential responses: "I need some hot chocolate"; "Where are my sweatshirts?" but these make too much sense to fit the category. All of the contestants hold their buzzers at the ready, but fail to press the button, utterly stumped by the question.]
Finally the "out-of-time" bell chimes and Alex provides the correct answer:
"Mom, I don't have enough long-sleeved shirts, we need to go shopping!"

I very nearly spit out my coffee. This is priceless, from the boy who regularly dresses out of his clean laundry pile, to avoid having to actually put it away, and therefore wears the same 2 or 3 outfits over and over again...the boy who rotates through only about a third of the items of clothing he owns anyway (most of which are donated from the boy across the street, so at least I didn't pay for them to sit in his dresser!)...the boy who has never once in his life even asked to be consulted on the purchasing of apparel (whatever I bring home is treated to a cursory glance, then wadded up and stuffed unceremoniously into a drawer with its fellows). Suddenly this child not only "needs more shirts" (a foreign concept in-and-of-itself), but wants to voluntarily venture into a store and pick them out himself? Who is this stranger and what has he done with my happily-fashion-oblivious kid?

So, my son...shopping. Jeesh. At least he's still nonchalant enough about Brand Names that he hasn't asked to go to Abercrombie or the Gap for his wardrobe. Or worse yet: ask to be dropped off at the mall with my credit card (a 5-word response says it all, I think: Not In This Lifetime, Pal!) But I can only wonder: what's next for the male tween? Hair gel? Calling girls after school for a "chat"? (or, Heaven forbid, asking for his own email account? Ha! Nobody's ready for that, trust me!) Hopefully he'll just take it slowly...maybe try a little bit of...oh, I don't know...dressing in matching shirts and pants, perhaps? Baby steps....