Differences

It is fun to watch the differences in our children. Steve & I especially enjoy watching Joey and Lily-Grace interact. They seem to play more together at this age than the older boys did. I think it is because Lily-Grace has the imagination and um, shall we say, persuasion to get Joey involved in her ideas. And you get the added bonus of watching the differences in male and female, and I don't care what anyone says, they are there! Today I was washing the dishes in the kitchen (our dishwasher is out and I realize how spoiled I am!) and Joey and Lily are playing behind me.

Lily-Grace had gone and put on her pink, sequined flapper dress (the same dress she put on when she wanted to impress Levi's friend who was visiting and stood in front of him and began to shimmy her hips. I am not even kidding. I wish I was.) And Joey had dragged in the big old stuffed horse that Levi got for Christmas when he was about 5 - that horse has been through a lot. Lily stood on a stool at the far end of the kitchen and announced, "You come riding around the corner and see me and say how beautiful I am, and we fall in love."

Then Joey replies, as if he hasn't even heard her, "And I am in a horse race."
"You come riding around the corner and we fall in love!"
"And I am in a horse race."
"You come riding around the corner AND WE FALL IN LOVE!"
"And I am in a hor"
"YOU COME RIDING AROUND THE CORNER AND WE. FALL. IN. LOVE!!"
"And I"
"WE! FALL! IN! LOVE!"
Sigh. "Fine. But then we ride off on my horse."
"Yes! That is a great idea. We can ride off on the horse together after you ask me to marry you."
So they play out the story according to Lily-Grace's wishes, and I must admit it is making my dishwashing much more entertaining to listen to all this. I'm hoping she doesn't think this will work in real life. In fact, when Joey failed to propose to her like she had instructed, she took matters into her own hands and asked him to marry her. And then they hopped on the horse together and began to ride into the sunset. At which point Joey said in that cute singsong voice kids use when they are pretending, "And let's say that you fell off the horse here and died."
"NO! Nobody dies in this story!"
"Aww, man! This is a boring story!" And so the conflict continues about the age old question - chick flick or action adventure? It starts early. When these two are involved it usually goes the way of chick flick. But, I must say, that Joey does have his limits. Earlier in this play session before the whole horse and falling in love thing was happening, Lily-Grace was being a cheerleader - a very loud cheerleader, and she tried to convince Joey that it was his turn to be a cheerleader. And Joey emphatically told her that boys weren't cheerleaders. And so Lily-Grace turns to me, the dispenser of all knowledge and wisdom (at least for a few more years) and asks me if boys can be cheerleaders. I told her that they can, and she looks at Joey with that triumphant look and says, "See? I told you so! Now, be the cheerleader!"
And Joey calmly replied, "Well, maybe some boys can be cheerleaders. But Not. Joey."
And that was that.