Girl to boy (girl we don't know)-

"Why do you have your toenails painted? Boys don't paint their nails."

Visualize me stopping in my tracks immediately to see how the boy will respond. And waiting to see if I will need to trip the girl for teasing him.

Boy looks her squarely in the eye, and in response, after a 5 second or so pause, tilts his head to the left and raises his shoulders slightly, quickly-

"Because I like it. And when my Mom gets some blue nail polish at the store (now waving his fingers at girl) I'm gonna paint my fingernails, too!"

He races off on his ride on toy, the one you don't need to push but only to turn the steering wheel quickly to get it to move.

"Hmm," she responds, and races off behind him.

I smile to myself, quietly, proudly. With relief. And think,

Ya, I grew him.