Being one of three girls, I never knew the thrills growing up with a brother. I will even go the length to say, that when it comes to raising Nate, I feel so very inadequate, because I just never knew so much energy could be captured and stored in one little body! He knows how to absolutely drive me insane one moment, yet the very next, make my heart melt with how supremely loving he can be. I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND! I’ve also noticed a trend of destruction when it comes to the male nature. Things in my house that made it through three years with Bella, can’t make it 5 seconds with Nate. This picture for instance, well…let’s just say, my son can make even a wise man lose his head! LOL 
It has come to my understanding as of recent that the insanity of it all never quite goes away throughout a boy’s life, it just expresses itself through different avenues! Urgent moments that happen in a boys life are not life or death moments, they are just stories thrown into a library and used as a “rite of passage” into MANHOOD! Let me explain it better from a recent blog I read. A young boy plays with a knife his dad gave him, because his dad says it’s dull and won’t hurt a fly. He ends up hurting himself bad enough that his panicked mother takes him to the ER and he has to have stitches. The mom calls the dad and grandfather to give them the FYI and instead of them panicking along with her, they laugh, exchange stories of the first time they cut themselves with a pocket knife, and declare to the young boy that NOW HE’S A MAN! All because he has a war story (of sorts) to tell now! Does this sound absurd to anyone else?? Would a young girl ever do such? I did some pretty stupid things as a child, but my stupidity and inability to listen to the instruction of my parents never made me a WOMAN! It made me a little girl who got hurt in some way due to failure to listen! HMM? Why does this notion make me a little frantic when I think of how many more years Nate is supposed to have on this earth?
Nonetheless, my purpose for this post was not to rant and rave about the psychological differences between male and female. THEY ARE TOO VAST!!! My purpose was actually to tell a small piece of my weekend. Saturday night, Wesley was out in the cold selling Christmas trees while I had the joys of being stuck in the house with eight children. (PS- the 1:8 ratio is not recommended) Some of my girls did actually get to go to the Clemson game and the others wanted to be outside around the fire at the tree lot drinking hot chocolate. So, some how or another it was just me and the two little ones. Nate and I were enjoying leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner which happened to include grape salad, which Nate LOVES. I usually still cut his grapes for him, but for lack of time, he got them whole that night! Fortunately, I didn’t stray too far while he was eating and was able to catch him as he started panicking from the grape suddenly being lodged in his throat. He couldn’t breath! Though I have been trained for moments like this, I went into Mommy panic mode and instead of beating him on the back first, my finger was in the back of his throat before I could even analyze what was going on. I fished for the grape then turned him facing the floor on my arm. One blow to the back, and out came the grape. As a mommy, I was ready to console him in hopes that it would really calm ME down, but instead Nate wanted nothing to do with me, he wanted down, and he wanted that grape back in his mouth! WHAT? I quickly picked up the grape before he could get to it, only to discover that it was covered in blood. Whoops! I must have dug a little too far in my efforts to retrieve the grape. You will never know the panic I felt even then. Though Nate seemed fine, my heart was still racing and I wondered now if I had hurt him in the process of helping. Nate however, laughed at me when I tried to shine the flashlight down his throat! Now, had that been Bella? Shrills could have probably been heard in the next city had that happened to Bella. BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Why do the big things seem so small to them?
Minutes later, Wesley calmly walks through the doors with a blood drenched hand dripping all along the path he walked. “REALLY?”, I thought. Seems he had pierced his finger with his pocket knife while cutting a zip tie from a tree. I helped him wash away the blood to try and take a closer look, but the problem was, the blood would not stop pouring long enough for me to see the wound. I frantically exclaimed that we would be going to the ER right that instant! HAHA That went over NOT so well! Wesley was determined NOT to go and was also convinced that it wasn’t THAT bad! So… because of his stubbornness, I went on washing the dishes and picking up around the house for the night. Probably an hour after the incident, the bleeding was still steady and I finally convinced him that we needed to go, even though he still thought it was a stupid idea! It took 4 ½ hours to get to a resolve, but Wesley now has a new “war story” to add to his library. Turns out it was pretty bad! He stabbed himself a good inch right through the tip of his pointer finger, back behind his fingernail. With a digital block for the pain, a tetnus shot, an antibiotic to prevent infection, and an expensive bandage we were finally ready to go home. You’ll never guess what he said when we left the building. “I told you they wouldn’t be able to do anything!”
So, though a bloody night for me, the two guys in my life have new “war stories” that evidentially aren’t that big of a deal! Go figure?! Just another rite of passage, I guess?
It has come to my understanding as of recent that the insanity of it all never quite goes away throughout a boy’s life, it just expresses itself through different avenues! Urgent moments that happen in a boys life are not life or death moments, they are just stories thrown into a library and used as a “rite of passage” into MANHOOD! Let me explain it better from a recent blog I read. A young boy plays with a knife his dad gave him, because his dad says it’s dull and won’t hurt a fly. He ends up hurting himself bad enough that his panicked mother takes him to the ER and he has to have stitches. The mom calls the dad and grandfather to give them the FYI and instead of them panicking along with her, they laugh, exchange stories of the first time they cut themselves with a pocket knife, and declare to the young boy that NOW HE’S A MAN! All because he has a war story (of sorts) to tell now! Does this sound absurd to anyone else?? Would a young girl ever do such? I did some pretty stupid things as a child, but my stupidity and inability to listen to the instruction of my parents never made me a WOMAN! It made me a little girl who got hurt in some way due to failure to listen! HMM? Why does this notion make me a little frantic when I think of how many more years Nate is supposed to have on this earth?
Nonetheless, my purpose for this post was not to rant and rave about the psychological differences between male and female. THEY ARE TOO VAST!!! My purpose was actually to tell a small piece of my weekend. Saturday night, Wesley was out in the cold selling Christmas trees while I had the joys of being stuck in the house with eight children. (PS- the 1:8 ratio is not recommended) Some of my girls did actually get to go to the Clemson game and the others wanted to be outside around the fire at the tree lot drinking hot chocolate. So, some how or another it was just me and the two little ones. Nate and I were enjoying leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner which happened to include grape salad, which Nate LOVES. I usually still cut his grapes for him, but for lack of time, he got them whole that night! Fortunately, I didn’t stray too far while he was eating and was able to catch him as he started panicking from the grape suddenly being lodged in his throat. He couldn’t breath! Though I have been trained for moments like this, I went into Mommy panic mode and instead of beating him on the back first, my finger was in the back of his throat before I could even analyze what was going on. I fished for the grape then turned him facing the floor on my arm. One blow to the back, and out came the grape. As a mommy, I was ready to console him in hopes that it would really calm ME down, but instead Nate wanted nothing to do with me, he wanted down, and he wanted that grape back in his mouth! WHAT? I quickly picked up the grape before he could get to it, only to discover that it was covered in blood. Whoops! I must have dug a little too far in my efforts to retrieve the grape. You will never know the panic I felt even then. Though Nate seemed fine, my heart was still racing and I wondered now if I had hurt him in the process of helping. Nate however, laughed at me when I tried to shine the flashlight down his throat! Now, had that been Bella? Shrills could have probably been heard in the next city had that happened to Bella. BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Why do the big things seem so small to them?
Minutes later, Wesley calmly walks through the doors with a blood drenched hand dripping all along the path he walked. “REALLY?”, I thought. Seems he had pierced his finger with his pocket knife while cutting a zip tie from a tree. I helped him wash away the blood to try and take a closer look, but the problem was, the blood would not stop pouring long enough for me to see the wound. I frantically exclaimed that we would be going to the ER right that instant! HAHA That went over NOT so well! Wesley was determined NOT to go and was also convinced that it wasn’t THAT bad! So… because of his stubbornness, I went on washing the dishes and picking up around the house for the night. Probably an hour after the incident, the bleeding was still steady and I finally convinced him that we needed to go, even though he still thought it was a stupid idea! It took 4 ½ hours to get to a resolve, but Wesley now has a new “war story” to add to his library. Turns out it was pretty bad! He stabbed himself a good inch right through the tip of his pointer finger, back behind his fingernail. With a digital block for the pain, a tetnus shot, an antibiotic to prevent infection, and an expensive bandage we were finally ready to go home. You’ll never guess what he said when we left the building. “I told you they wouldn’t be able to do anything!”
So, though a bloody night for me, the two guys in my life have new “war stories” that evidentially aren’t that big of a deal! Go figure?! Just another rite of passage, I guess?
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