How you know you're raising Casanova

Bode is a man's man. If you were to give him the choice between hanging out with boys vs. girls, he would choose boys 100 percent of the time.

However, when there are no boys available, he rises to the occasion and hooks his sweet sinkers into many an adoring lassie.

Case-in-point: yesterday we went to our neighborhood skate park. When we arrived, there were no girls on the playground so Bode hung out with Denai, a cute girl from his kindergarten class. Or rather, Denai hung onto him. Denai is a funny one and looked like she was having the time of her life.

I previously thought she was a bit of a tomboy because she hangs out with all the boys.

Now I know she is just boy-crazy.

As she went to leave, I overheard her boasting to another little girl:

"I spent the WHOLE TIME with Bode!!!!" Pause for dramatic effect. "YAAAAAAAAAY!"

And so it begins.

The Boy Conspiracy

Haddie is in the middle of what we hope will be her final round of swim lessons before she tries swim team. The schedule is later than I would like and we don't arrive home until 6:30 p.m.

Our family thinks they are going to die if we don't eat by 6 p.m. Anyone else seeing a problem here?

Though Jamie is great in the kitchen, I do 99% percent of the cooking and I'm hesitant to ask him for help because he's so darn busy. But one night, I didn't have a chance to prepare anything so asked him if he and Bode could be in charge of warming up leftovers so dinner would be ready when we walked in the door.

They both agreed and I was charmed to arrive home to both boys in aprons.

They even had flour on their faces and apparently had been working hard.

Or not.

There in the middle of the kitchen table was a pizza that looked suspiciously like it was purchased from Domino's.

"Where did you buy the pizza?"
"We made that pizza. What do you think we've been doing the past hour?"
"Bode, be honest with Mommy. Did you make that pizza?"
"Yes, what Daddy said. We've been working hard!"

Gotta give the boys credit: they stuck to their story and I almost started believing them until I found the pizza box outside in the garbage.

Here's a tip for the boy conspiracy for next time: destroy all evidence.

And do Pizza Hut next time.

On Raising Ying and Yang

I couldn't have had two more different kids if I tried. Where Bode is easy-going, Hadley is bossy. Where Bode can't draw a picture to save his soul, Hadley is already a gifted little artist. Where Hadley can barely count to 100, Bode is doing equations in his head.

Opposites.

Over the past couple of months their differences have come into play, starting with their report cards. Bode excelled in math and reading and squeaked by in the arts. Hadley was just the opposite. Bode loves any sport with a ball. Hadley's affinity is toward solo activities like skiing, hiking and mountain biking.

And then there is swimming.

Haddie is a fish in the water. Dear Bode is a beached whale. In November, we took swim lessons and their progress reports were very telling. Hadley skipped an entire level and will now be among the youngest kids in the very highest class. She even asked me if she could go swim laps.

After asking her what the heck that meant, I had an all-important question:

WHY?!

Then there is Bode. He flunked his Trout class but I'm comforted that this is his first time flunking that particular level and he only fell short on two skills: doing the front stroke and chicken-airplane-soldier unassisted.

I can't do 'em either.

We had a sordid history with Minnows, the previous class. The entire premise of Minnows is to dunk your head, something Bode refused to do for the first four years of his life. He failed that class two years in a row and I had lost hope until I bought a private swim lesson for him at a silent auction. The wonderful instructor gave him the confidence he needed and I excitedly enrolled him in Minnows for the third time.

He tried his best, he really did, but that teen-aged instructor ended up flunking him again for a really silly reason.

I'm not proud of what unfolded after that but he was so proud of his efforts and I just couldn't damage the kid's ego even more so I told him he passed the class.

I don't regret doing it. He was en par skill-wise with his classmates in the next level and he's doing much better in the water, His problem is he is my offspring and though he'll dunk and is learning to do the front crawl without assistance, when he comes up for air, he looks like Fat Kitty clawing to get out of the bathtub.

It ain't pretty. But we'll keep trying.

And just thank our lucky stars he's got other sports to fall back on.