Tomato

Do you have a boy? There is something about boys. I don't even think it is fair to say that a boy is simply the opposite gender as a girl. Girl evokes sweet and tender, maybe a bit whiny or emotional, but generally stable. Boy... well, boy is more than dirt and cars; it is not only smells and wrestling and baseball; boy is tomato.

"What do you mean," you ask? This morning my daughter, Bethany was helping my three-year old son, Caleb get breakfast. He didn't want to be sitting where she put him so after telling her this he says, rather gruffly and in his I'm a man voice, "Tomato."

Tomato. That was all. Just that one word. Slippery little fellow. How do you discipline for saying the name of a vegetable? I am delighted he even knows one! This is what I mean by boy. A girl would never think to call a sibling an apple. It would never cross her mind to use rutabaga as a thinly veiled substitute for meanie. Not so with a boy.

So Bethany comes to me and complains that her brother is calling her names again. "What names", I ask. "Tomato", she replies. I barely held in my laughter. Point #2 about these boys - they have comedic timing from birth. A few days ago Caleb was getting into something he shouldn't be and I called to him in the backyard. "Caleb, stop that or you will need to come inside." He doesn't stop. "Caleb! Stop that right now." He stops and then runs into the house and gives me, what has been coined in my home, the Bill Hyler smile. Who is Bill Hyler? My 86-year old grandfather. They share a caught me with my hand in the cookie jar I will just amuse you with my smile so you can't really get mad at me look. My husband has it too and he isn't even related by blood! It is still the same thing. Because they are all boys. Doesn't matter how old they are because boyness transcends age and goes way further than even the Masons. It is the reason all men can snicker at the smell of their own fart.

Boy. Tomato. I am allergic to one but still eat it because I love the taste. Maybe that can be applied to other as well...