The difference between boys and girls

As most of you know, we finally got some girls last Friday! They are kids #12 and 13 and all the rest have been boys. We actually got a call about them on Thursday afternoon, but they didn't come until Friday, so I got to have a day of eager anticipation. I've decided that, for the sake of my own journaling, it's ok to mention first names on here, but I won't do pictures or anything. Their names are Alex, who is 8 years old, and Elizabeth, who is 6, but will be 7 on Friday. That part excited me, too . . getting to throw another birthday party. We did one in February for Cody, but we haven't since. Any excuse to throw a party is enough for me! Anyway, they have only been here about 5 days, but already, I can tell you several differences we've noticed between having boys and having girls. Besides the obvious (ha, ha), here are a few:

1. The ability to sit still and be quiet: These two will sit at the table and cut, glue, draw, write, play with play-doh, play with polly pockets, or just read for up to 2 hours with hardly a peep out of them! So nice! None of the boys we've had will do that.

2. The speed with which they get ready in the morning: With the boys, it's literally five minutes. Shirt, jeans, shoes, brush teeth, done. Girls: Choose an outfit, have it rejected by Laura (which I have only actually done once, this morning, when Liz's skirt was too short for school. Other than that, I've let them wear the most eclectic, mismatched outfits they can come up with, to give them some independence), put clothes on more slowly, do hair, brush teeth, SLOWLY eat breakfast, find backpack, put on shoes. I'm exaggerating a little, and it hasn't really been that bad, but I will say that I have noted quite a difference.

3. Bathing: Washing LONG girls' hair, then drying it and braiding it before bedtime is hard work!

4. Drama: Yes, there is definitely more drama with girls. Boys do more "naughty" things sometimes, but they are more obvious about it. These two have cried a few times over pretty little things, and they are way better at manipulating situations, because, yet another difference:

5. Girls are smarter! Yes, I have witnessed it to be true. These two FAR exceed the academic capabilities of ANY of the boys we've had, even ones who are older than them. They do their homework as if it were nothing.

6. Less desire/ability? to play outside forever: The boys we've had have been out in the could-e-sac for hours. Darius was amused by close to NOTHING in the fall, as we hadn't bought any bikes or scooters or anything for him yet. Cody and Justin skated or scooted all afternoon, even in the winter. Taylor and Brandon, too . . . they were outside until bedtime. These two will play out there, but for shorter periods of time, for sure.

A final, funny story: They were both in the garage yesterday afternoon playing and I was getting Clara up from nap. I heard an ear-piercing scream coming from the garage, and ran to see what was the matter, expecting that someone either got hurt or got stung by a bee. I get out there to see Liz, straddling the tricycle that she rides, screaming that a spider was on her leg. Freaking out. I walk over there, calmly, expecting to see a huge tarantula, because we do have a few of those around the garage, and I can't even see anything. She had to point out, several times, a teeny-tiny little spider, crawling on her shoe. Like, smaller than my pinkie nail. I brushed him off, and we ran him over with the tricycle. I went back inside and left her still crying about it for about 5 minutes, at which point, I went back and told her to come inside so that the neighbors wouldn't think she was hurt or something. She came in and stopped crying, and sat at the table with a whiteboard and marker, proceeding to write a little note to "the spider".

Dear spider,
I was afraid of you.

That's all I saw of it, as I glanced at it while walking by. I laughed out loud and told her she made my day.

:)