The 21 jersey

When Noah was about three years old, he latched onto a shirt that became his favorite.  It had shorts that came with it, but he didn't care about those, just the shirt.  I don't even remember where we got it, but it must have been a hand-me-down or from a garage sale, because that's where he gets all his clothes.  This is the first picture I could find of him wearing it:

At that point, it wasn't an obsession yet.  He still wore other clothes.  But the next summer (2006), when he was four, he wore the 21 jersey every day. 

That thing got filthy, believe me.  He even slept in it, so it was hard to find an opportunity to wash it.  He got paint on it:

and he got sand on it:

and plenty of sweat.

Sometimes he wore the 21 on the front, and sometimes he wore it on the back.

The next summer, he outgrew the shorts, but he kept wearing the shirt.

He even wore it in the winter. He just added a shirt under it.

I was afraid I would have to cut it off of him in order to get it off, so I came up with a plan to "retire" it.  I had him autograph it and told him I was going to hang it on his wall.  That was at the end of 2007.

When his baseball glove got too small, I hung it next to the jersey.  Both of the retired items gather a lot of dust, so I take them down periodically and shake them.  Yesterday I was shaking the jersey, and Noah came along and exclaimed, "Oh, my 21 jersey!  Can I try it on?"