Boys vs Girls

Well, isn't that the age old question?

I recently read an article on which gender is harder to raise, boys or girls. This article talked about many different aspects of raising your children, from communication, to discipline, to safety. It talked about how, statistically boys were more difficult in this certain area, and girls in that, and blah, blah, blah.

You get the idea.

Articles like this irritate me immensely. Why I read them, I'll never understand. I have never thought it fair to classify children whether or not they are hard to raise. First of all, isn't child rearing supposed to be hard? I really don't ever remembering dropping off a baby girl on my doorstep and telling me she'd be all sweetness and sunshine all the time. No one ever said that when you have a child, things are going to get easier. That is part of the sacrifice that we, as parents, are willing to make. But to actually label a child as harder to raise than another, seems too harsh to me.

Every one's idea of what is hard is different. For some, the world of fairytale and make believe that I live in must seem easy. Two little girls, all sweetness and sunshine, long brown hair and chocolate eyes. Dressed in pretty dresses and matching bows. Perfect. Lovely. Easy. However, we have been through more major injuries than most little boys I know. We make mud puddles on "rock mountain" in our backyard. Both boy dominated worlds, or so you will read. And the communication? Well, lets just say that whoever says a little girl is easier to communicate and reason with hasn't had the experience of talking to one since, little girls are midget adolescent girls waiting to be unleashed.

And my view of boys is probably a bit tainted too. They don't all love their mama's best or play ball well with the other boys. Boys are not any easier than girls, that much I know is true. But as a whole, do I think one sex is harder than the other? Nope. Not one bit. Because to say that gives many new parents a negative view and attitude on the challenge of raising their children. "The expert says my son will be hard to discipline, so I can't do this or that because that is just hard for him." "My daughter will hard to talk to when she is older, so I should just expect that."

Each child comes with his or her own set of inborn challenges that we, as parents, have to learn how to handle. And while one child may present more challenges than another, we have to turn our entire heart and mind into being up for the challenge. The prize is raising happy, successful, competent adults, and knowing that we shaped that adult into who they are. The hoops we have to jump through along the way are part of the process. Sometimes we miss and knock a hoop down. Sometime we fall though one. We hop up, dust ourselves off and keep on jumping.

So, should it be Boys vs Girls? No. As a mother of girls, I will do my very best to make sure my daughters are happy, confident, and successful. I will show them how to be assertive, how to make their own way in the world and how prepare themselves to be good wives and mothers someday. And I would hope that the mommies of boys would do the same. Because in the end, boys and girls work and live side by side. And as adults, we must deal with both boys and girls, men and women. And as we all know as well, it is the quality of character in the individual person that makes them easy or difficult to work with or be with.

Not that they are a boy or a girl.

A Bit of This and That

I don't suppose you all could take me to Disney World? See, I went and found this book all by myself to read about it.

Let me just get situated...

I gotta read about the mouse.

September is here, and we are busy as usual. Kailey is 15 months today. (sigh) She went for her checkup today, and has gained a whopping ounce. You know, the difference in how much air blew on the scale this time. Her height and head are exactly the same as before. She has ground to a screeching halt with her growth. I'm not too worried about it though. Ellie currently is exactly 15 pounds heavier than Kailey is. You know, Ellie could still be in a rear facing car seat, if not for the fact that she would look weird when we pulled up to school :) My girls are tiny and tall. I have no idea where they got that trait. It most certainly was not their mother.
Kailey is walking all over and talking up a storm. She has learned to climb well, and climbed up the drawers on the counter the other day. She climbs up shelves in the closet. She navigates the stairs very well on her own. She is jabbering a lot. She says a few things like mama, dada, Ellie (ey-e), dog, and of course our favorites-princess (sis-sis) and mickey (ke-ke) The girl loves her mickey and her elmo.
We have started on our mini fence. It is our way of having a place for the dogs so that we can travel. They can just come in and out as they please. Except that we forgot the fact that we live on a solid slab of rock. So putting in 8 fence post ended up taking 2 days and involved jackhammering and pulling rocks out with our bare hands. It will be worth it when we are not spending hundreds to board the dogs, or worse, having to stay home.
And of course, we are working on our basement. Slowly but surely, all these projects are getting accomplished. By Christmas, we will hopefully have a great basement space to play and relax in. And then, I'm sure we'll find something else to occupy our time...

Tutu Cute

14 months

Loving my cute new pink tutu!

I am so happy!

And so super cute!!