When Rick and I met, he was already an experienced father.

Four children: the oldest in high school, the youngest in kindergarten. He’d seen sleepless nights with infants, experienced the thrill of a toddler taking her first steps, threatened to pull a loose tooth with pliers, and chased the bogie man out of many closets.

What he hadn’t experienced and what he didn’t know he was missing, was Jack. (i.e., being the father of a boy)

Rick was accustomed to children who read books, colored in the lines, and played in their rooms quietly.

Boys are different.

They do things like waddle up to you at 3 years old and whack their head on your knee, “fix” the side of your car with a screwdriver, and insist upon drawing on the walls no matter how many times they’ve been put in time out (or had their hands smacked).

I did everything I could to raise the kids in a gender neutral environment, but boys and girls are just wired differently. They learn differently. They think differently. They play differently.

Boys are happiest with a stick in their hand and a tree to hit. And in a pinch, they’ll even have snowball fights with themselves.

So I have to agree with the old nursery rhyme that boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails. But as for the sugar and spice and everything nice portion of the saying… well, perhaps the author just hadn’t experienced teenage girls yet.