My Boy

Brenden is unique. He loves to play with trucks like other boys, but will also play house with his sister. He thoroughly enjoys the outdoors and running around getting muddy from the endless rain storms here, but also has no problem helping his Mom do dishes inside. He can watch almost any cartoon and get zoned out like any other boy, but has been known to watch food network and hgtv with his Mom. There have been moments where I wonder where my sweet, thoughtful boy went....but give him some time, explain what is the right way, and he'll go beyond your expectation.
He's not the most attentive in church and probably won't ever be the kid raising his hand with all the answers, but he's the kid who will sit by anyone without prejudice. He will take the caterpillar at story time and make sure every.single.kid gets a chance to touch it. And if someone is left out, he will jump up, grab it and take it over to that kid. He is never first in line to get the bells, drums, markers, or balls. He will stand in the mass without pushing forward, waiting till everyone else has cleared out. When the 3 neighbor boys are running a race to the shed and back in our backyard, I'll shout to B to go run with them, but he tells me he is watching to see who gets there first; who wins. He's probably the kid you want to take on vacation cause he won't care where you eat, which bed he gets to sleep in, whether or not he rode all the rides possible....he'll be glad for the chance to be with people who love him. You can take him to a bunch of museums without any thrill rides and he'll say it was a great vacation and ask when we can go back.
I just came in from the backyard because one of the neighbor boys told me Brenden was bleeding. It's the 3rd time someone else has to tell me when he gets roughed up by another kid. He never tells me (this may be a problem later on). All 3 neighbor boys have now complained that Kyleigh sprayed water on them (and this while it is already sprinkling outside), and Brenden gets sprayed too, looks at her, smiles, and keeps on walking. How do I tell Kyleigh that the boys who are 2-3 years older than her are getting rained on, but don't want her picking on them? I didn't. I ruthlessly told the boys to not go near the water table if they didn't want to get sprayed by her, instead of tell her not to spray the poor picked-on boys. Meanwhile Brenden hasn't broken stride in his playtime fun. The kids have all taken his truck, wheelbarrow, bucket and shovel from him and he's playing with a stick....and probably doesn't even know the difference. I couldn't tell you what his favorite toy, book or activity is...because he can make any one of them the greatest treasures on earth. (But, don't mess with his choo-choo blanket. His Bamma gave it to him and that is one object that he just might put up a fight to keep all to himself).
He can get mad, angry and cranky...he's no ordained Saint. But I'll take my non-competitive, non-confrontational, easy-going boy over a kid who may win all the races, answer all the questions in class, and nail a shelf in his room to place all his trophies.
And these kids might be out of some manual horse power in pushing the truck around the backyard if buddy Brenden wasn't around.

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