It's a Boy Thing...At Least I'm Hoping

Me and my boy

I come in from my run tonight as my son is jumping off the couch saying, "Mom, check this out!" He's thrusting his butt out in a bizarre pose and at first I think he's just trying to show me the super hero character plastered across his undies (and he's only in his undies because he thinks big boys wear JUST undies to bed). He has on his Captain America mask and shield and he continues to strike odd fighting-like poses while shouting things like "Kabam!"

"Wow, buddy. Are you getting all the bad guys?"

"Yeah! I'm a super hero ninja. And, look, I'm protecting my butt!"

On closer inspection, I see that he has taken a small bungee cord and has hooked one end to the front of his undies, threaded the bungee cord between his legs, and then hooked the other end to the back of his undies. I cringe at the thought of what kind of injury this could cause (injuries primarily involving scraping and/or snapping...either of which I think would be extremely painful to that area). I look at my husband who is just shaking his head and laughing. 

What does a good mom do at this point? Make him take it off? Discuss safety of bungee cords and other miscellaneous tools he likes to use around the house?  I'm not sure what a good mom would do. I, on the other hand, get my camera and take multiple pictures that I will use at some point in his life to embarrass him :)

These little incidents occur on a regular basis around here and are so far from the experiences we had raising our older daughter. As a toddler, she sat and played nicely with her toys. We never baby proofed because she never got into anything. As a preschooler she would rather spend her time reading, writing, and drawing than running around causing havoc.

He's all boy! He cannot resist
a good mud puddle.

Needless to say, our son rocked our world. He was all motor from the get go. He was army crawling shortly after 4 months, crawling by 6, and walking by 10. He was into EVERYTHING! He'd clear out kitchen cupboards and hide in them. I caught him on top of the wash machine once...not really sure how he got up there. And the worst may have been when I found him next to the toilet with one of the doll spoons. I just convinced myself that he did NOT use that spoon to drink the toilet water. We baby proofed everything but it didn't work. He quickly figured out the locks and then destroyed most of them.

Who taught this kid table
manners?

And as he started getting older he realized how hilarious potty talk is. I think his 5 favorite words are: poop, butt, buttsicles, poopsicles, and toot. At what point can I expect he learns these are probably not socially appropriate words to use with friends? Or wait, maybe men continue to use these words in their adult conversations. I guess I need to consult with my husband on that one.

My son doesn't seem to have a filter, either, and will ask or say things in public that make me want to shrivel up and die. I know he's not saying them to be mean or gross. He's just asking out of pure curiosity but when I tell him we'll talk about it later, he does not give up. He wants an explanation NOW!

I sometimes struggle with the balance between just "being a boy" and teaching him what behavior is acceptable in public and even in our home. I obviously want to teach him to be a respectful and responsible citizen but I don't want to kill his spirit in the process. After all, he is just a 4-year-old boy. Someday he'll realize girls don't think talking about "buttsicles" is all that cute.

My pefect, little gentleman :)

He did assure me yesterday that he was a gentleman because, "I said 'excuse me' after I burped." Well, that's a start, buddy, that's a start.