Genderizing

Joshy has an endearing habit of picking up items around him and handing them off to people nearby-- he hands me globs of dusty cat hair, he hands his grandpa pieces of mail and he hands strangers pieces of toys he finds. So it was no surprise when he plopped himself by the trainset in what we fondly call Barnes and Nobes today between a little boy and his dad and began handing off worn down scratched up Thomas trains to the elder. He did what most of us would do politely took each piece with a smile and after thanking him, placed them back with their train engine comrades on the big wooden set. The surprising part (which maybe shouldn't have surprised me) was when Josh passed a toy to the man's son. It was a plastic magenta wing with assorted colors swirling around a sticker on its side. The boy quickly inspected it and refused it, slapping it to the ground with a firm, "girl toy!"

I think it's so beautiful to see my Joshy in this pre-gender-role state-- he loves trucks and he loves baby carriages-- both have wheels, which is pretty much all he cares about. He loves his overstuffed lion and he loves his fluffy "Mr. Pinky Head" doll--they are both soft. He loves grabbing Mama's purple hat and his bro's skull baseball cap-- both go on and off his little head while he makes silly faces of glee. How much longer do I have before he shuns his pink-headed toy and worries butterfly toys have cooties?

As I ponder this, I find myself in need of more cloth dipes before I go back to work. When I posted on all my favorite mama Facebook pages that I'm looking to trade or buy more fuzzibunz for Joshy's buns, I immediately got an offer that would test my ability to withstand gender roles for Joshy and his "bunz"-- pink and purple size mediums! Procrastinating any color-based gender-role decision, I offered to trade, but not buy the dipes-- way to go half-way mama!

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