So ... we were eating out at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants.
Little Billy is sitting next to me and across the table from his daddy.
There are lots of conversations going on at our table and yet, over all the girly gibberish going on around me, I hear my son talking to his daddy about the girl he likes at his school.
I turn to Little Billy, "What are you talking about?" I say.
He giggles, like a ten year old boy and then says, "Well, you know how I like D, right? Today, I was teasing her about such-and-such and she says, 'I don't care what Billy says - he's dumb.' So then her friend G tells me, 'If she says dumb, like she was saying it with 2 m's (dumm) - then that means that she doesn't really mean it. If she says it like dum-b ... then she means it. How did she say it - dumm or dumb?'" and Little Billy looks at me and laughs.
I sooooo understood this logic, but could not believe that my son - a BOY - was capable of comprehending it, and so I asked, "So ... how did she say it?"
He said, "D-u-m-m. That's how I think she said it - she didn't mean it."
I looked over at my husband, who was smiling a big grin by this point and then said to Little Billy, "I don't really get this whole dumm vs dumb - thing. Do you?" just curious to see what he would say.
"It's a girl thing - I don't really get it either," and he then shoved a bite of his cheese quesadilla into his mouth.
On the upside ... These little girls are 10 years old. My son is 10 years old. This one bizarre conversation leads me to believe that it is very evident that ... these 2 little girls are already very clear of their role in the male/female relationship and how to creatively manipulate those dynamics.
It is also very clear to me that their "while-we-completely-understand-the-logic-of-our-silly-codes-and-signals-but-the-male-of-our-species-will-never-quite-comprehend-what-the-heck-we-are-talking-about" tactics ... have very successfully confused my son (a male of the species) to the point that he somehow thinks he came out of this unscathed.
I didn't have the heart to tell him that dumb - means DUMB, no matter how you spell it or say it. I just left it alone and let the poor thing enjoy his cheesy quesadilla.