10 year old boys hands

my daughter

while sitting at the dinner table

in a quiet moment

quickly ceased the silence

by rubbing her hands along her leg

and expressing

"~ewwwww~"

"mom,

do you even know

how gross it is

to hold a boys hand~!"

and
of course,

i thought long and hard on this answer

but

when my answer took to long to reach my lips

i had no choice

but to repeat the only word i felt comfort in

all while trying to force

a non-motherly-not-worried-smile

onto my face

..

"gross???",.. i said
..

feeling my voice crack under pressure

knowing even if i had pulled off the look

i still just gave it away

then

she explained

how in gym class

she had to line up boy/girl/boy/girl

and play some sort of

red-rover-red-rover

send so-n-so over

and with that

i feel the blood start to pump again

but she

still rubbing her hands across her legs

as if they contained so many cooties

there was no room left to hold her fork

proceeds to tell me the name

of both boys hands she had to hold

of course, not without blushing

and interjecting a question

"why are there hands so sweaty and.. just ICK!"

what do I say?
..

"yeah~ ick.. aren't they???"
..

laughter settles the mood

i had survived

then..

my 4 year old.. son

says,..'mom, you like holding my hand, don't you?'

shit, FAILURE, I FAILED!..

" YES!!!"~ I SAY! ~"YES!!!"

"I LOVE YOUR HANDS!!"

then he adds

.."even if I'm sweaty and ick?"

*sigh*

I love that boy.

sweaty and ick and all.

My daughter, she'll love her brothers hands

someday

and other boys sweaty hands?

.. farrrr tooo soooon!