Boy Crazy

Grace is positively, unequivocally, no-way-to-hide-it, boy crazy, bless her heart. It's the strangest thing to watch, because it's nothing David or I or her peers have influenced. This is 100% nature, no nurture about it. Some of the 4 and 5-year olds in Grace's preschool do dress like teenagers and look like they could be "boy crazy." Not Grace. She's the embodiment of pure, sweet, innocent, and generally unaware. Her first obsession was with "Beef," aka "Steve" from the kids' show Blue's Clues. She's moved on, but Steve occasionally still gives her butterflies. Then there was this show-off "Brandon" from a Kathie Lee video. He was the first one we called "Boy." He's a camera hog, who wears an irressistible leather jacket. That was before Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos is from Venezuela. He is twelve. He is handsome. He makes Grace go weak in the knees. It's the same with "Guitar Boy," aka "James" and also with the latest, as we discovered on Sunday, our friend Bob. As far as we can see, Grace's physiological reaction to these crushes is involuntary. Poor thing doesn't have a bit of a poker face. She couldn't hide it if she wanted to. Thing is, she doesn't know she should want to hide it. She literally shuts down when she's around these "boys," unable to talk, move, smile, or even blink. We're on to her now, but at first, it was as if she were suddenly getting sick. Love sick is more like it. It's hard not to egg it on, because it's so darn cute and funny to watch this sweet little girl absolutely lose her plot around the next thing in fatigue cargo pants, kicking a soccer ball, and/or strumming a guitar.