How Boys Play and a Couple Cookies

On By Brooke McGillivrayIn Family

I know how boys play…. it’s almost always messy and rarely quiet.  Living room cushions and blankets become forts.  Their appreciated but sweaty hugs smell of wet grass and mud…. as do their bedrooms….on a good day.  We won’t talk about the other days.

One son could sit in the middle of a room …no toy or book at hand … and amuse himself by simply making sound effects.  Time outs didn’t really work for him.

Legos, GI Joes, Transformers – – – once they’re in your house you can’t get rid of them!  My youngest son is 29 and I still find these things.  The other day Frostbite dropped in on me…. he had been hanging out on a bookshelf.  Now and then I find a stray arm or leg ….an unfortunate Joe who didn’t make it…or maybe it’s Chewbacca?

After taking two oldest sons to see Return of the Jedi, the eight acres surrounding our house became the forest of Endor.  And a huge, fallen tree became the “Ewok Tree”.  Names changed to Skywalker and Solo.  That game lasted for several years.  Little brothers were ready-made Ewoks…but I kind of had to keep my eye on that scenario.

There was also the Masters of the Universe era – – – He-Man temporarily lived at our house.  He shared a room with Skeletor.  Many battles were waged … until I called time out.

Occasionally there was rappelling practice out the attic window… in the middle of the night.

Youth group, FFA, scouting and sports evolved…. baseball, football, wrestling, soccer.  Thank goodness fuel was cheaper then.  I always had a car full of boys going somewhere.

We can’t overlook the emergency room…. broken wrist from running backwards, hyper-extended elbow from football, stitches from riding bike into car, to name only a few.  And my personal favorite……. “Mrs. McGillivray, this is the school.  Andrew was doing a flip in the principal’s office and landed on his head.  We think he should be seen”.  Seen by who??  A psychiatrist maybe?  And why was he doing a flip in the principal’s office?  Why was he even in the principal’s office???  Some things, I think, I don’t want to know.

Being a mom of boys was fun.  Being a grandma of boys is even more fun.  Because now I can go to the soccer game, enjoy the game, get in my car when it’s over and go home or shopping or to coffee A-L-O-N-E …. instead of toting half the team to pizza (although that has it’s fun side too).  And when I give the “gift of Legos”, they mercifully go home with parent and child.  Yes, these are the perks of grandparenting….we get to have all the fun and mostly none of the work.

I kept telling myself I was meant to have only sons and grandsons.  I wouldn’t know what to do with a girl anyway.  I mean, I used to be one, but that was a long time ago.  Things are the way they are.  Period.  There would be no patent leather shoes, nor ruffled dresses, nor dolls in my life.  No little girls.  OK.

Then last year my daughters-in-law did the most unusual thing.  They each gave birth to a daughter.  Unheard of!  Four sons, four grandsons…and now two girls??

I went right out and bought them each a Polly Pocket doll.  Of course, I have to keep them in my grandchild box for a couple more years… you know, tiny little parts.

And then this arrived last weekend………..

I ordered this cookie decorating kit from American Girl.  Tiny little cookie dresses.  Tiny little cookie flip-flops.

Someday I am going to make, bake, decorate and eat pretty little cookie dresses with these two pretty little girls ……….

I CAN HARDLY WAIT!!

13 thoughts on “How Boys Play and a Couple Cookies”

  1. I grew up with two brothers and did better with “guy friends” than girl friends, so I wanted to have all boys. I am so grateful for our girls, though. They, in their special ways, taught me how to appreciate being a girl/woman. In a household that did end up with the scale tipped heavily to the masculine side, we gals have been able to show a feminine strength that helps to balance out the male energy. Enjoy your granddaughters!

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  3. As an only child, I grew up being a substitute for the son my father never got. At one time he even gave me a boy’s nickname (“Buck”) and on Saturdays he would occasionally let me accompany him to work, where I carried bricks and learned to mix mortar (he was a bricklayer). I never felt unwanted, but I was happy to provide him with his first grandSON and they were always close buddies. He was followed by three girls, but in the next generation my grandchildren are pretty equally balanced out. Each sex — indeed, each child — has its delightful and unique characteristics and I wouldn’t have wanted to switch any of our children or grandchildren. Each one has been a huge blessing. God provided exactly the right one, each at the right time!

    Enjoy those little ones. They’re beautiful! 🙂

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    1. I think that is so cool to learn bricklaying and have done “boy” things! I always wanted to learn how to change the oil in the car, but I grew up with one sister, so we did “girl” things with mom:) Thanks much, Carol – – I am having fun with these little ones.

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  6. Courtney

    growing up with 5 brothers, i was such a tom boy. I would love for Alivia to be a little of both…..the girly, flowery princess AND the girl that can play with the boys & not afraid to get a little dirty! I’ve got the mud covered but perhaps i can be invited to a few of these play dates with grandma & you can teach me how to be a girl too 🙂

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    1. Oh Courtney, you are absolutely invited to any play dates we have!! 🙂 Actually, I was a combination of tom boy and girly girl growing up. We’d play dolls and “school”, then terrorize the neightborhood on bikes, kickball and baseball. I also baked alot of mud pies, wore alot of mud too!! We’ll all have fun 🙂

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