I spent a good 15 minutes teaching Ella that “girls rule and
boys drool” at the end of our dinner last night.
“Boys rule…” she’d start, and I’d cut her short with, “okay,
you can start with boys, but it’s DROOL… boys DROOL.”
She listened to my every word and responded with what I
heard as “boys rule.”
“DA-ROOL,” I’d clarify. “Boys DA-ROOL.” This was an important distinction.
She'd catch on and try again. “Boys dwool,” where the “dw” was ever so
slightly different than “r.”
“That’s right, Baby Girl!” I'd exclaim. “Girls rule, boys drool!”
“Girls… girls… girls rule, boys rule,” she went back to
missing the subtle difference in the start of the word “rule” vs. that of “drool.”
“No… no… boys drooooool.
DA-ROOOOOL,” I'd clarify.
As she made more attempts but seemed to miss the subtle difference, I thought through the alphabet for words that rhyme with “rule” that might be easier to say clearly than “drool.” Bool… cool… dool… fool… “Fool” wasn’t a bad option, but it just didn’t work as well as “drool.”
Not interested in mine and Ella’s conversation,
the boys eventually took off for Cal’s swimming lesson. I don’t get to spend much quality alone time
with Ella, so I decided to jump on the opportunity and asked her with genuine
excitement, “would you like to go for a jammie walk with Mommy, Baby Girl?!?!!!”
Ella was wide-eyed and nodded yes. She was in.
“Okay, so when you finish that cookie <she had started it
about halfway through our girls rule-boys drool lesson>, we’ll head
upstairs, get in our jammies, brush teeth and then go for our walk.”
“We get in our jammies and go for a walk with the wagon,”
she responded.
“Okay, yeah, we can take the wagon. Do you want to sit in it or pull it yourself?”
I asked.
“Pull it myself,” she declared. It would be a slow walk, then.
Ella then took another bite of her cookie and started
talking about the walk we were about to take.
“You put your jammies on?” she asked.
“I’m already IN my jammies,” I told her. It was a white lie – I was wearing comfy
clothes in which I had slept didn’t really plan on sleeping in that night.
Several minutes had passed, and she still hadn’t finished
that cookie. Fortunately, half of what
was left of it fell to the floor after she took another bite; so I ate that
piece to help her along. She shoved the
remaining portion into her mouth, and we headed upstairs to get her into her
jammies and her teeth brushed.
It was chilly outside, so we threw on her Elmo long
sleeves/long pants combo. She went to
take her socks off and I said, “no, leave your socks on, Baby Girl.”
“Why?” she asked with a shocked tone, the way Ella always
asks why? I’m not sure if she had
forgotten our plans or if she just didn’t think she’d be wearing shoes for our
walk.
“Because we’re going for a walk, and you need socks and
shoes for that,” I told her.
We then got her teeth brushed, threw on her fleece pullover and
her shoes and headed for the garage to grab the wagon.
“I take my blankie,” she declared. “I put it in da wagon.”
“Okay, great,” I acknowledged.
With the wagon ready to go, she threw her blanket in it and
then grabbed the handle and started walking, pulling it behind her. I followed her lead, with the intention of
just walking around the block. It was
one of the most pleasant walks I’ve ever had with my kids, and I genuinely enjoyed
every moment of it. It was absent
the defiance, fighting and yelling that had become typical of my walks with the kids. There was no time
constraint in the back of my head hurrying us along. We just walked and talked together, heading straight over the fabulous sidewalk "bumpies" when Ella wanted to and turning left when I thought we probably should.
We came inside, read three books (all her choice - "Let's Go Irish," "Once Upon a Potty" and "Barnyard Dance") on the couch (her request) and then headed upstairs to go to bed just before the boys returned from the swimming lesson.
In the end, I concluded that, while the jury may still be out on boys, I am right in telling my daughter that girls really do rule.
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