What Little Boys Are Made Of

Chris and I often joke about how nearly every form of play our son engages in is destructive.  Balloons? Wants to maul and pop them.  Play dough? Pounded and mangled, especially if he ever requests me to make something out of it for him (poor flattened snow man, alive for seconds).  Painting?  Let's just say he has a rough touch; he usually paints so deliberately and roughly that he wears through the paper to the easel (his dad is the same way with drawing).

He's now in his "all eraser period" of drawing, where he draws with chalk only to erase it.  It's not so much about the mark making, but just getting something on the chalk board to be able to eradicate it.

If you've taken an art history class, you might have heard of the artist Robert Rauschenburg, who made some "eraser drawings" at one point in his career.  Chris and I used to crack up at this video clip, from the documentary, Painters Painting, where he talks about erasing a Willem de Kooning drawing (we're dorks, I know, please bear with us).

(you're welcome dear husband, I know you're glad I dug up that clip)

Ah-hem, back to my post.  As much as I thought I knew about boys--snips and snails and puppy dog tails, all that---I really find myself swimming in new territory every time.  Who knew that my son would rather tip over the mini basketball hoop onto the kids in a play area than shoot the balls?

Or crawl out of said play area, a walled in space, finding the only exit underneath the soccer goal nets.  Never mind that all the toys and balls are inside the field--not sure what he wanted to play with beyond that area.

And the poor block table set up for some of the quieter kids--when Soren wandered over, he just knocked down someone's creation, then tossed a few blocks.  It's exhausting and embarrassing for me, but completely delightful for him.  Sigh.

However, I do try to keep on the sunny side, and remind myself how lucky we are to have such an exuberant child, albeit one who .  Despite his behavior, he really is sweet and considerate, being careful of the smaller kids (usually!) and waiting his turn without my cajoling on things like the slide.

Soren's also quite a gentleman when it comes to the ladies.  He wanted to take my friend's daughter on a little tour of the facility (a fitness center, which hosts a tot event each week) when she got there, even though this was his first time there!  It was cute (and I hope my friend doesn't mind that I posted this photo).

Soren did the same thing when we were in Disney World, with my blogger friend Desi's daughter Raileigh, taking her around The Boneyard.  Something about that "Lucky Charms" shirt, I guess.

It melts my heart!  Yet at the same time, it's so confusing!  Oh, boys, how we girls adore and are confounded by you.

P.S. Thanks Desi for sharing the photos!  And, no, I don't dress him in that Lucky Charms shirt exclusively--it was pure coincidence.