worms
While my grand niece, Aleesia Spethman is very much a girly girl, she has an alter ego too. Aleesia has three brothers, and when a little girl is raised around three brothers, it soon becomes obvious that she will take on a few…or even a lot of Tomboy traits, and that is exactly what Aleesia has done. She is a girl, and she likes dressing up like a girl, and wearing pretty hair styles like a girl, but she can totally keep up with her brothers too. In fact, she pretty much has her brothers wrapped around her little finger…or very buffaloed, because she rules that roost.
One day, while playing with her cousin, Anna Masterson, it had rained outside, and the girls decided that this was the perfect time to try out a new pastime…collecting worms. Aleesia had a little fish container that had an 
open mouth, and after working a while, she came running up to Anna’s mom, Dustie and told her that she had some “squirmy wormy worms” in the fishes mouth. She certainly did, and one of them was probably five inches long. Of course, she let the worms go home to their mommies, because she didn’t want them to die, after all. For such a girly girl, our little Aleesia has no problem with bugs and other insects. Another time, Anna had decided to kill some hornets that had come into the back porch of the girls’ grandma, my sister, Cheryl Masterson’s house. Anna was stepping on the hornets, and it was working quite well. Aleesia decided to kill hornets too, and while she was successful at stepping on it, she didn’t understand that shoes were really needed for this project, so she got stung. Being the tough little girl she is, once she stopped crying about it, she had to tell everyone about the event. It was like a badge of courage to her, and she wanted everyone to know how brave she had been.
Aleesia has a unique relationship with her Uncle Rob Masterson too. The first time I witnessed that one, I was 
somewhat shocked that Rob was picking on her in such a fashion…until I found out that this was a mutual attack. It’s a game the two of them play, and Aleesia thoroughly loves it. In fact, she is often the one to provoke him!! Practically the instant she walks in the door, she is ready to spar with her uncle, and he is just as ready. It is quite hilarious to watch. After spending time around Aleesia, I often wonder how she could possibly be a girly girl at all. Nevertheless, she is, but she’s a tomboy too. Today is Aleesia’s 4th birthday. Happy birthday Aleesia!! Have a great day!! We love you!!
In any family, it seems that the younger children are treated differently than the older ones. They seem to get away with more, and probably get to do things earlier than the older kids. I think the main reason for this is that the parents got used to being parents. The things you worry about as new parents, like crawling around on a floor that isn’t totally sanitized, a bottle that fell on the floor going right back into the mouth, or eating dirt…for pity sakes, are just things a new parent would never allow.
Then, as the child gets a little older, and the parents see them eating worms, along with that dirt, it just gets to a point where they know the kid won’t break. Then when the younger kids come along…well, veteran parents know the ropes, and they know that you can’t control everything that happens in your kids lives. Things are just different.
Suddenly, spending the night with grandparents is ok at 2, instead of 4, and in this day and age, they get their first cell phone in kindergarten or first grade. Of course, when you think about it, these kids know more about the computer by 3 than a lot of their parents do, so I suppose it seems like they are really just little adults.
This change in the rules isn’t really their parents fault, it is just a fact of life. It has been going on for years. I think I might have been one of the last of the parents to make my girls do things by ages, but then they were only eleven months apart. Amy didn’t have to 
wait very long anyway.
When there are a few years between the kids, it seems like the lines of fairness and ages get blurred some, and unless the older child is right there to remind them that their younger sibling isn’t supposed to get to do stuff earlier than they did, things just slip past them, and before they realize it those younger ones are doing things two years ahead of their older siblings. And when they do realize it, the now veteran parent shrugs their shoulders and calmly remarks, “Oh well, these things happen.” I guess being the youngest ones has its perks, in some ways anyway.
