Transformation

It's amazing how anything seems possible to little kids.

They know nothing of natural limits; they think that they might be able to do anything and become anything in that mythical future "someday."

Someday, when Owen is bigger, he wants to have "some rings and earrings like Mommy's." When Stewart "turns into a woman," he plans on using the woman's restroom- he also believes that someday he will have boobies.

It's interesting to me that even though they know they are boys, they still believe it's possible, someday, to experience being a woman.

They also talk a lot about what will happen when they "turn into babies." I keep trying to explain that people only get to be babies for a little while, and then never again, but they still go on and on about it. Sometimes when I talk about what they were like as babies, they confuse the past and future.

For example, I told Owen that he used to kick me when he was in my tummy, just like Baby Wilbur. He looked horrified. "No, no Mom. I don't want to go in your tummy!" he exclaimed.

They boys talk about growing up and being "big like daddy," too- Owen has pointed out that when he is a dad, he won't need a stepstool. But this very plausible view of his future seems just as likely to him as turning into a mommy or a baby.

It must be so simultaneously exhilarating and frightening to have such a limitless view of life. To believe that you might wake up tomorrow and be a man? A woman? A baby? Anything?

It makes me a little sad that in only a few short years, they will understand all too well what their future can hold and what it can't. They will understand with perfect clarity that they will never be women, babies, doggies or monkies.

Of course, this may be a good thing. I remember there was one girl in my sister's kindergarten class who said she wanted to be a butterfly when she grew up and we all laughed and mocked her for years.