Becoming A Woman

Did you ever see that movie, "What Women Want?" Upon discovering that he can actually hear what women are thinking, Mel Gibson's character observes that "they worry all the time about everything."

We can even see this womanly behavior in The Fred. She's 3 years old now. She's always loved girlie clothes, and shoes in particular. When we went to visit last weekend, we took a cute, very feminine, pair of flip flops to her. She put them on, and we went outside for a while to enjoy the gorgeous weather.

Recently, Pappy had dug a trench in the yard in preparation for his new sprinkler system. (Why do we always have trenches in our yards? One day, Little Man will dig a trench in his yard, too, I imagine. Perhaps we will have 3 generations of trenches going simultaneously.)

Anyway, The Fred kept jumping over the trench and then squealing loudly. It took me a couple of minutes to realize that she wanted to jump in the dirt, but didn't want to get her new shoes dirty. She would jump, howl, sit down, and try to brush the soil off the pink flip flops. Then she'd jump again.

"Want to jump in the dirt—don't want to get dirty. Want to jump in the dirt . . . " Ah, this is the conflict that is femininity—how to have fun without making a mess. Or, as DH puts it, "Women agonize about everything."

Meanwhile, little boys just jump in the dirt.