Over the last month, we’ve had two new friends in our home for meals. It is the first time that we’ve had people with small children into our home since adding a small child to our own family, and I’ve had the chance to make some observations.
The first family to come has two sons and a daughter. The daughter is their youngest, and is the same age as my mackerdoodle. The boys played a little with mackerdoodle’s toys, but when I brought out the dominoes, they turned my living room table into an impromptu shuffle board, shooting the dominoes through the legs of my potted ivy planter.
I thought it was a very creative game, and I filed that away as an idea to introduce to my nephews, should they come to visit.
Then we went outside and they dug happily in the dirt until the mosquitoes threatened to carry us all away. Just as they were leaving, their second son looked at me and asked “Can we come back and play in your dirt again some time?” I assured him that he could, and he went away happy.
The second family has three girls, the youngest of which is the same age as our mackerdoodle. (Are you seeing a trend?) When they came, the girls played with mackerdoodle’s toys while the adults visited. Every toy storage box, or box like object in the toy area was emptied to become a bed, and every toy that had a face was carefully and lovingly rocked and then placed into these beds. Our family room became a nursery with each toy carefully tended. Even my Chewbacca Pez dispenser was carefully laid to bed with a granny square blanket.
*** On a side note, had Princess Leia attempted the same feat with the real Chewbacca, he would have ripped off her arm and beat her with the pulpy end, proving that he is the only manly character in those movies. But I digress. ***
The differences made me chuckle. No matter how hard the feminists and sociologists try to make gender differences out to be a matter of training, spending even one evening with chldren of each gender will immediately send you to one conclusion: God made us different, and those differences are beautiful things. We are all fearfully and wonderfully made, but some are made to toil in the dirt, and others are made to love and nurture anything that can look at us. The Lord called it very good, and I am happy to agree.
Life More Abundant 
As a mom of both boys and a girl, I so agree with this post! My boys are total “boys”, even if they are playing with our daughter’s toys. She loving puts her babies to bed, they drag dollies by the arms and toss them off the stairs to see “which one will land first” … She plays “house” with her kitchen, they just love to brandish the kitchen “knives”…. a stick becomes a pencil in the dirt to her, while to the boys a stick is the best weapon of all…
Oh that is so funny! I laughed so hard it hurts! Did it take you forever to clean up from that? Our house is also full of little things that get to be “babies”. She even cares for appendages that way when we wrap up in blankets. We had a great time, by the way!
I think I’m gonna come back over and steal the dominoes. My boys miss them. Oh, and the dirt….they are still asking about going back to dig. They loved the frog in the wheelbarrow. We had a fun time with you all!
my boys love teddy bears – hanging by a rope from the bannister – but my girls love babies of all sorts, and my youngest once nursed, cradled, sang to and comforted – her sippy cup! They’re both fun, but so different, though the other day #3 (boy) was watching his sister poke at the big monkey with an arrow, “No,” he said, “You do it like this…” then he stood over the monkey and plunged it into it’s chest. “Oh,” she said with her two-year old voice, then perfectly imitated the execution…he’ll make a boy out of her yet, or die trying!