The Pink Tide

I never imagined I would live in a girl controlled house. It seemed when my baby brother was born, the fourth boy, the last one, I was forever doomed to male dominance. We had a democratic household when I was growing up, but the guys always overturned any ideas of fun I had.

Play princess? Forget it. Cowboys and indians or cops and robbers.

Play dolls? Are you kidding? We’re going fishing. 

My entire neighborhood was also nothing but boys. There were no other girls in walking distance until I was about 13. Almost grown up by then.

I never got even until we played barber and I had the scissors. Boy, did I cut some hair. 

My first child was a boy and I had to put in another eight years of being overruled on anything girly. We weren’t even sure if we could have any more children for a while. Then Kara came along. First time in my life, we were tied. It felt strange just to have an equal say in how things would go. When Spanky came along, that was it. The tide had turned, and it turned pink.

Girls rule. FOREVER!

First Christmas, we threw out the wooden train stuff and plaids and got the pink tree. 

Which was a gift, really, from whatever had made my life so male dominate for my first twenty-nine years of life.

I was only looking for a tree with a blue tint. I spotted the one I wanted and asked the store manager to get me a fresh one still in the box. They were 70% off. 

All they had left was the floor model and the manager said if I bought it, he’d give me all the lights, ribbons, and ornaments on that tree for free.

I got about $500 worth of stuff for $30. Best deal I ever got, depending on who you talk to, of course. Everything was pink, the ten light sets, the ribbons, the bulbs, everything except for the miniature birdbaths.

(I let ’em off easy this year and used the white lights.)

We were consumed with power. We got flowery wallpaper and drapes, ballet pink carpet (not kidding, it looked like cotton candy) and skunked the house up with perfume every chance we got.

We got control over the remote. Now that’s real power. I can’t tell you how many cage fights and wrestling matches I’ve had to endure. Now it’s a parade or E! Any time we want.

“Oh, you want go deep sea fishing this year? Screw that, we’re going to Paris. You can come along if you want.”

“You want a big dog? No way Dude, I want something I can hold in my arms and dress up like a baby. Girl dogs! Two.”

And now that Blane Jr. is out the house, that leaves us three femmes to one homme (plus two bitches).

But seriously, we only went overboard with the decorating in the other house.

And we never really got control over the remote. Come on, do you really think a guy would ever give that up? 

Remember that “Want to Play a Game?” post from Wednesday? Here is a great place to slip in a fair and square game in which the winner will receive season two of Ice Road Truckers.

You have to guess Scrappy’s birthdate, the month and day only.

I have never mentioned her birthdate on this blog or elsewhere, so everyone has a fair shot at this. I’ll give you one hint. She was born in the summer (that is June 21st to September 20th for you guys Down Under).

Put your answer in the comments and I’ll announce the winner on Christmas Day. You can enter one guess only and the person who comes closest to her birthday wins.

I’ll mail the DVD to you or to a person of your choice. Good luck!