Boys vs. Girls - The Axe Man

This post is an Axe update post, but I want to start with a Squeaker story… in a round about sort of way.

When Squeak was young and we’d change her diaper (a distant memory now with potty training pretty much complete), she’d generally stretch out in repose on the changing table, contemplating whatever infant/toddlers contemplate, and let us change her diaper with minimal hassle or complaint.

By comparison, her boy cousins, Gunslinger & O-Pickle, would thrash around, catch hands full of poop, jump up, run around naked and just generally be pains in the arses. I wrote it up to… well… not poor parenting, but poor planning. That is, when at home, we always changed Squeak on her changing table. Whereas, her cousin counterparts were change where ever was convenient – floors, couches, beds… anywhere.

I assumed – incorrectly – that’s why they behaved the way they did. Secretly I was patting myself on the back for proper example setting.

That is, until we had Axe.

Since there is only 16 months between brother & sister, we did diaper duty for the former as we did the latter. Only, Axe doesn’t lie in repose; he throws himself around, grabbing at his junk and the diaper and squealing like a wounded monkey.

Honestly, it DOUBLES the time it takes to change a single diaper; and talking with other parents of boys and girls, this is standard for boys.

And that’s only the beginning.

Squeak is a bit of shrinking violet when it comes to many things, including being thrown about, roughhousing, and even walking (here’s a previous post about it).

Not Axe - he has no fear (which gives me great fear). Crawling is a thing of the past; he walks everywhere now. He loves to be tossed in the air, to jump, to crawl up and stand on everything (including the kitchen table)! He’ll probably be an X Gamer or the next Johnny Knoxville.

He’s also not the talker that Squeak is/was… at least not yet. He has picked a new word that he’s been bandying about a lot lately - dog. But it sounds like dag… much the way Brad Pitt’s character Mickey O’Neil says "dog" in Snatch. He could also be saying his grandfather Cappy’s name, Doug, but he’s looking at Beej when he says it, so I’m pretty sure it’s dog.

And BIG; he’ll easily outpace his sister in the growth department any day now. He’s already started standing up to her (both literally and figuratively) and swinging back at her when she takes a poke at him or takes a toy he had.

Like his sister, Axe loves to laugh. And their laughs sound alike. His face usually sports a sly grin, like he's got the inside scoop on a funny story. Or a better description might be that he's got a joke he's dying to tell.

Blue eyes, a big grin and a dimpled cheek… I may have to change his nickname to Killer.