Chick Magnets

January 2012

 I know every mom is biased.  I am no exception.  Look at these two cuties!  They clean up quite nicely, don't they?!  Most of the time, they are running around like rambunctious little rugrats, they are hot and sticky and sweaty, and they need constant reminding to wash their hands.  There is truth to the saying that "Boys will be boys"!  

There is something innate and precious about their need to squirm and move and run, and their imaginations are wild.  Sometimes, I can see the little wheels turning in their heads, like while they are sitting still in church, or at a fancy dinner, or after a long day of holding it all in at school.  Those little gears turn, their eyes glaze over, and you can see them slip away into a make-believe world where they are Jedi Knights with beyond-this-realm capabilities.  They can sit still when needed and they concentrate quite well, but I love that moment when their little hearts and minds are "released" and they slip away into an imaginary world where anything is possible.

Christmas Day 2011

As much as they like to be boys, they also like to be handsome.  They will never admit that to you if you ask, but they do.  Thomas loves to have his hair combed and to "dress like Dad."  He has very particular tastes in clothing and what he will or will not wear.  Most of the time, it involves athletic gear, but he enjoys dressing like a gentleman just as much -- because he knows he is a "chick magnet", as he overheard his Kindergarten teacher once say!  LOL!  The cat's out of the bag!  We knew we were in for trouble when our virtually mute child suddenly began speaking in full sentences to our pretty, blond babysitter, Emily.  Or maybe it was when, at 4, the swim skill-less child suddenly started splashing around and swimming for Claire, his very beautiful, blonde, buxom swim teacher.  Oh, boy.  Don't let him fool you.  He's cute and sweet and as soon as he turns 10, we will lock him up for the remainder of his teenage years.  I love that boy dearly, but "Thomas" and "chick magnet" in the same thought scare me.

A few months ago, Benjamin, the boy who has pined for the same little girl unfailingly since Kindergarten, was shopping with me.  From at least five yards behind me I heard, "Can we get this?" I expected to turn around to see him fingering a Nike dri-fit shirt or a Star Wars tee or War & Peace.  Instead, he was holding a size 10,  beautiful houndstooth-checked jacket!  I made a beeline, sprinting back to where he was.  "You want to wear this?  THIS?" I asked in disbelief.  "Yeah...do you think I would look handsome in it?" was his meek reply.  

I dropped my purse, and everything else I was holding, right on the floor of the department store.  I am pretty sure my jaw hit the floor, too.  "Oh, YES, I do!" I said.   I couldn't get that jacket off the hanger and onto him fast enough.  He slipped it on and, sure enough, it fit.  It was even a bit big, the bottoms of the sleeves stretching to the middle of his hands.  I was practically arrested for running to the checkout.

A few weeks before Christmas, he pulled it out of his closet one Sunday morning and wanted to wear it.  In the immortal words of Goldilocks, it fit just right.  And he wore it for Christmas, too, in Connecticut.  What a handsome little man.  Look at that dimple.  Some girl is going to kiss that dimple one day.  She is going to kiss that dimple one day.  Sigh.

The rest of these growing-up years are going to be so unfamliar to me.  This is a learning experience.    Please, Lord, help me not to dress them like Bill Gates.  There has to be some middle ground between Silicon Valley dork and butt-crack skater.  Anyone have some guidance?  I mean, I don't think my little chick magnets need to be dressing like GAP models to be attractive, but I kinda sorta totally am going to refuse to let them wear saggy pants, skater gear, backwards ball caps, and anything that will make them look like a thug or that is emblazoned with a skull and cross bones.  They already know that.   Nope.  Sorry if that offends anyone.  They can  be who they are on the inside and I'm okay with that, but on the outside they can "express themselves" in some other lifetime.

Clearly, I am not quite sure I know how to dress "chick magnets".  I am pretty sure it doesn't involve a braided leather belt, a mock turtleneck or Keds.  Something tells me, I am about to find out.