A Full House

When I was growing up, my mom and dad worked outside the home which meant my sister and I had to go to a sitter. Our sitter was my mom's oldest sister, our Aunt Patty! There were times when I spent more time at Patty and Scotty's house then I did at my own. I loved it there for many reasons but for today's blog, I loved it because of the kid next door. He was my age and I loved him. I adored him like a brother and he was probably the first boy I ever had a crush on. I thought he hung the moon for many years.
When we were in early elementary school, he taught me about matchbox cars, baseball cards, how play t-ball and to "dig for dinosaurs". In fact, my Aunt still has my baseball cards somewhere in her house and I'm sure his little league baseball card/picture is still beside Eric Davis' card b/c that was where he told me to put it. He was going to be just like Eric Davis. He even signed his card for me b/c he KNEW he was going to be a famous baseball player one day. We spent hours together!!  His dad would be extremely disappointed if I didn't mention the fact that when we got older we would watch Little House on the Prairie, drink RC Cola and ate popcorn all while playing Monopoly almost every afternoon.
I share this because I have always been surrounded by boys and doing boy stuff even though I'm certain I did some of our activities in a dress. I found boy stuff to be fun. I was not a Tom Boy. I LOVED playing with Barbie's (which is what I did when I got home), dancing, cheering, picking flowers, but boy stuff was interesting too. I explain all of this b/c when our OB said that we were having twin boys, then another boy a few years later and another--I was okay with it. I know how to play with boys and do "boy stuff". After all, I grew up doing it.
Boys are so much fun but I have to admit, there are times when I experience huge "learning curves". I think the first "learning curve" came when the twins were younger and started asking questions about construction equipment and what each piece of equipment was called. So we learned about construction equipment together through books and driving past construction sites. From there, I've learned not to be surprised when I find rocks, acorns, sticks, etc. in the washer because boys tend to pick up cool things and cool things go directly in pockets.  I have also learned that anything dead is worth looking at! From a dead Blue Jay in our driveway to a squashed frog on the road, you will find all of us hovered over whatever it is checking it out. And what is it with little boys and water!? The twins love to watch the flow of water. Whether it's the water table at the Children's Museum or the path the water takes across our driveway when Anthony washes my car. It entertains them for hours!!
There have only been a few times when I have truly stepped back and thought, "Wow, I live in a house FULL of boys!" One of those moments occurred a few months ago when Anthony taught the boys how to make bodily function noises with his armpit at the dinner table. This particular noise is their favorite noise to make I think. They already make this noise with their lips as they walk down the hallway, they do it while they work on their homework, they place their mouths on their arms in order to make a louder noise and now, thanks to their daddy, they know how to make them with their ARMPITS. I have NEVER seen all 5 of them (Robert included) laugh so hard. I don't know why boys think those noises are so funny!?!
One of my favorite totally boy moments happened last spring. The boys had attended Pre-K and APPLE so when they came home from school, we took a walk. (Well, I was probably pushing a stroller and a tricycle while Joseph and Joshua rode their bikes but that's what we call a walk.) Before I tell you about the boy moment, I must explain that when it rains in our neighborhood, water collects in the curb along the side of our street especially in between the driveways. Joseph and Joshua know to ride their bikes close to one side of the street because of traffic. As they rode their bikes down the street, one in front of the other, they both tried to ride through the same puddle which was right before our driveway and both of them got stuck. Their training wheels where up on either side of the curb which allowed them to spin their back bike tire in the puddle. They couldn't go anywhere-they were stuck! Water was going everywhere!! Joseph was spinning water onto the back of his white uniform shirt and all over Joshua's face and down the front of his shirt as well. The front and back of Joshua's white shirt was covered in water as well. Keep in mind, this wasn't swimming pool water, this was puddle water. It was DIRTY! But they were having a BLAST!! I could have yelled at them for getting their white uniforms dirty or told them to stop, however, I let them have their memorable boy moment b/c only boys would have thought it was funny to get as wet and dirty as they did that day.
It was a boy moment and I am so thankful that God blessed me with five FUN boys!!