Girls are gross. Girls have cooties.Girls chase us on the playground.

This is what I have been hearing over and over since EVILBOY started school.  However, somewhere between the beginning of grade six and yesterday the story is a little different. 

It started with the presentation of two very similar black button-up dress shirts. "which one should I wear to the dance?". The shirts looked almost identical to me, but it only took a moment for me to realize that this was a really hard decision for a young man going to his first (out of school) dance.

I pointed to the black button-up shirt on the left and decided I was going to be the annoying mom who suddenly seemed interested in the reasoning for such a perplexing decision. 

"are you going to dance with girls at this dance?"

When he replied with a shrug and a "maybe" I was a little in shock.  What happened to girls are gross.  What about the COOTIES? I then realized if I wanted to keep this comfortable openness between us, I would have to play it cool.  Before I could figure out what to say, my question was answered...

"Last year at the dance Will danced with a girl because she said she would give him a bag of candy"

....and then I realized that my son hasn't changed a bit.  He loves bags of candy!