10 Things I Learned About Boys

 

Friday night Aiden had 2 boys over to spend the night in celebration of his 8th birthday.  I would be lying if I didn’t say I had a bit of a nervous stomach most of that day thinking of all the craziness I was about to get myself in to.  I knew Andy could handle it, he is, after all, a boy.  But me?  The resident girly girl around here?  Oh boy, was I about to get an education.

1. Boys don’t give a hoot about hygiene.  When I suggested they brush their teeth before bed they all gave me a blank look.  What? No one brought a toothbrush?  Not more than a week ago Aiden went to stay the night with a friend and you know darn well I packed *him* a toothbrush!  Now I’m wondering, did he use it?
2. They don’t mind sleeping in their dirty clothes.  I went down to the basement where they were camping out for the night and noticed they were all in their clothes still. Well, the night was young, figured they’d do it before they called it a night.  The next morning when they came up for breakfast they were still in their dirty clothes from the day before.  Ew!
3. They sing along to songs on the radio like girls do.  Say what?!?  Now that one REALLY surprised me!  I restrained myself from jumping in and singing along. Didn’t want to be *that* mom.
4. If you plan on them eating you out of house and home they barely eat anything.  If you don’t plan on it they will start gnawing on the woodwork.
5. They will climb on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING.  We went to the park to burn off energy and eat pizza (hey, why not make the mess there instead of here?) and they were climbing on the equipment (ok, that makes sense), the picnic tables (why?) and the lion statue that has a water fountain in it’s mouth (get down!).
6. “Let’s take a picture” translates to ‘pose and make a funny face’.  No nice pictures at this party.
7. It doesn’t matter how old the gaming system, they will play it all night long!  The $5 we paid for that old Play Station at a garage sale was money well spent!  They didn’t even ask to play the newer Wii.
8. Boys are pretty low maintenance when it comes to where and how they are sleeping.  Throw them a pillow and some blankets and they are set – in front of the TV, on the bedroom floor, down in the freezing cold basement – wherever!
9. They like sugar and lots of it.  Both boys gave Aiden candy in his gifts.  I made sure to return the favor to the parents by having those boys eat as much of that candy as possible…within reason, of course.  No one went home with a tummy ache!
10. Boys are much quieter the next morning after having stayed up past midnight the night before!  It was a much different drive in the car on the way home than when we had picked them up Friday evening. 

Somehow I survived the chaos.  Aiden and the boys had a great time.  And my house survived, too!  I think Aiden’s first slumber party (are they still called that?) was a success!  So different than mine as a kid.  All we needed was snacks (easy cheese, Chicken in a Biscuit crackers and Mt Dew) and a curling iron and we were happy!  Oh, and toothbrushes, ha!