The dirt dilemma

Now that summer is finally on its way, my son plays outside just about every day. And I have a new parenting dilemma.

He thoroughly enjoys being outdoors -- digging in the sandbox, rolling down grassy hills, picking dandelions and blowing the seeds off their stems, doing a little gardening work with me, kneeling at the edge of the pond so he can dip his rocks in and see how they change color.

His supply of clean blue jeans runs out by mid-week. We're talking about grass stains, dirty knees, yellow dandelion juice and, of course, rocks and wood chip debris in the pockets. (See "A boy's treasures" post.)

Food stains? There's no question -- straight into the hamper. But what's a little dirt? How many days in a row can a 4-year-old boy wear the same pair of blue jeans?