Learning to play boy

He's up as soon as the sun rises every morning with more energy than one could get from the largest Mango GoGo from Jamba Juice.  He doesn't run short of this energy either.  I'm learning to love rising early with him, but my eyelids and body are not always in agreement. Learning to play boy after six girls has been a journey.  We have a couple of friends who have nothing but boys and they warned me during my pregnancy that "boys were different!"  I didn't really believe them then, but now. . . .  

I am thoroughly convinced that God hardwired boys and girls differently even before the Fall.  He does and loves things so differently than all of the girls ever did.  For instance, he loves everything to do with trucks, tractors and cars.  The girls can be playing Barbies in the back room and with the thousand pieces lying all over the floor, he heads straight over to pick up the Barbie car.   

His favorite book is All Kinds of Trucks and we have to read it daily, several times a day.   When we go for a drive to Fernbridge Tractor where the General Manager works, the first words out of his mouth are "Daddy and John Deere."  He came wired with the sound that cars make already in his brain, which tickles my heart when I hear him "Vroom, Vroom" all over the floor with his cars.

Playing cars and trucks are a little more challenging; because they don't come with all of the accessories and outfits like Barbies and baby dolls.  Barbies lend themselves to replicate our own lives - so often I hear the girls playing with the dolls and they are retelling our life story through the Barbie.  I've listened to countless stories of Barbies getting married, the numerous times they've been pregnant, but more importantly I hear the Godly character traits we are teaching them be taught likewise to their dolls.  

What I've realized is that  trucks, tractors and cars take more imagination to make amazing adventures with.   It is going to require me to remember what it's like to have a child like imagination.   When I was growing up, my sister and I had hot wheels.  We would take our cars out to the back alleyway and we could spend hours creating roads, swamps, bridges and tunnels in which to drive our cars.  This type of imagination gets rusty if one doesn't use it frequently.  I'll need to brush off the cobwebs for my son's sake.  

Blocks are another favorite and during the cold days of winter, George has been known to dump out the basket of blocks over and over and over again.  All of which annoys Abby who is trying to build castles with as many blocks as possible.  We try our best to shield him away from the castle until the very last moment when we unleash his "knocking down ability" or the "block monster" as we call him when he's destroying the castles.  After that, it's back to the drawing board for a new castle design.

Learning to play boy is quite the journey and one I am ever so grateful the Lord allowed me to experience.  After six girls I was convinced that the closest I would get to a boy was a grandson.  That just lets me know that I should never underestimate the Lord's will.  He's the author of our family's story and I am so willing to experience all that He has written down for our life.  My handsome "little man" has forever stolen my heart and I chose to enjoy learning "boy" for many years to come.