Boys vs. girls

It’s happening already, that inevitable boy/girl division that I’d somehow thought the enlightened 2005 birth set would rise above. I saw it in action at a bowling birthday party this weekend. Five girls bowled in one lane, five boys in the other. All five girls lost interest in the game at some point and defected, choosing instead to hold hands in a giggling chain and weave haphazardly among tables and people and other obstacles. The same one stepped on my foot four times. I overlooked it because she’s been one of my favorites since Alex’s crew was in the baby room (a chubby girl with rosy, freckled cheeks and curly red hair—and her name is Sunny, come ON, how cute is that?). Seemingly ignorant of the girls’ apathy about the competition, the boys continued to work together to beat them. It was a valiant effort, I’ll have to say, and admirable that they really didn’t care, after a while, about whose turn it was or whether or not their meandering communal 7-pounder managed to find its target (thank God for bumpers).

They’re not so far gone that they’re not still friends, thank goodness. That would break my heart. I watched Alex try to encourage sweet shy Anna to bowl even though her big teary terrified eyes and her death grip on her mother said that she had no intention of being convinced. I watched the five girls form a circle around the birthday boy and take turns hugging him. (I’m pretty sure he only pretended to be put out.) And on the way out with little Ruby and her mom, Alex said, “Great job bowling, Ruby!” and she giggled and if I didn’t know better I’d say she actually blushed. (This is the one whose mother told me that she recently said, “That boy Alex in my class, sometimes he looks at me. And I like it!” and then ran away in embarrassment.)

Yikes, they’re growing up fast. There’s some bitter in the sweet, but it makes me proud to see my boy’s good-hearted nature in action. I love that he thanked the birthday boy’s mother for inviting him without my reminding him, and that he told his friends “Good job” after every turn, even if he kept returning to me and telling me how harrrrrrrrd it was to wait for his own. I love that when we were leaving and he said, “Boys are tougher than girls” and I explained to him exactly why that is fallacious logic, he relented and told me that people are “the same tough. Even though sometimes boys are ... taller.”

Lastly and randomly, I love this snippet from Ms. Donna’s 4K last Friday, just because it makes me snort:

Alex: “Lucy spent a long time making her picture beautiful, and then Patton came over and told her it looked damn.”
Me: “He said what?”
Alex: “He said ... He said it didn’t look beautiful.”
Me: “No, it’s ok, what did you say he said?”
Alex: “He used a grown-up word.”
Me: “He said it looked...”
Alex, solemnly: “He said it looked damn.”