After much deliberation, Bubbie has decided that he is indeed ready to play football. He weighed in and picked up his pads today. Upon returning home, he declared to me that he is going to be the safety. I told him that it’s an important position–he must be fast and alert–then asked why he wants to be safety. He said, “Because it’s the safest position on the team.”

Do you remember in the movie Toy Story when Buzz Lightyear  believes that he is something he’s not?  And Woody tells him over and over that he is a toy, only to have it fall on deaf ears? I sense that we may have a crisis moment like that with Ruthie. I can’t blame her for wanting to do everything the boys do–she has a steady diet of wrestling and roughhousing.

But when I was gone one morning and came home to this:

it hit me that we will be having a conversation when she’s old enough to understand.

You are different from your brothers.

It’s a good thing…God made you this way.

Your brothers do things like wear heavy helmets and pads and head butt one another.

They are boys.

But you…you are a girl!

*Ruthie is sitting on my lap as I am uploading these pictures. She’s laughing at the pictures of her head butting Derek and currently head butting the computer desk. Oh dear. Help.