Fairy Princesses and Pollywogs
We live next door to three fairy princesses, dancing sprites, thin-bodied frolicking goddesses; we live next door to three girls. When we take walks or spend time in our yard, they are usually out. They blow bubbles, twirl in the grass, roll down their hill, and do cartwheels, their long hair flowing behind them no matter what the activity, but especially as they ride their bikes up and down the street. To get from place to place they almost always skip or gallop . . . or cartwheel, and since they are typically wearing their gymnastics outfits and they do it so freely, it seems perfectly natural. I see them through my kitchen window, sneaking around behind our house and giggling as I do the dishes. They are dressed in costumes of long dresses and flower wreathes in their hair. I remember that.
Girls.
I think Sam is in love with one of them, the youngest of the three, around five years old. He talks of her often. Asks what I think she might be doing, wants to play in her driveway even if she is not out, and he had his dad draw a picture of her on her bike for him the other day. When she left her bicycle laying out on the road on its side, he tried to go and pick it up for her. I’m not sure if that is better evidence of his love for her, or his love for things with wheels.
I wonder how I’ll describe my boys when they are roughly this age. I wonder what they’ll be doing each day as they play outside. There will probably be no flowing hair, no twirly skirts, very few princess crowns of flowers. I doubt they will use the cartwheel as a regular mode of travel.
Dense bodied and strong, they’ll run and jump from place to place. Dirt smeared on their cheeks with paths of clean skin washed away by drips of sweat. It will be loud, probably, because dirt hauling is a fairly loud activity, and dinosaurs do need to roar. Bashing will be involved, most likely, and the clothes they wear will act as an obstacle to their physical work of play, the elaborate setting up of vehicles and forts, the catching of various creatures, the chasing of each other and perhaps, one day, a dog. I can see them patting each other on the back and coming inside after a hard day of sweat, grime, and building. They’ll walk in and kick off their muddy shoes as I nag them to wash their hands, because they’ll probably be pretty hungry, and then, maybe I’ll get a hug, one of those great hugs that only a boy can give to his mom, before hearing about what they’ve been up to that day.
Boys.
Labels: Brothers, House, The Big One
I just discovered your blog and just love love reading it!!
Comment by Mommy Meryl — June 12, 2008 @ 12:28 pm
Huh… and then there are the Chaos Girls, a heady mix of the two genres. And my house is always filthy with smeary mud and watercolor handprints on the walls, and discarded hair ribbons and sparkles shoved into toy dump trucks on the floor. Gotta catch me a BREAK!
Comment by bon — June 13, 2008 @ 12:14 am
You pretty much tagged the two boys in my house. And Corinne is one to run around, wearing a princess dress and crown, while shooting her brothers and laughing like a maniac…
Comment by tracey — June 13, 2008 @ 6:57 am
Lovely post.
The only thing missing from your future scenario is how they smell when they get inside. Not bad. Earthy, but sweet.
Comment by gretchen from lifenut — June 13, 2008 @ 7:40 am
Awesome.
I think this is the age before they start thinking the opposite sex is icky. Miss A also seems to have fallen for a boy at daycare. “Vaughn” (said in a dreamy voice) The other day he just happened to show up at the playground we were at and he bid her a friendly “Hi A!” and she just said his name all dreamy and as he went off to play with his boy buddies she stared after him, distracted from her own play. So cute.
Comment by Mama D — June 13, 2008 @ 8:05 am
Boys are fun, too. And while girls do skip around all fairy princessy and pink, they also screech a lot and complain about every. little. thing.
Comment by Rebecca — June 13, 2008 @ 8:11 am
Your neighbor girls sound lovely. Maybe it’s because mine are a little younger, they love to dress up, but there is still a lot of pillow fighting and wrestling that goes on. I think they need to get outside more!
Comment by Dcan — June 13, 2008 @ 10:38 am
I love your description of both the boys and the girls. Lovely. I have 2 girls and 1 boy, so I’ll get the best (and worst) of both worlds:)
Comment by flipflopmamma — June 13, 2008 @ 4:14 pm
I think that this is a beautiful post! Truly eloquent.
I always watch the kids outside running around and playing. They are mostly boys in our neighborhood between the ages of 6 - 9. They are all into fighting off Star War enemies or playing Pokeman or reinacting martial art stunt moves. Kaelen always gets impatient and wonders when “real” kids will come to our house and play hockey with him. Hearing this, always makes me wonder what our house will be like when my kids are old enough to have kids over and the adventures that my house and yard will cater to. I can see at least a broken window or two from a shanked baseball, a puck or two through the garage door and a few screams from my diva because she is not the center of attention amongst my son’s friends.
Comment by Allie — June 13, 2008 @ 11:26 pm