Men!

Today is sweet girl's tenth birthday. Her nickname in this blog is well-earned, for she is the sweetest little girl I personally know, and I am thankful daily that God surprised us with her back in 1996.

Perfect daughter and sweet girl and I were having our own little session of girl talk yesterday. We were looking forward to her "double-digit" birthday and talking about growing up in general and all the wonderful things that she had to look forward to. We (perfect daughter and I) were absolutely ungenerous in our estimation of what it means to grow up when you are a BOY. Shudder.

"Their voices do odd things," perfect daughter whispered. She gave a pretty darn good imitation of a 13-year-old boy trying to sing. Sweet daughter looked alarmed. "Can you imagine growing hair on your face and having to shave daily?" I added. "Oh, that's not the only place they grow hair" perfect daughter reminded us..."They have hair on their backs and legs and they SMELL". "They smell?" asked sweet girl. "Oh yes, their feet smell. And all that hair makes them smell too," declared perfect daughter.

Sweet girl looked horrified. Suddenly she said, "But, how can we ever love them? They are just exactly like big, hairy BEARS".

Oh, the look on her face. Perfect daughter fell to the floor in laughter. I thought, well, yes, they are like that. And no one is sweeter than my ten-year-old little girl.