"911"

Before our son Timothy turned 2, I took him to the doctor for his regular check up. As I was waiting, I saw a sign for a pageant for children at the local mall. I wasn't sure if Timothy was pageant material. He was a boy's boy: started walking when he was 8 months old, had this sort of "hit and roll" thing he did when he fell, and he loved his firetrucks. He called them "911."

I decided I would do it. Besides, I thought it would be a fun day to meet other parents, a day out where Timothy would do his thing, then we would spend the rest of the time at the mall people watching, eating our typical cookie and coke snack, looking at toys, visiting the bookstore, etc. I couldn't have been more wrong.

First, if you are someone who does the baby pageant thing, I don't mean to offend. But it wasn't for me. I had dressed Timothy in a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and little sweater vest (which I thought was so cute because, well, I'm mom!) and his little work boots. Everyone else was in little suits, black shoes, their hair was fixed just so. Worse was the little girls pageant. Women were walking around holding these frilly dresses, not wanting their little girls to get soiled. Personally, I'd like to see a soiled dress up there every now and then. Reality is good.

So we get to Timothy's age bracket, waited in line for him to do the walk in front of the judges, then it was our turn. He held my hand, walked to the judges table with a little firetruck in hand, looked up at them and said, "911." We walked back down the stairs and did our usual mall thing. We could. He was dressed like a little boy. It didn't matter if he got coke on his shorts or smeared chocolate chip cookie on his vest.

I decided to wait around for a little while, just for closure's sake. And you know what? He got 2nd place in his division. Not because he was the most handsome one out there, (which is a crazy thing to do...really. That's in the eye of the beholder.) but because he was a little boy doing what little boys do, and on that day, that's what stood out.

I've never been to another pageant. I'm sure there are some good things about them. I personally thought it would just be a fun day, and the trophy would end up going to the most behaved child up there. After all, they were 2. I was very disappointed in what I saw, and what it brought out in people. One woman was very upset that the 2nd place winners got to stand on the stage with the 1st place winners. To me, that was disgraceful. However, I was happy that Timothy received 2nd place for just being 2. He received a trophy. It's somewhere in storage, not sure where. I personally like his award from his classmates best. The one where they voted him most kind, most giving, most honest.... I'll hang those on my walls any day!