Boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails...

At the start of the year, Sophie came home in tears talking about a rather large boy in her class chasing her and almost pulling her to the ground during recess. (Apparently, the first-grade boys are notorious for chasing and pulling each other down until they're all in a heap of giggling boys struggling to get back up. The teacher assured me it happens every year, and she has to put her foot down about it every time.)

Anyway, that stopped pretty early on as their teacher reinforced it.

However, shortly after this incident with Sophie, I went to her school to read a story to the class. Upon standing there, a rather hefty little chunk-o-boy raised his hand. I smiled at him and he said, "Um, Sophie doesn't like me."

I tried not to giggle, but I IMMEDIATELY figured out who he was.

Well, since then, they've become acquaintances and were able to talk and be friends in the classroom.


A few days ago, however, we were walking around our neighborhood when we saw him on his bicycle, barefooted, playing with the boy 2 houses down from us.

"SOPHIE??!!!" he said. She smiled.

"Sophie, I didn't know YOU lived in our neighborhood!!!!

He was all smiles. ALL smiles.

We walked up to our door where we showed him Ziggy (our monster cat) and talked for a minute. Everyone said 'bye and went their own way. That was Friday.

Well, then came today at school...


Sophie came home with TWO things to tell us. One was that Alex told her he was "coming over to get her and take her to his house so they could play."

The other was that Sophie, in her own words, was "teased by EVERYONE - and I mean EVERYONE (even a 5th grader!) - about just bein' friends with Alex."

I asked her what they said, and she went into a nagging taunt about "boyfriend and girlfriend" and something about "kissin'."

*heart just stopped*


Now, Sophie KNOWS not to be kissin' on boys. And I reminded her that if ANYONE SO MUCH AS TRIED TO KISS HER, she needs to tell them no.

I was puzzled at why people were teasing them and then it hit me to ask her -- "Were you guys holding hands or something?"

She told me that he'd asked to hold her hand.

Now, part of me wants to "Awwwww" over this because I know that boys and girls have genuine feelings of "that's my really good friend" at this age. But then again, part of me wants to run face-first into a wall over the reality that some boy was holding my baby's hand... and then she got teased about it in THAT WAY.

*heart palpitations*

I had a few "girl talks" with Sophie tonight about those "stinkin' boys" and how they sometimes want to be kissin' on girls and huggin' on girls and to stand her ground and tell them NO and that she should NEVER EVER do anything that she doesn't want to do.

But I reassured her that it's okay to be friends with Alex... and that if they want to hold hands, it's okay... but not IN school.

Oh, DEAR GOD, please watch over my baby!!!!!