My Dearest Eldest Daughter

I am blessed with two beautiful daughters. While I would like to have been blessed with a boy, the outcome is the way it is. It is more of a blessing than I'll admit since I know nothing about growing up as a little girl. So responsibility in that area becomes my wife's job. I get to raise the boys and there aren't any. My job is to be the proud father of two girls. Yep, I'm doomed to live in a house of beautiful women.

When my second daughter was born I joked with my wife about how I was going to take my pick of the two to raise as a boy. I was just joking, mind you. But I am the one who gets them out of the house to bike and play ball and other things that can cause bumps and bruises. I am the one they can climb on and wrestle with.

This morning my eldest daughter complained that she didn't have room in her lunch box for a banana. She said the banana was too big. She has one of those lunch boxes that would fit a six-pack of sodas and still have room, so I was skeptical. She showed me that her lunch was filled right up to the top and sure enough there was no more room. So I asked her what was under her lunch. I discovered her treasure stash.

The bottom of her lunch box was filled with treasures. A badminton birdie, a hackensack ball, a monopoly board marker, a tatty pencil, a dyed purple feather, assorted bottle caps and lots and lots of other knick-knacks. After we took those out there was plenty of room for the lunch with the banana.

My eldest daughter isn't one of those dainty girls that play with polly pockets and princess ponies at school. She is one of the few who likes to play with the boys as well as the girls. And sometimes the boys do things that are more interesting. Tomboy? Maybe a touch. She is very much a girl with a strong sense of sugar and spice and everything nice. But there's a healthy dose of the frogs and snails and puppydog tails in there too.

So I am amused by her packrat stash of things similar to what you would expect a boy to collect. I think you can guess which of my daughters I would pick to raise as a boy... But there is no mistaking her for a little boy. She is very much a little girl as well as her own person!