Sam never stops moving, ever. Well, I take that back. If the TV is on, he'll settle in for awhile, stick his thumb in his mouth and his hand down his pants, and just relax. But other than quality time with the telly and his left hand (the right one is always for sucking), he never stops moving. Why read a book when you can create a ramp out of it and then jump on it? Why tell a story when you can act it out, complete with a soundtrack? So what if the toy already makes noise, more is required, so I'll scream!
Now, don't get me wrong, I was not raised in girl-land. I had (and still have, thanks to my mother's hoarding ways) Tonka trucks, Star Wars action figures, and Matchbox cars, but I don't recall playing with them in the same ways. I was much more literal in my play. For example, cars drove around on the ground, as opposed to being hurled through the air at your mother's head. The Star Wars action figures interacted in realistic scenarios, as opposed to being test objects for a slingshot.
Sam's inability to sit in one place for more than 30 seconds (sans TV) is, of course, completely normal. He is a 3 1/2 year old, and a 3 1/2 year old boy, at that. While still firmly believing that gender is a social construction, especially when it comes to tastes and preferences (e.g., what to wear, toys to play with, etc.), I can't help but notice the difference in activity level between boys and girls. No, it's not just research based on an "n" of one. I'm a sociologist, for crissakes. The research shows that level of activity seems to be one of the major sex differences between boys and girls, with a large continuum among boys and girls, of course. My child just happens to be on the more active end of that continuum, along with whirling dervishes and ants. His activity level is often maddening to me, mostly because a) I can't keep up with it, and b) I just don't understand it. Why WOULDN'T you want to sit down and read for 45 minutes? Of course intellectually I understand it, and I don't actually think that he has ADHD, but sometimes his lack of ability to focus and sit still drives me to happy hour well before 5:00 PM. For that, I can move really fast....
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