The son I never had

I often write about my middle daughter, the 10-year old, and what a tomboy she is so it shouldn't surprise me when she does certain things that one would assume are primarily of the male gender. But, for some reason, it always cracks me up when she varies from the "norm" and makes me think she's the son I never had.

Maybe it's because my world is typically surrounded in pink and dolls and all things glittery, so when my blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl chooses camo colored T-shirts rather than a ruffley tutu dress, it makes me laugh. I've mentioned before that she's a girl that is just as comfortable playing Barbies as she is playing matchbox cars, and can be seen wearing a fancy crown and princess dress while holding a pretend rifle. She's the same girl that for Christmas asked for toy hunting sets with miniature camo trucks, tree stands, hunters and deer, as well as various video games that shoot grizzly bears or catch monster fish in the Amazon. Shopping for her was easy for Santa, a trip to the local farm store for toy tractors and trailers, as well as the sporting goods store for hunting toys.

This last weekend was no different, yet it still surprised me and made me laugh. We ditched this scorching weather and drove up to the cool mountains in Colorado for a wedding/mini-family get-together. We spent the first day shopping downtown at all the unique stores and I told my girls they could each pick out one thing to buy as a souvenir. After hours of dragging through shop after shop, my 5-year old decided on yet another stuffed animal, because we sure don't have enough of those bad boys in our house. My 12-year old chose a pair of yoga pants with the Husker emblem on them, so in essence, we drove 5 hours to Colorado to buy pants we could have bought in our own town. Then my tomboy 10-year old, who had slightly admired a few purses and sorta liked some necklaces during her shopping venture, fell in love with a super cool sling shot that was carved out of wood to look like a deer. She had to have it!

She couldn't wait to find some rocks and try this weapon out, as the sling shot was practically burning a hole in her shopping bag. At the end of our day, we finally found her a shallow part of the river, adjacent to downtown so she could give it a try. Unsurprisingly, she was a natural. Without instruction, she found the perfect small, round rocks about the size of marbles and was slinging them at certain strike points around the river right on the money. She was even able to knock her sister's new stuffed deer off a rock with a piece of mulch in one shot, much to the wonder of all of us watching. Why we were surprised, is beyond me. We should have expected it.

My sweet little tomboy girl spent her the rest of her time in the mountains hiking around the lake, digging for treasures in the sandy creek behind cabin, petting snakes that passed her path, searching for the local badger that inhabited our backyard, and of course, shooting rocks at various trees, water bodies and the occasional innocent bunny. My oldest daughter was the exact opposite, spending her time babysitting her cousins, carrying the little ones on her hip and doing all the kids' nails. Ya know, what big girls do.

My darling son, oops...daughter, was SO sad to leave Colorado and asked to spend her last few minutes dangling her feet in the river. Her older sister asked to shop once more and her younger sister begged to find a playground. Just goes to show you, she's the son I never had.