The Mystery of Boys

I have to admit it - boys are a complete mystery to me. Men, now men I kind of get. They've grown up and they're my age, approximately, and grown-ups in general haven't befuddle me much. Boys are a whole 'nuther world. They're stinky and like to gross each other out, they roughhouse and their minds are blathering on about who knows what.

Which makes the fact that I have an almost-teenager a rather terrifying fact. And now that I'm seeing teenage boyhood up close and personal, I'm noticing three interesting facts:

~ The seeming inability to sit up straight unless threatened with The Look, and even then there is as much slouching going on as he thinks he can get away with.

~ The seeming loss of ability to tie shoes properly anymore. I admit, shoe-tying was a tricky battle for him. Fine motor skills like that don't always come easily to him, so bows in shoelaces were a long time in coming. So why has he apparently regressed? Half the time we go out somewhere, I look down at some point and one shoe or the other is untied. And he doesn't care. Shudder.

~ The seeming inability to detect the fact that he smells like a ripe gorilla. How can someone be standing in that cloud and not know it? He's clean, but good gravy, the boy smell that is rampant and ripe! (Being married, let me just say that I am thankful to God that this stage doesn't last forever, at least not for most men.)

I do look forward to the coming years as my boy matures and grows in God, school and life. But how he will do so and the thoughts he will be thinking during these coming years is such a mystery to me. But then, I do love a good mystery.... almost as much as I love him. :-)