Boys vs. Girls--A Visit to Teddy Roosevelt Island

Before I had kids, I thought that each child was an individual, and didn't believe much in gender stereotypes in children. Little boys ran and jumped a lot because that's the kind of games they were taught. Little girls played with dolls because that was the kind of toys they were given. I thought that if all kids, regardless of gender, were exposed to the same things, they would have the same tendencies. Then I spent some time in the real world of kids and figured out that I was wrong. Possibly there were some differences between boys and girls. From time to time, I'm going to share some of my experiences that led me to this conclusion. However, so as to not bias you, I'm going to let you guess, who are the boys in the stories and who are the girls.  

Today's Story--Sticks
( Blogger is REALLY not cooperating, so no pictures today. :(

Ward and I visited Teddy Roosevelt Island in Washington, D.C., yesterday. It is an island in the middle of the Potomac River and has a memorial to Teddy Roosevelt on it as well as several hiking and biking trails. We visited the island several years ago, but had been meaning to go back again since I read a biography about him.

We visited the memorial section first which included a statue as well as four granite monoliths with sayings from Roosevelt. Shortly after we arrived, another family joined us. They appeared to be made up of a grandmother, mom and dad, and three kids of elementary school age. The mother was carefully reading all of the quotes to the kids and asking them what they thought our former president meant. The dad and the grandmother would occasionally chip in comments to help the mother. The oldest kid sort of listened but kept repeating the story they had heard about the Teddy Bear. The middle one was maybe listening but was mostly digging in the dirt with a stick, and the youngest one was definitely not listening and was hitting everything they could see with a stick including their siblings. So what do you think? Was this a group of three brothers or three sisters?
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 It was a group of three brothers. Not that little girls don't play with sticks, but they don't seem to seek them out no matter what and continuously hit things with them. Or least that has been my experience with Wally, Theo, and lots of Cub Scouts. 

But Wait, There's More:
My favorite quote that I read at the Island.
  "Keep your eyes on the stars, but your feet on the ground."