Boys Will Be Boys, I Guess!

May 26, 2009

Matthew and his friend were outside playing punt-catch when I heard the scream and saw Matthew running to the door. When he came inside he was crying and I did my best to comfort him and find out what was wrong.
Through a series of winces and gasps for breath I got the story. Matthew had been standing on the picnic table punting the ball. Only the last time - he was a little too close to the edge. He punted and fell right off the table, hitting his back on the way down.
His back was hurting. He was having trouble breathing. He was sweaty and itchy. In general, he was not a happy boy.
I sat him down, rubbed his head, got him a cold cloth and a drink of water. And he seemed to be feeling a little better.
At this point his friend came inside to check on Matthew and we took a look at his back. Wow. He had a pretty big scrape where his back had connected with the picnic table, so Matthew and I went into the bathroom to look for a bandage.
Once in the bathroom - where he was in front of a big mirror - Matthew saw the rather large scrape on his arm, too. And he turned himself around to look at the mark on his back. Let me tell you, Matthew was quite impressed with his wounds. So much so that he didn't care that I couldn't find a band aid.
He went back out to the other room to show off the mark on his arm to his friend. And I stood and watched the two of them admire the scrapes. Matthew's friend said, "Let me see your back again!" And Matthew willingly lifted his shirt.
With that, Matthew's friend said, "Wow. That must have really hurt."
"Yeah, for about a second."
I smiled, remembering the scene when Matthew first came in the house.
And he adjusted his story, "Well, maybe for about a minute."
And the boys agreed the scrapes were cool.

So there I stood - listening to two nine-year-olds talking with admiration about falls and scrapes and blood, remembering just moments before when one of those boys ran into my arms like he did when he was two. I marveled at how quickly the pain had been forgotten, and could find only one reasonable explanation for the whole scene: Boys will be boys.
Yep. I think that's it.

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