See Honey, The Princess Dress-Up Never Confused His Gender Identity At All!

Chalk this up to another one of those times.

When Punkinhead was a wee lad, he loved to do all things LMNOB. As LMNOB was in the full-on-Disney-Princess-Barbie-PINK!-Glam-dress-up mode, this often meant that Punkinhead would traipse down the stairs clad in ensembles so effeminate even drag queens would find them distasteful. This was to the horror of one Charlie Brown. Oh, he'd laugh and say he was just teasing, but I knew it really bothered him when, on occasion, I would become an accomplice to this gender-bending play by including Punkinhead in the home-done mani-pedi days that LMNOB and I would have. Then Charlie Brown would scold me and say, "Why are you ADDING to this?"

And I would just raise my eyebrows and say, "1. Thought you didn't REALLY care, and 2. All little boys who happen to have a big sister imitate what they see, it doesn't last forever, you'll see."

Fast forward several years to yesterday.

A group from church has recently starting singing for the nursing home in our neighborhood on the first Sunday of the month. We decided to join them yesterday. The singing was wonderful, the kids were beautifully behaved, and the elderly attendants were greatly entertained. When we were done, folks from the group mingled with the residents of the home, saying hello and giving them a little TLC.

LMNOB and Punkinhead were like celebrities amongst these guys and one little old lady, bless her everlovin' heart, rolled over to Punkinhead in her wheelchair, clasped his face and proclaimed, "You are such a beautiful little GIRL."

Horrified and indignant, Punkinhead's eyes grew big and he loudly informed her, "I'm not a GIRL, SHE is," as he pointed to his sister emphatically. But it didn't stop there, no, he had to add on for clarification, "I'm a BOY!"

Charlie Brown stepped in and swooped him up apologetically, then had a discussion with Punkinhead about how sometimes when people get really old, their brains don't work as well as they used to and they confuse their words. This surely was the case with this sweet old lady and she didn't mean any harm by what she said, she got a little confused.

We and our friends, however, are not yet so addled in our minds and we laughed about this all night long.




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