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Boys and Girls
The old saying goes that girls are made of sugar, spice, and everything nice, whereas boys are made of snips, snails, and puppy dog tails. There’s also the joke that women are from Venus and Men are from Mars. Yes, there seems to be something inherently different about the genders. Whether these differences sprout from genetics, socialization, or a combination of the two is a topic of endless debate. We have tried to keep an eye out for evidence of either since the birth of our boy. Having conducted 4 years of intense research on female development, we have a keen awareness of any deviations in behavior.
In Carver’s first few months of life, we’ve noticed relatively subtle and, perhaps, negligible differences between his and Avey’s behavior in the same developmental periods. However, we made a groundbreaking discovery this week; when Avey first learned to babble, she made gentle cooing sounds, simply testing the waters of her vocal cords. Carver, on the other hand is doing this:
As you can see, rather than a gentle experimentation with sounds he can produce, Mini-Man dove right in, head first, caution to the wind. Why mumble when one can holler? Why chit chat when one can wail? Why hum when one can scream? After all, why would a stereo have a maximum volume capability if it was not meant to be used? Would a banshee be nearly as legendary if it whispered? Would we even know thunder was there if it did not shake us to our very cores? Carver, by testing the thresholds of his voice and our tympanic membranes, is merely reminding us that he is here to stay, and he is a force with which to be reckoned.
Luckily, this force of nature passes out pretty easily with a little warm milk.
Maybe boys and girls are inherently different from one another, but one thing’s for sure; both need lots of room to explore who they are and what they can do, even if it’s at the tops of their respective lungs.