Ada is, by nature, a rule-follower.  She knows the rules, expects everyone to follow them, but also knows how to find the loopholes.  She isn’t often defiant because she knows when she’s lost an argument.  She is rational, which really makes her an easy 8-year-old.

However, she is still an 8-year-old.

When Ada has had enough and chooses to no longer be rational, her defiance shows up by choosing to do nothing.  She doesn’t speak, doesn’t move, literally does nothing – as evidenced by this photo:

She was mad about something, who can remember, and didn’t want to walk home.  … Read the rest

I’m sitting on my porch, writing on my laptop, watching and listening to my son play with a friend.  Everything is a virtual peeing contest between the two of them.  Inevitably, their playing turns into smacking and laughing, then harder smacking, soon there’s less laughing, now they’re punching, and finally someone stops the game.  And back to racing the matchbox cars.

And then it dawned on me.  THIS is why he doesn’t play well with girls.  Well, more specifically, his sisters.  His sisters don’t play like this, but he expects them to.  He tries to play like this with them.  … Read the rest