She Knows What She Likes

I remember my first crush. His name was Brandon, and a bright shade of blue colored his eyes. When I noticed him on the school playground during the last recess of the first grade, I thought that we would one day marry. I even remember sharing a bowl of strawberry ice cream with my PapPap and telling him all about the brown-haired, blue-eyed boy who wore a C3PO tee-shirt and held his balance while walking around the wooded border that surrounded the playground. That night, I asked Jesus to make sure that Brandon and I were assigned the same second grade teacher. I was concerned that the fact that we had never been in the same class would hinder our chances of matrimony.

I'm not sure if Jesus humored me or if happenstance placed Brandon and I in Mrs. Hepler's second grade classroom. Nonetheless, my young heart raced when the assigned seating arrangement dictated that my desk was to be next to the one belonging to the seven-year-old boy who would one day pass me a note that read, “Do you like me? Check yes or no.”

Brandon and I never married. In fact, our courtship ended in the third grade. But my penchant for blue-eyed boys remained. My point? I have two of them. One, I started liking boys at a ridiculously young age. Two, one does not need to be mature to be drawn to certain characteristics.

Take my sweet X-Factor as another example. Last week, she approached me with this question.

“Mommy, why do people have to get married?”

To which I responded, “Well, people do not have to get married, but God created marriage for grown ups because families are important.”

I know, not necessarily the best or most thorough response, but sometimes over explaining things to my daughter leads to further confusion. Plus to be honest, I really wanted to avoid her asking me about anything related to baby-making, so I felt that a short answer was best.

Our conversation continued.

X - “Oh, well I think I will want to get married some day when I am a grown up. I'll make sure to pick a really good husband...probably Luis.”

M – Gulp. “Luis? Is he a boy in your class?”

Because I'm a great multi-tasker, while I was talking my mind reeled with the following thought and question, Oh no...I am raising a mini-me. Why does she have to act so grown up?

X - “Yes. And I like him so much because he is very kind and I really like the color of his skin. It's kind of like mine, but not as white. But, I like his eyes the best. He has really black eyes. Black eyes are the most wonderful kind of eyes.”

And with that, she bounced away. And I laughed. When I recounted the story to Dr. N, we remembered our time in the Southwest and how even as a toddler, X-Factor appeared taken by little boys of the Latino/Hispanic persuasion.

Although brown-eyed boys may first garner her attention, I'm pleased to know that my daughter is still level-headed concerning matters of the heart. Yesterday she announced that she no longer thinks she'll marry Luis.

“It's a little bit sad,” she said. “I still really like his beautiful eyes, but he doesn't listen to the teacher, and I just cannot deal with that.”

What can I say? My girl...she has opinions.