Boys will be boys

When I had my daugher she was pretty intense. It was obvious within the first hour of her birth that she was NOT going to be a calm little miss. Actually, it was obvious from about 20 weeks of gestation from the huge amount of movement and kicking she made. She annoyed the midwives who asked me to take her away, she scared off people and became known as people's contraceptive. The latter comment was funny at first (because it was very true) but did get a little (?) annoying when people kept labelling her, especially when it turned out just to be a huge reaction to being little and unable to do things with that body of hers. The older she has become, the happier and calmer she has become. Even now she can be QUITE intense, but only really when she is feeling frustrated by limits that have been placed on her either by us or by her own inabilities (which are mostly just due to her age). Mostly these days she is a gorgeous little girl. Sweet, loving, very helpful and kind to others, loves the 'girly' things - dolls, painting, craft, flowers, 'pretty' things...

Then along came M. Now as much as J embodies a 'typical' girl (if there ever is such a thing), M embodies a typical bloke. You know the guy off the Hahn premium light ad on tele who jumps into the spa from above, shoots the girl who was in there out of it and puts a tidal wave of water everywhere, cracks open a beer, skulls it, then looks up and says 'What?' Yeah, that is the picture. Okay, so he doesn't drink beer yet and I am HOPING that with time he is going to develop some more of his feminine side, but at the moment, he could be in that ad (with the kids version - maybe cracking open a nice carton of Golden Circle fruit juice). I thought having a girl was a hard thing to do. Well now I think that boys are the hardest!!! Man.

Take today. So far he has started the day by beating up his sister, starting her screaming and getting me up at the crack of dawn. He has smashed the dogs food bowl, which I hand-made on a pottery wheel eight years ago. It had her name on it and I was SO proud of my achievement with that bowl. Smashed.

He has dug up more of the back grass. He has dragged a chair to get to a door latch for under the house to get more toys out that were packed away, leaving a trail of 'evidence' in his wake. He has tipped all of the toys out of his toy boxes. He is black, covered in dirt and mud and is nude after doing a tree wee. He has spilt milk throughout the whole of the house when he decided he wanted to eat cereal out on the front lawn. After spilling all the milk and getting his hands sticky he decided he wanted to wash his hands, got distracted by the house painting trestles down the side of the house on the way to the tap and decided that sticky hands were okay and he'd climb them instead. He has since decided he does NOT want to eat the cereal. He has dug up all my new marigold seedlings in the veggie garden. And it's just turned ten am. *sigh* Have I made my point?? The boy learned to climb a five foot fence at 18 months, climb over a verandah railing at 12 months and climb onto every table and bench in the house at about 11 months. Oh the joys. He certainly has been a learning curve for me.

On the positive side, I am now fitter than I have been since I was a kid. I'm under 50kgs and can walk rapidly up a mountain without getting even slightly puffed. J has learned and is constantly learning to chill and not be so 'precious'. I am also learning this lesson, especially about material items (as he keeps breaking things and I realise that life does go on without them). I get the BEST cuddles from him and I especially love it when he says 'Mummy I love you' as he is getting a cuddle. He makes me laugh with his vibrant character, his zest for life. He makes me look at the world differently. Everything is exciting. Everything is a new, wonderful experience waiting to be lived. Water fights in the bath may soak the entire bathroom but they're also a lot of fun too. Messes can be cleaned up, but so many full experiences are truly priceless.

Would I trade having a boy for anything? Not on your life.