Hank's Future Bride

For those of us who know Hank well, it's always been a bit surprising that his best friend is a little girl. Hank likes to wrestle and dig for worms and pretend his plastic dinosaurs are fighting one another. His best friend, L____, likes to play with dolls and put on dress up clothes. Still though, they seem to prefer one another as playmates.

In fact, Hank once told me, "I'm going to marry L____ when I grow up."

"You are? How do you know she'll want to marry you?"

Hank convulsed into fits of giggles, "Mom, of course she'll want to marry me; I'm her best friend."

Hank loves L____; just ask him. If he knew the word fiancée I'm quite sure he'd use it to describe L____.

Yesterday Hank was called upon to defend L____'s honor, and rose to the challenge. Hank's friend A______ was also at the school playground following the drop-off of older siblings at school. Coffee in hand, I was busy chatting with other moms content to have a few minutes of peace as Elisabeth played with her toes in her stroller and Hank ran around with his friends.

All of a sudden though, I heard yelling. It was A______ and L____. Hank was across the playground watching A______ and L____ yell at each other when, all of a sudden I heard A____ yell, "Hank's not your friend, L____!" Well, that wasn't to be tolerated. Hank saw the crestfallen look on L____'s face and the burgeoning tears and he charged across the playground as fast as his little legs could take him and tackled A____ in, what looked like to me, a protective rage.

I asked him later what he'd been thinking and how we don't charge out of nowhere and tackle our friends and Hank said, "But Mom, L____ was going to cry. A____ told her I wasn't her friend and I am."

Yes folks, that's my Hank, the defender of his girlfriend's honor and feelings at the ripe old age of four. I wonder what he'll be like when he's fourteen.