Sleepover: Boys vs. Girls

My son had a big weekend. Almost as if to congratulate him for really doing a great job in the school play, his mom - a woman who by any measure could be considered stern - suddenly allowed him to have friends over for a sleepover. Three little boys rampaged across my home grounds for the past two days.

My daughter had sleepovers with her friends, and I had thought I was ready. However....

The first major difference I noticed , was the fact little boys sometimes tend to get into disagreement. As in, punching each other in the stomach. My wife , as aggressive a woman as she is - did not grasp the fact that the only way to stop two little boys from tearing each other up is to hold them apart. After nerves settled, we held a sort of court where I listened to both sides, and then settled the issue. Yes, its not ok to punch someone in the stomach. No, you can't kick them in the face if they do it to you. Shake hands. And go back to your corners for round two.

They decided to try to teach dad how to do a flip. And in fact, I think I actually got it. But for some reason, it tore up my elbows on the landing. I have two round red spots on either elbow. I think this is because they told me to close my eyes and tuck my arms into my side. This had the unforeseen side effect of whenever I landed wrong, it would be right on the elbow. The trampoline was slightly angled, so this mean I came down from about five feet in the air and then dragged my elbows across the fabric of the trampoline on landing. Ouch.

Little girls sleepovers tend to be things in which they do all kinds of neat things together, and then go up to their room at around seven o clock or so and giggle and play until some unearthly late hour in the night.

Little boys sleepovers , I found, are a nonstop action adventure ride until sunset, then they pass out in sleeping bags on the floor and awake at either 4 or 6:20 am, depending upon the kid - and are out on the trampoline again. My neighbors love me.

In 24 hours, there were 3 hours of skateboarding, 1 hour of riding bikes, four hours of jumping on the trampoline, skateboard races in our home across the living room floor, cars, four games of basketball, houses (full of cars) transported to the park and a cruise down the road in a '66 Chevy Malibu. Four pizzas, and a private screening of "Abra Catastrophe". No, I don't know what all of this adds up to. Except that , as I write this, it happens to be monday morning. Thanks to my restful weekend, a safe haven against the storm of the work week.. I'm ready to go to work.

Thank God for the Nation of Colombia.