Gender Roles

I think one of the interesting things about having boy/girl twins is watching them independently fall into their specific gender roles.  David will tell you  that I have coached Brenna to be a typical "girl" by dressing her in pink onsies as a baby - but it's not like I only dressed her in pink.  For example:


Looking lovely in brown: 

And can  you even tell which one she is?

I buy the kids a lot of toys, everything from dolls to matchbox cars to coloring books.  I never dictate who plays with what - but Brenna has never shown interest in a matchbox car, whereas these are Hayden's favorite thing to play with.

The discrepancy has been put into a true light as I have finally gotten around to decorating their rooms.  Being a mom has forced me to get my hands dirty in areas that are not my forte (ie, organizing and room decorating).  I think that is why it has taken me 2.5 years to finally get around to it.

While most moms "nest" during their third trimester by doing laundry, painting walls and buying expensive bedding, I spent my last weeks watching episodes of Rock of Love.

Brenna's room is filled with things that interest her: fake flowers that she picked out at the dollar store gladden her wall, as well as sparkly butterflies in matching colors.  Pictures of ballerinas line her crib for her to look at night, and I dipped my thumb into a metaphysical paint can by applying decals:

Excuse the bad lighting, photography is also one of those inept, yet required, "mom skills" I am working on.

I also made this interesting collage made out of baby shoes:


I just moved onto Hayden's room - shoes and flowers and butterflies will take no place on his walls. His interests include cars, trucks, trains and dinosaurs. He also has a particular fondness for buses, in fact, "school bus" was one of his first words.

When we go on playdates, I often will see a boy playing with a doll or another girl-designated (aka pink) toy. But just like I have never seen Brenna pick up one of the 50 toy dinosaurs we have in our house, I have never seen Hayden show any interest in anything remotely "girly".

Well, I take that back...
a few days ago he did put on Brenna's high heels for a brief second:



But the moment lasted only long enough for me to snap some pictures, and then he took them off and pretended that they were cars.


I guess the saying "Boys will be boys!" is true in our house.