{Feel free to use the above video as soundtrack as you read on….}

There was a little incident at school this week with Mateo and his little posse of friends. To them it was funny, but to their teacher it was not, and it even warranted a letter home to be returned with a parent's signature. Whoa. I'll spare the details, but it was basically boy behavior gone too far. Still and ever the obedient little girl that I am, I was a little mortified at first. "I'm, not the kind of mother who teaches her son to do this!!" Teo and I had a very serious discussion about it after school and there were some consequences he was really unhappy about. It kind of wrecked my day. I had visions of my sweet boy morphing into some crude hellion running around school with his underwear on his head. 

I know that won't happen, but it was yet another good lesson for me to remember a couple of things: 1. Mateo will occasionally do things that break "the rules." Most kids do until they know all the rules. 2. Boys are crude hellions from time to time. It what they do. 

When I was pregnant with Nico and people would ask me what I was having, it always amused me how people's faces either fell with disappointment or filled with "oh, you're going to get it!" laughter when I told them it was another boy. Little boys have somewhat of a bad rep. On some level I understand it: they are rowdy, they like talking about butts and poop, they like shooting things, they like destruction. All these things must be inherently bad and may lead to some criminal behavior down the line, right? But probably not. 

Little boys cross the line often, that's what they do. Heck, that's what they do when they become men. With the incident this week, Matt, who I'm sure was quite the hellion himself at one time, told me to chill. "It's normal, he's a boy. He's just testing the boundaries." So I reigned in all my negative visions and tried to remember that on some level that a boy's job, to stir the pot, to shake things up. That's why there is never a dull moment around here. Ever. 

I'll try to remember that the next time Mateo pulls down his pants, turns around, moons Nico then poots right in his face. And does Nico cry? No. He laughs.