I love being a boy mom

Colin, Chris, Everett, Carter and Finn in what's left of the fort

Now I don't know a thing about raising girls, but I have noticed something about boys.... or maybe just my boys.

They like tasks.

Jobs.

Projects.

Today it was cold but sunny and when the wind stopped blowing, you could almost sense that spring was on the horizon. Oh I hope so!!! We even heard and saw a few birds which almost made me cry for joy because I'm SO ready for spring! (have I mentioned that yet??)

Chris and I took the boys outside and they immediately chose shovels to "play with" and started digging. This is a common theme in our outdoor play. They dig dirt. They dig snow. They move dirt and snow in the wheelbarrow to various places in the yard. Always on the move, these boys. Digging, moving, digging, moving.

Colin of course has his digger which is even cooler than a shovel and so today he spent a lot of time on that. He'd fill a wheelbarrow and then run it across the yard yelling, "Dirt coming through, everybody watch out!" (even if no one was even close to being in his way)

Finn

I mostly sit back during this sort of play. I figure they'd rather do this kind of stuff with Chris. Plus, I feel a bit out of my element even though I love watching them all in action.

Then today Colin yelled over, "Mommy, wanna be my helper?"

I jumped my pregnant self up off the deck stairs and waddled over to him. My enthusiasm was genuine because if Chris is around, he'll usually ask Chris for help thinking that I don't know as much about this "worker stuff".

"Sure! I'd love to be your helper!!"

"What can I do?"

"Okay Mommy, help me move my digger..... no this way.... yup, that's it..... now pat down the dirt.... nooooo, not there silly mommy, around the digger..... can you move the wheelbarrow closer to catch the dirt? Hold it steady....okay, let's move the dirt to the work site".... etc etc.

It was great.

I can honestly say that I love being a mom to boys. True, I don't know any different, but I know this is good stuff. When I was younger and pictured my life as a mom, playing with my children, I often pictured tea parties, barbies and dress up (things I enjoyed as a child). So far, my life as a mom has involved a lot of dirt, tools and digging. I swear that I've learned more about tools and trucks over the past four years than in my previous 32!

Whenever I get overwhelmed about being a mother to five boys, wondering "what the heck do I know about raising boys??" I try and remember that they will show me what they need. We'll learn together.

And slowly but surely we are.

I mean, who knew I liked to dig in dirt??

Finn, Everett, Carter and what's left of our snow fort

Finn, off to do some digging