kiwords

All day long Tre had been bugging me to paint his beehive.

“Wait until your dad gets home and can help you.”

“I can DO it by MYSELF!” He gave me the MOST irritated look.

“I said WAIT.” I have been a 13 year old girl in my lifetime. Don’t try to be more irritated than me.

Eventually, Clay came home. He came into the kitchen to greet me and cop a quick feel.

“So, did Tre paint his beehive today?”

“No. I made him wait for you.”

He looked puzzled.

“I didn’t think he’d have to wait.”

“I never imagined he’d do it on his own.”

We stood there, observing each other, silently thinking how wrong the other was, and Clay shrugged and headed out to the garage. Clay, in the garage, is an irresistible magnet for boys, and soon all three of them were out there with him. Tre started in on his beehive, and soon had it done, “MOSTLY all on my own, MOM.”

I had to get something from the garden, and as I made my way past the gaggle of testosterone in the garage, I passed Max. Clay had given him his cordless drill, and Max was busy drilling random holes in a chunk of wood.

Except they weren’t RANDOM holes, because as Max told me, “they connect here, see? And here. And if you blow in here, air comes out over here and here.”

The coolness of intersecting holes is apparently reason enough to give a child a power tool. A MAX child, I might add.

I stopped to talk to Clay and as we chatted, Raphael ran up to us, clutching two sharp fragments of wood. I believe the technical term for these would be “brother pith-ers” or perhaps “eye pokers.”

“DAD DAD DAD! I need to put these together LIKE THIS.” He leaped (for emphasis) and crossed the sticks. Clay nodded.

“I see. And how are you gonna do that?”

“I thought I’d use your black tape!”

“Ok. Put it back when you’re done.”

Raphael ran off in search of the tape, and I stared at Clay.

“What?” He slipped an arm around my waist. I shook my head at him.

“It’s just…you’re such a good dad.” I turned to go, and sighed. “But you’d be a lousy mom.”

But then, I suppose we already knew that.