The Wonderful World Of Boys

I still consider myself pretty new to this raising-a-boy thing. I've always heard that the experience of parenting a boy is very different from parenting a girl. Boys are more rough and daring, they like things with wheels, yada, yada, yada. When I was pregnant, I received a book titled Bringing Up Boys. I never finished the book (though I still hope to some day!) but in the very first chapter, the author pointed out a truth about the difference between boys and girls that I still think and laugh about to this day. Here is what he said: If a girl thinks that there is a chance that she could get hurt doing something, she won't do it. On the other hand, if a boy believes that he stands any chance of not getting hurt doing something, he'll give it a try. I knew this was true as soon as I read it (Keith has a long history of hurting himself doing foolish things) and Nicholas hasn't disappointed!

Nicholas is constantly doing things that Keith and I just can't believe he's willing to try. From about 18 months, he's been pushing the ottamen into the middle of the family room and jumping off of it onto the couches (or whomever is sitting on the couch). When we took him to the pool this past summer, he didn't waste any time taking running leaps into the water. Most kids his age are scared to jump in and don't like going under...not my boy! He couldn't get enough. If fact, we'd try to stand in the pool to catch him when he'd jump off the side and Nicholas would intentionally dodge the person in the pool so that he could leap in without being caught! He took the tunnel that he got for Christmas and dragged it up the stairs and then tried to slide down the stairs in it. On Christmas Eve, he received a collapsible play tent from his Grandma B. Nicholas pushed it next to the chair in the family room, climbed up on to the arm of the chair and did a swan dive on to the top of the tent. Needless to say, his collapsible tent did just that--collapsed under his weight. Nicholas ended up doing a belly flop on the floor and knocked the wind out of himself. The crazy part is, after a long cry and realizing that he was okay, he headed back over to the chair to try it again! As we all sat there laughing (of course, not allowing him to do it again), I couldn't help but think that he's a boy and if there is any chance he can survive it, he'll try it again! I'm sure he was thinking that maybe if he approached the situation a little differently (maybe jumping a different way?), then the outcome would be different. How I'm going to survive the stress of raising this child, I have no idea!

Nicholas' latest "boy" thing isn't as daring as it is funny. He has always loved balls (in fact, that was the theme of his birthday party last summer)...footballs, basketballs, soccer balls, volleyballs, vending machine bouncy balls, etc. Well, the older boys across the street let a few of their basketballs bounce into our yard the other day and, when I went out to get the mail, Nicholas followed me and recovered the balls. He brought them into the house and carried them around with him all day...even to nap time. I made him leave the ball next to his bed at night and told him he could play with it outside in the morning. Sure enough, he woke up and the first thing I heard over the monitor is "my ball. outside." Yesterday he carried around a volleyball. All day. When we had to run some errands, I told him he could take a toy and he chose the volleyball. Then, last night after I got Avery in bed, I told him that he could lay on the couch with me and watch Planet Earth. He gathered up his cup of milk, his blankey and...the volleyball. So there we were, laying on the couch under a blanket, just Nicholas, me and the volleyball. I laughed out loud as I lay there thinking that I suppose this is what boys do. Instead of having a doll, Nicholas is toting around a ball. Maybe we could draw a face on it and give it a name like Tom Hanks did in Cast Away. I have to admit, I just don't get boys! Though, I can say without a doubt that I wouldn't have it any other way. I can't imagine my life without my very special little man!