MAKING PRINCE CHARMING WALK THE PLANK

I have written often about the distinct differences in my kids. Maggie is the girly girl, and Aleita is the son we never had. Maggie loves Barbies, long hair, pink and purple, and stories of princesses. Aleita loves Power Rangers, motorcycles, red and black, and stories of dinosaurs and a curious little monkey named George who is always getting into mischief.

To further illustrate this point, the kids were playing together yesterday morning before church. Maggie “locked” Aleita in the tower (her bedroom) and told her that the only way she could escape was to have the prince come to get her and give her the secret password. Maggie said she would go and make sure that the dragon wasn’t coming. Aleita patiently waited in “the tower” for about all of twenty seconds after Maggie went downstairs to look for the dragon. When Maggie came back upstairs and saw Aleita out of her room, she said, “How did you get out of the tower? Did the Prince give you the password?”Without missing a beat, Aleita responded, “No. A pirate came by and knocked down the door to the tower with his sword and then the prince runned away.”

I’ll bet Sleeping Beauty wouldn’t have known what to think if Blackbeard had shown up instead of Prince Charming.

Hangin' with the Boys

When Aleita started attending the daycare center that she is at about three months ago, she came home talking about her new best friends - - she constantly brought up Polly and Adrian. Turns out she was talking about Paul(y) and Hadrian – both boys. When Aleita names the kids she likes the best in her class, they are actually all boys.

When we go to pick Aleita up at daycare after work, it is common to walk in to find two groups of kids playing: the girls are generally playing dolls and dressup on the right side of the room, while the boys are usually found playing with cars, blocks, and action figures on the left side of the room. There is an exception - - nine times out of ten, Aleita can be found playing with the boys. Anyone who knows Aleita knows that she is something of a bruiser. By and large, she prefers rough and tumble play to quiet, subdued anything.

The boys seem to have no qualms about having a girl in their midst. If they did, I have no doubts that Aleita would quickly set them straight. She can definitely hold her own with them.

This Christmas, Aleita asked Santa Claus for Power Rangers, Spiderman, and a motorcycle. Santa, being the obliging sort, indeed got her all of those things (Spiderman actually rides the motorcycle – we considered one of those battery-powered deals for about five seconds, but we had visions of her taking off unannounced and making her way down the street to see our friends, Barb and Greg, or making an attempt to head through the country to her Grandma and Papa’s house.)

A few weeks ago, Aleita and I went to McDonald’s for lunch. As she watched the girl put together her Happy Meal, she piped up about the time the toy got dropped in. “I don’t want a doll!” she yelled. “I want the boy toy!”

This morning, after I had gotten the kids ready for school and was getting ready myself, Maggie asked Aleita if she wanted to play in her room with her (a rare request these days.) Aleita, who had been playing with her Spiderman, carried him into Maggie’s room with her. Maggie said to her, “let’s play Barbies,” to which Aleita said, “ok.” About two minutes later, Aleita was shrieking and being pushed out of Maggie’s room.

I asked what was going on, and Maggie complained, “everytime I set one of my Barbies down, she runs over it with her motorcycle!” to which Aleita responded, “well that’s how I play Barbies!”