My second daughter has always been a tomboy. When she was younger she would say I'm my daddys son or I am the son my daddy never had (she is a daddys girl through and through). She's the type of kid instead of wanting dolls to play with she wanted trucks, cars, sticks, and rocks. She's the one that you dress up to look like a doll and then she goes out and plays in the first mudhole she can find. For years my husband was a mechanic at my fathers auto repair shop after school she would come to the shop and look like a grease monkey by time I got her home. She was always saying she wanted to work on the cars like Daddy. To understand some of what I am going to say next you will have to remember that she is the daddys girl.
The last two years have been a trial for her though. As she has begun to blossom she has tried even harder to act like that son we never had. Where she got it in her mind I will never know. But I realized that she felt that if she acted more like a girl maybe I wouldn't love her as much or she wouldn't be her dad's buddy anymore. It took my husband and I explaining to her that we want all of our girls to know we don't care whether they are boys or girls we love them no matter what. She became a little less embarrassed about the changes she was going through, but even today she doesn't want to talk about it. I even got so agitated at her boyish act I enrolled her in cheerleading just so that every Saturday for three months I could see her be a girl. It worked until the season was over and then back to the boy we went. Yet as of late I have noticed that she has started straigthening her hair before school and experimenting with some of the eye shadow and eye liner I purchased for her last Christmas.
Today she turns 12 and I can say that she has started to change from my son to my daughter. Do I believe that she will ever be as dainty as the other two girls, NO! But I know that I am wrong for not letting her be who she is. I realize that she knows without a shadow of a doubt she is a girl, she just doesn't like to be girlie all the time. Like I said before she is a tom boy and most likely always will be. So shame on me!
So here's to Shawna may you enjoy your trucks, cars, rocks, sticks, eyeliner, eyeshadow, and straightener. Be who you are Baby and know that we love you no matter what. Happy Birthday Baby Girl!