Teenage boys

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about how strange it is to have two teenage boys. I'm one of five girls and we grew up in neighborhoods where we were really the only kids. Boys were strange. I never understood them and was scared of them and uber shy around them. I had one date in high school (admitting to being a complete nerd, I know) and didn't have a real boyfriend until college. So interacting and observing teenage boys is kind of like observing a completely different species. Add to that I'm their step-mom and was sixteen years old when Jack was born and eighteen when Pat was and it gets even more interesting. I act as their Mom because we have them full-time but it is definitely not the usual set-up. At least it's not like I'm their step-mom and the same age as they are. I would imagine it would be very strange to have your parent married to someone your same age. Actually, I don't really want to imagine that, especially if the kid is still young enough to really need a full-time parent.

I started thinking about it because I just went through a two hour on-line shoe shopping experience with them. Who knew boys could be so picky! Jack, especially can be very very very picky. We finally found a web-site that met all their requirements (cool shoes) as well as mine (reasonable-ish prices, free shipping and one site where both boys could find shoes they liked and one that sold helmets because Pat needed one.) I would never in my life have imagined shopping at The House Boardshop, a web-site I would never have visited if I wasn't step-mom to the boys. And here are the shoes they finally came up with. The black ones are Pat's and the others are Jack's. $40 was my limit so Jack is using his own money to cover the extra. The shoes better be good ones and they better last!