Like, WOW!"

I was half asleep Friday night when I decided to invite all the boy cousins over to play games Saturday night.  I groggily wondered why we didn't have anything planned for the next night as I haphazardly threw out a few texts.  (I even forgot to invite Jake until the next day, I was so sleepy.) Nikki, Jennie and Grandma planned on taking the girls to a movie during game night.  A plan was in place!

As it turned out, we actually did have something planned for the next night: Ruby's recital.  She had one Friday night and one Saturday night, so her 8 Saturday families had to navigate the front porch pizza party to get inside, but once they did, the recital was smooth sailing.

Outside was a different story.  Austin, who had been injured in a soccer game, decided to hop on one foot into the gully, where he fell down and had to be carried out by his cousins.  Holding the ice pack on his knee, he was crying, "Don't call my mom!"  Nikki and I decided it was both the pain and the fear of missing out on the fun that was upsetting him.  Also, somebody was bleeding, somebody slid into the gully and couldn't get the sled back up the steep hill, and Freestone might have poison ivy on his face.  Oh, and the littlest boys were caught preparing to drink their own pee.  So just a typical night with 11 boys at the house.  (Jackson, Kiptyn and Ptolemy missed the photo.)

When I put this picture on Instagram, one of Freestone's friends said, "How many kids do you have, Mrs. Dopp?"  I told her I only have 7, but lots of cousins.  She replied, "OK, I was like WOW!"

I thought that was so cute.  A lot of the time, I'm like, "WOW," too.  (Even when there are no cousins over!)  For example, I never thought I would have to actually say the words, "You can't drink your own pee."  I also never dreamed it would be so great to have this many boys running around doing their boy thing.  They're so fun and easy and gorgeously boyish in their mannerisms and ideas.  I love watching them be little boys, trying to fathom the great, strong, capable men they will become.  Each one is bursting with possibility.

At the end of the night, I took some of them to the Haj to trade magic cards.  They approached the owner with their cards and he treated them with respect, like real human beings, not little boys who were being too loud or rambunctious.  I was grateful.  I loved seeing the little pack of game enthusiasts having their spark fanned by an adult.  I sometimes wonder if little boys feel too much pressure to not be little boys.  Not this time, not at my house, not in the gully, not in the clubhouse, and not at the Haj.

Because these fledgling men, their raw energy just makes you step back and think, "Wow."  Let's see where this goes.