A Difference I Could Not Make More Clear Unless I Drew You A Diagram

One recent afternoon, we spent time in my mom and dad's backyard enjoying the perfect weather and some very fine company. My mom's youngest brother, who is not much older than me, was in for a visit, along with his wife and their four lovely daughters.

The girls -- who are in kindergarten, second, fifth and seventh grade -- are delightful and entertaining and extremely good conversationalists. In the hours we spent with the family, we were treated to funny stories, cute rhymes and I also got to be in the company of two very cute pigtails and one very cute green bow. I don't get to see accessories too often. It's nice when I do.

At one point in the afternoon, the three oldest girls were seated around my mother and the four of them were laughing and carrying on. One of the girls was getting delerious and couldn't stop giggling. The other two were reciting some homemade poems and trying to outwit my mom. It was glorious. I know my mom loves her grandsons, but this was clearly a very different, very enjoyable experience and she was loving it.

I was silently reflecting on the difference between this moment of soft voices and girlish laughter and giggles muffled by long gentle fingers, compared to my usual, equally enjoyable life filled with battle cries and scaling anything in sight and tales of quests and inventions.

And it was in this moment that I noticed five-year-old Charlie quietly wander off into the wooded area at the edge of my parents' yard. Aha!, I thought. This proves the point. Here are the girls connecting and carrying on and being delightfully sweet, and there goes my boy, off into the woods to explore.

I shifted my gaze back to the girls at the other table, until I realized that my uncle, who was sitting next to me and facing the woods, was trying to stifle a laugh. I turned to him and saw he was looking in the direction of Charlie. I wondered if he, too, was moved by the difference between the girls and the boys until I turned back to Charlie and saw that he was peeing on a tree that was not quite out of view.