About a boy

Mike and I were bathing Henry tonight, he was being obnoxious, typical boy stuff. Henry, not just Mike. I sighed after he dumped half a bucket of water on the floor, for the second time. Mike looks at me and says "It was your idea." I thought he meant the bath was my idea "Yeah, but he has to have a bath." Mike laughs and says "No, having a baby. That was your idea."  We both laughed. "Having a boy was NOT my idea."

bubble goatee

I know. I never thought about having a boy before HH came along. I always thought I'd be a "girl mom" having a daughter or two of my own, playing with dolls, talking about boys in the teenage years and being mother-of-the-bride someday.  Aside from the boys I dated and cousins I had growing up, I didn't really know much about boys, especially toddler boys. They are beast of their own, yes, the pun is intended.

Boys are messy. I figure at this stage in his life, he'd be messy whether he was a boy or a girl but tonight he pulled a total boy move. Mike had his back turned for 30 seconds, Henry ran into our room, grabbed a handful of potting soil out of the ivy, ran back into the living room and tossed it on the carpet. Thanks, son!   He loves to finger paint with his ketchup and shakes his milk cup just to see it splatter all over the car seat.

Boys are rough. If he's awake, he's moving, fighting gravity. He runs, jumps, stumbles, climbs and jumps again. I'm not sure where he learned it, but thinks moving over next to you and smacking you with his backhand is funny. We of course tell him it's not funny, don't do that, but he laughs like a mad man.  We will keep explaining that it hurts and that it's not nice, maybe he will understand before someone else does it to him. (Not us, we'd never do that, but someone his size might.) He fights us tooth and nail when we leave the marina. It's an almost weekly occurrence, you'd think he'd get over it by now, but nope, every week is a battle. He doesn't want to leave the boat, he doesn't want to take his life jacket off and you can absolutely forget about putting him in the car seat.  Makes me tired just thinking about it. Ha!  He is definitely passionate about his causes, that's for sure.

Boys are loud and crude. He's 2 and already laughs when he farts. He always laughs and says "Do it again?!" You can't help but laugh which only encourages him.

To be fair, boys aren't all bad. Sometimes, boys are sweet. There's so many random moments, he will snuggle up next to me and say "I wuv ya Mom!"  Melts my heart every single time. He's funny like that, goes from sweet to maniac back to sweet again. I guess it's all about balance.

Boys are funny. He is absolutely amusing to watch. You can see the wheels turning in his head, plotting his next move. The way he sees his surroundings is so much different than the way a girl would look at it. Everything around him is a challenge, whereas girls are much more complacent with their surroundings.  He's constantly trying to take things apart or move stuff around so that he can climb in it or under it or on top of it to jump off it. The words "Watch this, Mom!" are frightening but still amusing, most of the time.

So, yes, motherhood to a boy has been very different than the motherhood that I imagined before he was born. I remember laying in the operating room right after he was born, thinking about everything "boy" from going to baseball games to dancing with him at his wedding someday.  I worried those first few days about caring for a boy. It had been years since I changed a little boy diaper and I didn't always enjoy babysitting little boys when I was a teenager because they were gross and I always worried about them breaking something while their parents were gone.  Talk about stepping out of my comfort zone.  I prayed that God would show me the way, not only how to be a good mom, but a good mom to my son. After all, they say that boys marry women like their mothers so I've got to be the best for him. Two days later, as I was getting myself ready, I could see Henry in the mirror behind me and I thought to myself "Maybe this boy thing won't be so bad. At least I won't have to spend hours a day on his hair."  See, things were looking up. :)

leaving the hospital with my SON

In hindsight, I'm not really sure what I was so anxious about. Boys might be a little much sometimes, but it's not all bad.  He's rowdy and instills fear in my heart when he climbs on the furniture, but you know I wouldn't trade him for all the money or peace in the world.  He's still extremely charming, hilarious and a joy to be around. Maybe I was meant to be a "boy mom" after all.