What a Boy Can and Can't Do

Last week, the boys sat on the counter while I washed strawberries and cut the greens off so we could have them on French toast and for snackiness. After cleaning and cutting the tops, I would hand a strawberry to one of them, who would load it in the egg slicer, push the top down and then put the evenly sliced strawberries into a bowl.

I was feeling brilliant about the new use of the egg slicer, and they were loving every minute of it. In fact, all twenty minutes or so. Granted, it would have only taken me ten to do it all myself, but we were working together, they were sampling berries and feeling brilliant to be big boys helping mom.

So - a boy can slice strawberries.

Sunday morning, David had the job of putting a bunch of shrimp on skewers for a family dinner after church. Calvin had been asking and asking to help, so David set up shop at the table, I think maybe believing (hoping?) that Cal would give up after a skewer or two. Nope. Twenty minutes later, Cal was still plugging away at the last of them, working right alongside his Dad, chatting away.

So - a boy can make shrimp kabobs.

A couple nights ago, Calvin kept putting a Wiggles radio toy up to my mouth and telling me to open up. Which I would not. That toy has been everywhere. And why should I open my mouth for a mere musical rendition of "Fruit Salad! Yummy! Yummy!"?

Then later that night as we were getting ready for bed, Calvin demanded that I open my mouth and would not take his little hands off my cheeks until I did. Finally, I said I didn't want to open my mouth and why did he want me to? To which he replied, "I need to tell the baby good-night and I love him!"

So - a boy can talk to his little brother in utero - and expose him to the musical stylings of the Wiggles - through his mother's mouth.

This morning, Cal went up to his room, picked out a complete matching outfit (albeit long-sleeved, long-panted for an 82 degree day, but matching!!), put it on, then went into the front hall to put on his shoes, where he started telling Henry that he was getting dressed so that he could go play in the front yard (a new privilege).

Henry started saying he wanted to play in the front, too, and Calvin was countering with all kinds of arguments about being four, and staying where Mom can see him, and not running away when Mom called, and not getting into the parking lot, and that Henry just could not come out with him right now because he didn't know how to do all that yet and he was only two and a half, not four. Henry persistently told him that he could and that he would and that he really wanted to come play with him.

Finally, Cal came into to me, reported that he was dressed and wanted to play out in the front yard and then added in his most imperial voice, "And will you please tell Henry that he cannot play in the front yard? I just can not watch a little boy and play at the same time."

So, a boy can get himself completely dressed, but there would appear to be some limits to his multi-tasking ability, after all.