It's a girl thing

We have all heard the opinions about nature vs. nurture when it comes to raising children, and at one point I felt like my life was a test case for gender stereotypes.  When Isabel was about 18 months old she tired of "mommying" the boys stuffed animals, she found the one doll in the house (one from my childhood) and began carrying it around.  I realized that even though she was surrounded by trains and trucks and balls, this little girl needed some different toys.  We didn't have "girl" toys, but once we got a few dolls, a stroller and a kitchen, she was ecstatic.
Now our lives are filled with princesses and pink.  Isabel refuses to wear pants and prefers to go out in either her pink rain boots or her red patent Mary Jane's (which she calls her "tapping shoes") at all times.  By nap time most days she changes into a leotard and tutu and she insists that she doesn't like any boys (which Andy is thrilled about!).  She will happily play by herself with her dollhouse, feeding and bathing her babies and doggies. 
I didn't realize how extreme her "girlie" persuasion was until our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt.  Here are the Easter eggs that Izzy collected:

The only eggs in the bunch that are not pink are the ones with Dora on them.  I can guarantee that I do encourage colors other than pink in her life, even though I am more than happy to dress her in skirts and dresses.  I can also guarantee that she probably knocked over a few other little girls going for the Dora eggs, after all she has two big brothers. 

When the Easter Bunny came, Izzy did it again.

This time I know that her brothers were leaving the pink eggs for her or even finding pink eggs and giving them to her.  I'm not sure how long the pink and girlie phase of her life will last.  I don't have answers on the nature versus nurture, but I do know that my little girl has some very specific preferences about her toys and her clothes and she is not following in her brother's footsteps at all.

Happy Birthday Alex!

Happy Birthday Alex!!  I cannot believe my little man is six.  Ever since he was a toddler, Alex's life was just one big party and that hasn't changed a bit.  Whether's he's rockin' out to Pearl Jam (or Kid Rock or Creed or his latest favorite "Second Chance" by Shinedown) or playing soccer or having a Nerf gun war in the back yard, Alex is all about having fun. 

Right of Passage

Devin took a spill while flying down a hill on his scooter.  I had my back to him when I heard the screaming and crying, and I expected blood; lots and lots of blood.  But alas, there was a little road rash on his leg, but otherwise no blood.  But there was lots of arm pain.  We put some ice on it and he certainly cried more than his usual injury, but it wasn't until his teeth started chattering that I decided an ER visit was in order.  At triage the doctor started talking about a broken wrist.  Then the x-ray, and you didn't need to be a radiologist to confirm it.  The verdict: hairline fracture of the ulna and fracture with angulation of the radius (think of when you try to break a stick and it half breaks and bends - that was his bone). Which meant that we needed to go to an orthopedic doctor to get the bone set (straightened) and casted. 

I think it's a right of passage for little boys to break a bone, especially little boys who love to play sports.  Now if I could keep him off the top of the monkey bars...

Cooper

Last weekend was the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston.  For those of you not in the know, Cooper is a very popular (40,000 people) 10k run over the very cool suspension bridge (the Ravenel Bridge) that links Mount Pleasant to Charleston .  For me, the Cooper weekend is a girls weekend away with my friends.  It is a time of bonding, drinking, shopping, oh and there is a race too. 
The Monday before Cooper I tweaked my back.  I'm not sure how this happened, but I think it had something to do with the double digit mile run I did on Sunday, plus my lack of stretching.  My body just doesn't bounce back like it used to (or I didn't challenge it as much when I was younger...).  So Monday afternoon I am walking like a geriatric person when I finally call a chiropractor.  I made three trips to the chiro and completely stopped working out, picking up Isabel, bending down for things (as much as I could) and iced my back three of four times per day, all in an effort to salvage my girls weekend. 
And it worked!  I ran the race without walking.  Granted, I ran it three and a half minutes slower than last year, but I ran it!  Plus I was able to fully partake in the other weekend activities and festivities... but we won't mention those here...

Boys will be Boys

The other night when I went in to kiss Alex goodnight he said to me, "I counted to 101 by skipping the fives."  I asked him how he did that and he said, "I went 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9,11,12,13,14,16,17,18,19,21..." Pretty impressive for a Kindergartner, I thought.
Later as I was putting Devin to bed he told me he had a new trick, and said, "Mom, pull my finger."

Aaaw, my babies are growing up.