Boys

We went to dinner last night with John's family after "Spending a Day with Thomas" (more on that later...I'm still editing photos)...dinner was Mexican food. Only the third time Sam's been out for Mexican food. Last time we think it gave him a tummy ache.
Picture it...We're sitting at the table having our chips and salsa. I'd packed Os (O cereal) for Sam to snack on before dinner arrived. But, John decided to let him try chips...we made eye contact as he was about to give Sam a bite...me thinking, "Really?"...not safe, last chip he tried he choked on, etc. and John, "Is this okay?"...I just responded with, "Yeah, I guess, go ahead." That all went over so well that John decided to let him try some salsa...yes, I'm serious. (And just so we're clear, it wasn't mild salsa.) He dips the chip in the salsa and gives Sam a bite. Not much of a reaction, just a "yum, yum". But a few bites later you can tell he's now feeling the "heat"...he starts rubbing the tip of his tongue on the back of his teeth and his eyes are getting a little red. We all kind of chuckle and I try to give Sam water...he doesn't want it...just asks for more (chip and salsa). And John gives him more! I then give John the evil "momma" eye and calmly tell him, "I want you to stop."...Oh, but he doesn't. He continues to give it to him because he's asking for more!
My boys! A little girl probably would not have continued to ask for the "pain" and a mom probably would not have continued to offer it. Is this possibly a little glimpse of my future as a mom of a boy...and the wife of a man who LOVES having a rough and tough little boy?

And on that note...If you too are a mom of boys, try to pick up (or stop by the book store to "borrow") Wonderime Magazine this month (April). In it is a wonderfully entertaining article by Jacquelyn Mitchard called "Where the Boys Are". (She's a mom to 5 boys! and one girl.) I tried to find it online, so I could link to it, but it's not there. A few things she said that I loved...

"Girls, it seems, can learn from their own experiences and even, occasionally, from others'. However, if a boy sees a sign that reads Wet Paint, he'll touch the wall to determine it's not a joke, and then his friend--standing right behind him--will have to perform the same test with his own finger. Boys are not dumber than girls. They simply have a rugged and individualistic sense of discovery and wonder, untrammeled by prior evidence...
A boy's got to do it his own way. The sooner a mother learns this, the less time she'll spend on futile interventions and headache medication...
You can raise your son any way you want to and, the first chance he gets, he's still going to burp the national anthem...
In their preverbal (and postcollegiate) years, a boy will crawl under anything, fall off anything, roll over anything, kick anything. He will chew with his mouth open while tipping his chair back on its legs as soon as his legs are long enough to do the tipping."

And one last thought...Have you seen The Dangerous Book for Boys? I bought it for John, from Sam, sometime in the last year and a half. It's filled with random knowledge all boys should know and fun "boy" activities. It's a great book...a Father's Day idea.