A Little Testosterone

We are still frequently asked the question, "Is Brian different from all his sisters? Have you noticed that "boy behavior" yet?"

Up until a few weeks ago, we really hadn't. With the exception of his live-crab-eating attempts last summer, he seemed basically the same as his sisters. We hadn't seen any real variations to the usual developmental patterns.

But now that Brian is really on the move, we're noticing something. He likes his toys, and he enjoys playing with his trucks and dinosaurs, but he quickly grows tired of them. He prefers to pursue other activities...namely, destroying the grown-ups' toys.

When he is put down on the living room floor, he beelines straight for the stereo. It's not the music he's after, though. No, he prefers to play with all the buttons and knobs, pulling them off the stereo, and throwing them onto the floor one by one. The first time he did this, Dan and I were occupied with the girls, and it took us a few minutes to notice what Brian was doing. We quickly removed Brian from the stereo, and attempted to put the equipment back together again. Within minutes, Brian had found a new activity, involving the fire-place tools. (They are now in the basement, after multiple failed attempts to keep him away from these dangerous items). We're slowly stripping the rooms bare, as we try to keep Brian safe, and keep some of our items intact.

Now, his favorite game is to toddle around the girls' art table and methodically dump every crayon container onto the floor. He tips over the shelf holding the coloring books, and laughs with glee at the loud "crash" that ensues. He then heads over to the kitchen and begins pulling pots and pans out of the cabinets. He opens drawers and throws bills all over the floor, before crawling into the playroom and removing each and every toy from the shelves and the toy boxes.

Perhaps my memories are simply a bit blurry, but I truly don't remember the girls being quite so...destructive. Perhaps it's a "boy thing". He'll grow out of it, I'm sure. Right?