All Boy

Conversely, Ryan has, since birth, been all boy. He was born with a bottomless stomach (a trait that I hear tends to be very prevalent among the male population).

While his sister loves accessories, his favorite toy and first word (other than "mama" & "dada") is a ball. Any ball. He loves to throw balls and kick balls and is working on catching balls. He distinguishes between a football ("fball"), baseball ("b-ball"), and our myriad of beach balls (simply "ball").

While his sister loves to dance and twirl, he loves to jump, tackle, and climb. This isn't to say he doesn't enjoy dancing, he does, but his sister could dance all day, and he'd rather spend some of that time jumping on her. Occasionally she likes being tackled and tickled (as he says, "ticka-ticka!"), usually she is upset that he interrupted her dancing. This tends to be why Ryan loves the penguin (who lets him jump on him all he wasts), and why I love our friends who have children who are just enough older than Ryan to know to be careful so he doesn't get hurt, but young enough that even if something happened accidentally, they aren't strong enough to hurt him badly! It is the time he spends with these friends (especially B, who is his favorite "older" guy to hang out with), that helps him get out all of that pent up need to wrestle that is apparently innate...

We play "Ring Around the Rosey" and Allie never stops twirling, while Ryan only wants to fall down...over and over and over. In fact, he loves anything that falls down, and frequently throws things (his bowl when he's finished eating, his stuffed animals, and once mommy's computer) just to see the delightful crash...

Ryan's favorite noises to make our low and grunty. He is constantly growling, grunting, or doing this low, throaty laugh that (in all honesty) sounds like the laugh of an evil villain. Granted, he doesn't know that as he has never heard an "evil villain" laugh. He just likes it because it sounds funny!

The biggest thing that completely shocks me, though, is his sense of humor. I know people often use the term "guy" humor, but I thought it was sort of peer driven. Guys get to a certain age and suddenly find potty jokes funny. But Ryan thinks that burps and toots are the funniest thing (and I swear Lucas and I have never laughed at them), and will try to recreate the sound to keep laughing. All someone has to do is look at him and say "poo-poo. pee-pee" and he will fall over laughing. At first I thought it was the face or the funny voice Lucas made, but he tried it with other words and they didn't work! I'm so shocked by the innate attraction to such low comedy, but Lucas reassures me that it's perfectly normal. He is just All Boy!