The other day while Ann helped clean up my folks’ house, her daughter Sophie came over and stayed with the guys.  Sophie was born only six weeks apart from Owen and they have known each all their lives.  Sophie is more than a friend to the guys—she’s kind of like family—an honorary cousin.  Watching her and the guys together can be very entertaining.  Now in some ways Sophie is not a girly girl—-she may sometimes carry a purse and wear pink but don’t even ASK me about worms in her pockets, much less the RATTLESNAKE story—-and in some ways Owen isn’t typical macho boy (he’s scared of ladybugs, let alone spiders, etc.).  HOWEVER…..watching them play together sometimes makes me giggle at how much they seem to be hardwired as male and female.  Ann, Judi and I got back here to see Sophie playing next door with not only Leo and Owen but also Ricky and Josh.  She ignored us for awhile and then came in, slowly leaned over the couch, rolled her eyes and pronounced "ohhhhh, four SILLY boys…."  After some chat and protracted goodbyes she and Ann left.  We talked to the guys and let Owen sit and watch some tv and eat a snack.  Quite some time had passed—-I’d poured myself a glass of wine and taken my bra off—when Sophie and Ann appeared.  Evidently they’d been sitting on the curb having a discussion.  Reportedly there had been some teasing that went on during the day and Sophie felt that before leaving she absolutely had to talk it out with the guys so there would be no hurt feelings. She’d already talked to Leo (he refused to elaborate) but needed to talk to Owen.  If you could have seen Owen sitting on the couch looking at her with a "can’t I just drink my beer and watch my movie in peace?" expression you just might be weeping with laughter.  I’m not quite sure what Sophie said (we weren’t supposed to be listening) but we did hear Owen reply "O.K." in a "whatever you say Honey" kind of voice….

Later that night Ann called about something else but when Ernie answered she said, "Ernie, you hurt my feeling and we really need to talk it out."  Ernie said if he’d been on his game he would have replied, "whatever….."

Hardwired……

The boys seemed clueless about the teasing/hurt feelings.  We talked a bit and I reminded them about how their feelings could be hurt when others teased them and they nodded politely but somewhat blankly and said they loved having Sophie here…..

Sophie was worried about being the only girl here that day…..welcome to my world Sophie…..