Smells Like Tween Spirit

Snips and snails,
And puppy dog tails,
That's what little boys are made of...

What does this even mean?  I honestly have no clue.  I also have no clue what makes tween boys tick (I really wish they had let us watch the "boy" movie on adolescence in 5th grade - it may have helped).  The only tween I've known before was my little brother.  Being 7 years older than he, I observed, from a distance, his tween years with curiosity.  Questions came to mind like:  why does he always wear sweatpants with holes in them?  Why is there dirt smeared on his face and he doesn't care?  Shouldn't he shower after his game?  He outgrew this, of course (thank god).   Now, I'm living with a tween 24/7.  This is MY tween.  And I am once again observing him with curiosity - just at a much closer distance.

Since he did get to watch the 5th grade boy movie - pamphlets came home - HUZZAH!  Now I can learn!  And it seems, he actually read/listened particularly well on the topic of personal hygiene.  While I am by no means complaining, this new, heightened sense of aromatic concern has really added to my grocery shopping time.  What used to be a 30 minute shop time has escalated into 1.5 hours.  Why you ask?  This...

This, my friends, is a 1/2 aisle dedicated to men's body wash/shampoo.  Gone are the days of 1 scent of Head & Shoulders.  Now there are 8 different brand names - with 10 different scents.  Scents with names like:  Swagger, Kickstart and Wolfthorn.  What. Are. These. Smells?  Well, just ask my tween...

Oh yes, we smelled every. single. one.  25 minutes of smelling to select the "right" one for the shower.  Head & Shoulders was "lame".  Kickstart smelled "bad".  All of this lead to choosing:

Axe:  Apollo.  Since I associate this name with the movie, I was glad to know it did not smell like what I assumed: rocket fuel, influenza and near death.  At this point, I had reached my limit, as did my olfactory nerves.  $7 for a bottle of this stuff?  Fine.  Shove it in the cart and let's move on.  30 minutes into grocery shopping and this is all I had to show for it:

In the end, 1.5 hours of shopping wasn't bad - we got to bond and laugh over this sensory experience.  And now, every time I hug him I smell his hair, think of that moment and laugh all over again... I love his tween spirit (and smell)!!

Look Ma! I have a "Tween"

Today is a Thursday.  Today I got them ready for their weekend at daddy's.  Today I realized I'm sending off my 11 year old and getting him back as a 12 year old.  Today I cried.

Monday, I'll have a TWEEN.

Crying, that isn't untypical of me - especially where the boys are concerned - in fact, I do it every year around their birthdays.  It is a tradition for me to sit on my bed, thumbing through baby pictures and crying.  My husband just accepts this fact and supplies the wine.

Then today, I read an interesting article posted on the blog:  Home Sanctuary.  Besides the fact that I cried through reading it, it brought up a point that struck home - where ARE the blogs, pinterest pages and forums for parents with Tweens/Teens?  If you know of some, please let me know (preferably ones that make me laugh not cry).  We are the parents that raised our babies/toddlers with no instant access to blog pages about "why my kid is crying" or pinterest pages filled with 101 crafts using crayons.  We didn't have Facebook to poll our connected friends "what is your method of getting your kid to sleep or pee?" or to post videos of first steps.  As a mom who was one of the first of her friends to have kids, that was a lonely time.  Social media probably would have overwhelmed me, but I certainly wouldn't have felt alone.

So today, I want to change that.  I'm not alone - we're not alone.  I want to hear from other moms/dads of tweens and teens.  We're all going through this whacko time together and have or will have funny, scary and informative stories  - let's share about it!

Have a great Tween story?  Let me know in the comments!