On Tuesday, Dianne and I took the boys to see Toy Story 3. The boys were wonderful. Last time they went to a movie, they didn't make it through the whole movie, so I was a little worried about how they would do. To our surprise, they sat through the whole movie and loved every second of it! When we were leaving, Jackson said "Since we were good boys, we will have to come see a movie EVERY DAY!"
Toy Story 3 was a cute little movie and for some reason it made me want to be a more adventurous mom of boys. Something about seeing the little boy in the movie playing with things such as action figures and army men, just kind of got me thinking.
Before having kids, I didn't fully believe or know the extent of how much boys were different than girls. I think I used to believe the only difference between boys and girls were wild vs. calm. However, as the boys are getting older, I am realizing that boys truly are so different than girls. Their whole way of thinking is completely different. There have been moments when one of the boys will do or say something and I will just look at Aaron and say "Boys are so weird!" No, I don't think my children are WEIRD, I think they are the best things on earth, but some of their actions and the fact that they are only 2 and 3 years old, shows me that boys are naturally programmed to be different than girls. I wish I could give you 1,000 examples, but I can't. But, those of you who have raised boys know exactly what I am talking about!
I want to support their weirdness uniqueness that comes with being a BOY.
I want to be okay with action figures.
I want to be okay with the fact that they really only care about 30% of the toys in their toy baskets. They would rather use the actual baskets to build something.
I want to be okay with them pretending to be a certain animal all day long.....even loud ones. {I didn't say I would ENJOY it and I may often mention how much fun it would be to act like the animal has a sore throat and has to whisper} If he wants to be a tiger, I will ask to wash his paw at bath time.
I want to be okay with the fact that their #1 use of their picnic table is to jump off of. A pretend "mountain" is much more fun than a simple picnic table you sit and eat at. {.....Didn't say I agree, I just support.}
Instead of seeing a box as trash, I want to be okay with it being a cool race car or spaceship even if it still looks like trash to me. Boys don't always want to take the time to mess with construction paper and glue to actually make the box look like something else. They can simply pretend like it is something else. Just a plain ole' ugly box!
I want to understand that it really does mean a lot to them to see a spider before I kill it.
And if they want to be superheroes and RUN down the hall pretending like the only way to slow down is by the other one pushing a button {a button that doesn't really exists}, so be it. Just don't step on the dog or my feet.
{Jackson fixing Garrett's cape}
Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.
-- Marc Brown
You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes. -- Author Unknown