Shopping with Boys

An inadvertent dynamic of Zac being in school every day is that Nathan is left at home with 3 girls. I've always tried to take care of my shopping errands during the day which means Nathan has tagged along on quite a few shopping expeditions this semester. His original reaction to my revealing plans for shopping on a particular day usually involved whining and complaining. Then, being the smart kid that he is, he started trying to turn it to his advantage, i.e. asking what he was going to get on the trip. I found that he was a happier shopper if we at least walked through the boys section and if we could find something less than $5 on the clearance rack, preferably in green, he was actually excited about the trip. This has lead, unfortunately I think, to a 7 yr. old who always wants to buy new clothes. What kind of effect this will have in his teen years remains to be seen. Hopefully, he'll care enough about his clothes to at least wear clean ones everyday which cannot be said for the other teen boy who lives in this house.

All that background information to tell you a funny story that happened this week. We were driving to the mall to make a quick trip into JC Penney in our never ending quest to find jeans that fit Katie. (If you know where to buy pants that are a size 12 length with a size 7 waist, please let me know!) We were limited on time because we were on our way to a field trip at the television station (more on that later) so we were plotting out our attack on how to accomplish everything we needed in a short amount of time. We decided we would hit the girls dept. first, then head to jr. dresses for Alyssa when Nathan, who had been riding quietly up to this point, piped up from the backseat. "Hellloooo, does anyone remember I'm here?" We did venture through the boys dept. and found what Kevin would call a "cool dude jacket".
Here is in his new jacket and his gangsta hat.