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.