Are boys and girls the same?

My thought? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The problem is, often adults look at little boys and expect them to behave just like little girls. Why? I think it is because little girls are so much easier to get their attention. Often, they sit quieter, their attention span is wider, they aren't physical, they are good listeners.... and on and on. Honestly, they are just easier. The problem? When you compare a little boy to a little girl, the girl often "wins" in the well behaved department.

Let me share my morning with you:

Ri: Can I color?

Mommy: Yes, honey. Let's do school.

Ri and Elizabeth: ok.

Mommy: Can you practice writing the letter Aa?

Ri and Elizabeth: yes!

Elizabeth - sits and proceeds to draw 4-5 or capital A's. She is beaming from ear to ear.
Ri - draws one A, grabs a marker, colors a page sitting next to his notebook, scribbles on his A page and then quickly colors over his only A on the page. Then he notices that Elizabeth is getting praised for her A's and her a's. He then draws 2 small a's (very large, but fairly well done). I turn to look at Elizabeth and Ri then grabs 2 other markers, turns the page and begins coloring another page, drops the markers, yells for them, then gets off his seat, runs around and then finally crawls back up to now do the letter B

Mommy - "good job, can you now practice letter Bb?

Elizabeth and Ri: yes!

Elizabeth - sits and draws 15 or more letter B's and b's. She diligently practices them and sits still, concentrating and beaming with each one.
Ri - Draws one very good B and one b, then jumps off his chair, goes potty (for the 5th or 6th time), knocks the toilet paper on the floor, grabs the magnets off the fridge as he walks by, pulls on the dogs ears, crawls under the table to pick up a marker lid, hops back in the chair, teases Elizabeth by throwing something her way and draws one more B.

Should I go on? We quit at letter C!

Next, I bought a game book for us to play. We had a lot of fun learning the new games. The first game went fairly well and something like this:

Mommy - Ok, guys.... each of you have a circle that matches the pattern of the fish.

Ri, when you spin a number 2, you get to match a circle with the fish, and Elizabeth, when you spin the number 3, you get to match it... ok?

Ri and Elizabeth - ok.

Spinning the spinner - Ri hits the number 3. He takes his circle and matches the fish pattern.
Elizabeth, did not spin a 2.
Ri - spins a 3 again. Takes another circle and matches the fish. ... then proceeds to roll 3 times, get up, jump up and down, sits down and rocks back and forth trying hard to wait for his turn.
Meanwhile - Elizabeth rolls and does not get the number 2, she sits patiently.
Ri rolls and does not get #3. He puts his hands on the floor and his bottom in the air. scoots and sits on all the game pieces, grabs the game piece that he previously had placed on the fish, rolls a couple of times and giggles.
Elizabeth rolls and does not get #2
Mom - mommy thinks this is unfair for Elizabeth, so she puts the spinner on #2. Elizabeth happily takes her piece and places it on the fish.
The game continues until all fishes are used.

Next game:
Duck and Pig must get to their mommies.
Elizabeth rolls a 6 and moves her piece quietly to the right spot.
Ri rolls a 2, moves his piece to the correct spot, then wiggles and squirms, puts his head on the ground, wiggles, rolls over the game pieces and then knocks one out of place.
Elizabeth rolls another 6 and moves. She is smiling ear to ear.
Ri - rolls a 4, moves his piece to a few different spots until he decides that he will giggle and really put it on the right spot. Then he jumps up, sits down, grabs all the extra pieces, throws them a few inches from where they were, touches his game piece and then waits.
Elizabeth rolls and moves.
Ri.....do you get the picture?

Is there a difference between boys and girls? YEP!! Ri can not possibly walk past anything without touching it and exploring it by knocking it down or pushing it a little bit or just plain putting it in his hand and carrying it a few feet/inches. He cracks me up. He is ALL boy. All the time he is moving and "not paying attention", he pays complete attention and knows all that went on (generally). Just when I think he had no idea what I said, he will shock my and do exactly what he was suppose to do!