The Difference Between Girls and Boys

Here's the skinny on us this week...

The Carsons are getting settled slowly but surely.  We are enjoying the summer sun and readjusting to Stateside living.  I still require at least two hours in the grocery store, but I am beginning to feel slightly less bewildered each time I go inside.  I do find that I miss the fabulous array of cheap, quality dairy products that are available in British supermarkets.  American cheese and yogurts are especially poor in comparison.  I paid about $7 for a small chunk of Irish Kerry Gold cheddar last week, but (yum) it was worth it.  I also miss that giant aisle in Tesco that was full of nothing but tea and coffee, but I will cope.  Don't you worry.  I'm still enjoying my washer and dryer and some dark chocolate Reece's cups...where have THOSE been all my life?

Sophie and Emma have been enjoying their Kung Fu Panda camp at the Community Center this week.  Sophie has been befriended by a big girl (age 12) named Sydney who thinks Sophie's "accent is so awesome."  Emma has been ever so serious about learning all of her lines and getting into the dramatics of it all.  Kung Fu Panda camp = Drama + Martial Arts (in case it wasn't clear).  Tomorrow is performance day, and I am excited to see if they will be as confident and animated on stage as they have been at home all week.

Lilianna Gwyneth is the cherry on top.  George and I often remark that we wish we could just freeze her here at this age for a little while.  Wouldn't that be nice?  She is beginning to show us signs of true affection.  She reaches for me and gives hilarious baby kisses, which are open-mouthed, vocal and fantastic.  She can easily be turned into a little box of giggles, but seems to end up with an annoying case of the hiccups everytime she laughs.  She now has four delightful little teeth (two up, two down, Mom).  Those teeth are finally popping through like crazy.  It seems like everytime I look in her mouth, there is a new tooth (and thankfully NO poisonous wild mushrooms).

Today I was able to do some friends a favor by looking after their two children, who happen to be little boys.  Did you know that boys and girls are completely different animals?  You would think that years of working in elementary schools would have taught me that, but apparently I had forgotten.  I have been up to my eyeballs in little girls for the past eight years, so I needed a refresher course in boys.  Today I got one.

I wondered, when their mom dropped them off, why they each had a backpack with a spare set of clothes.  Two giant mud puddles and an afternoon run through the sprinklers answered that question.  The noise level at my house also seemed to increase by about 100%.  (I honestly, didn't think that was possible.)  'Boy Noise' is different than 'Girl Noise'.  My girls often scream or squeal at each other.  They sing operatically and make other vociferous girly sound effects.  Boys stomp and throw and bang and shout like barbarians on a mission.  It's what they do.  To me the funniest illustration of boy vs. girl differences happened today when my girls were at camp and I had the two boys (and Lili) to myself.  The three year old asked, "Meredith, will you play a game with us while the girls are at camp?"  Sure I would!  Did they want to play Crazy 8's or Candy Land?  Nope.  They wanted to play "a game with guns and sword fighting."  I decided that this was not the best game for me to play with a baby on my hip and finally talked them into taking out the Play-Doh instead.  Wow.

I enjoyed my day with boys today, but I think God knew what He was doing when he gave me a house full of girls and George.  I think I'm better at tea parties and Barbies than I am at dump trucks and hand to hand combat.