I’ve never stopped Theo from playing with dolls, tea sets or pink tutus, and a neighbour once identified him as the most beautiful baby girl, he’d every seen. Nonetheless, all signs point to Boy with a capital B.
Why? Because:
- his wardrobe is dominated by blues, greens, reds and blacks; superheroes, trains, cars, and sporting equipment. No sparkles in sight.
Star Wars, Ben Ten, Superman
- he has a phenomenal, God-given forearm.
Duck!
- he greets other toddlers by knocking them over, yelling, or with raspberrys or spitting.
Hi Anna!
- he has little interest in selecting his own clothing.
- his favourite solo indoor activity (besides jumping on the sofa, kicking balls and climbing) is pushing a plastic truck around the house with a little plastic car on top of it.
Truck+car+loop = 45 minutes
- he enjoys rough play.
Ka-bam!
- he can hear or spot a train, plane or automobile at 500 paces.
- his mission is to ensure there are no rocks left on the beach.
Q: Are you cold? Do you want to go home? A: NO!
- if there are no rocks, chunks of ice will do.
Back into the mighty Fraser you go.
- if it’s BIG, it’s worth mentioning. Yes, this applies to the toilet: “OH BIG ONE!”
- he has to take trains, trucks or cars everywhere he goes.
- he can “toot” on demand.
- he pees standing up … anywhere.
Light saber: nuff said.
Do you have a son? Is he the epitome of boydom or has he embraced his feminine side?
LOVE that last pic – awesome!
You know what I love about my man boy?
He is all shoulder blade and rib cage.
He has tried to open mouth kiss me (curious from movies, tv?)
If he has been crying, he ruggedly wipes the tears away with the back of his hand before he enters a room so no one is the wiser.
Awwww! Theo is big cuddler, smoocher actually.
Nope, no boys here…
We are all about dancing wildly in a pink tutu… Fingerpaint.. Sparkle…playdugh and elmo… Picking out clothes that she will wear (some days she just cant decide). Greeting friends with hugs and kisses… Pony stories and nursery rhymes.. Cupcakes with sprinkles… Dora bath toys… Pushing the little shopping cart at the store… Sleeping in her crib with ten stuffed animals and at least 2 babies… Tea parties and cooking in her kitchen… Cuddling with kitty.. Watching the wiggles with a blanket to ve nice and cozy… Snuggling on the couch and most of all lots and lots of art… Crayons… Felts… Glue… Glitter.. Tape… Paint and playdough… I swear this stuff is genetic! She loves loves loves her toddler gym time but give this girl a pink tutu and a black eyed peas song and she is a dance party waiting to happen!
Is funny, my boys are soooo like that – apart from the clothing thing!! They are so precious about all they wear. Can Theo come visit and give them some pointers?!
I have a boy named Theo also, he’s 19 now…you can read about him in my blog, but he was a lot like your Theo at that age….
My three sons are all very much boys, and my six grandsons, too. It amazes me because we also have girls – but the boys, no matter how beautiful as babies, were always manly. I loved the photos – and how true, each one always clung to a car or truck for year. Whenever we took them to the beach, it did seem their mission was to pick up all the rocks (and leave them in the car, truck, pockets, house…) Ah, boys…you’ve got to love them!
very much a boy – will ewww! at the mention of Hannah Montana, and objects to girls on a team … but only since starting school.
at home, he’s in touch with his feminine side (but not much sparkly stuff) and will choose his clothes
Ha, I love the snowball picture. My coworker has a 3-yo boy who loves Lady Gaga and purses and high heels. She loves to tease the grandparents about it b/c it freaks them out
Oh yes, BOY BOY BOY oh BOY! He will feed his ‘baby’ – from his food/cup or Mama’s boobs – but that is about the extent of the feminine/gender neutral behavior. He does like to dress himself but it’s about the task, not the outfit. He loves it when I crash his toy cars and trucks and trains into things. He hits everything, climbs everything.
Oh, he does also love trying on my shoes and clothes, but I suspect it’s because they are just more fun than Daddy’s sneakers who look just like his. Still, nothing better than watching your little boy toddle around in your heels.
I do not have a boy, but i would be curious to see how he would develop or manifest his tendencies towards to.
kuddos on you to let go of stereotypes and let him explore as such – little person. We, the adults, are the ones with the labels.
Don’t worry. He’s in dance class, is very caring, kissy and cuddly and he loves wearing his little girlfriend’s tutu
I was just a little surprised at his “boyish” tendencies.
My son likes rough & tumble play, riding things, climbing as high as possible on anything he can get at, plus playing with sticks (the bigger the better). He has a couple of cars, but doesn’t play with them as much as his stuffed animals & doll. He loves musical instruments & books. So, all in all, not really terribly boyish. But he’s only 17 months old, so we’ll see in another year…
Jay has a really good arm too. Our poor cats. If he decides he is going to throw something at them, he doesn’t miss.
He runs to the front door when the garbage or recycling trucks come.
And he makes motor noises for all his trucks and cars and drives them all over the room.
He loves playing ball.
He got two dolls for christmas and he will sometimes hug them, but they get thrown more often.
He has a play kitchen that he loves…and pretends to cook…but also spends a lot of time banging on it and climbing it. (I actually have a post I am working on because I didn’t previously realize before that play kitchens are considered a girl toy and some boy parents won’t even buy their child one because of it. That’s interesting to me.)
Oh yes! Those toy kitchens are a winner for all kids. I was just to cheap to get one. He just plays in our kitchen… eh hem…
Harriet Fancott harriet@karmavore.com
Our 18-month old son plays with every car, plane, helicopter, or train he can find. Even food becomes a vehicle (he makes us guess which kind it is). He stops everything to listen to a helicopter and he plays his xylophone with a wooden car. His first real word was “ball.” Of course he also loves music and has to admire any jewelry I wear.
The Precious is far more interested in running around waving all sorts of things in the air instead of sitting down with a good book. He is quite fond of cars, trucks, helicopters and has no interest at all in the state of his hair.
Splendid! Love the throwing arm. There is a boy on my son’s soccer team who is truly amazing with balls.
*ahem*
Some kids really do have the gender chip implanted in them, huh? My boys are very different from each other & it has been interesting to watch them accumulate information from books, tv, peers, etc. about What Boys Are. Most of that didn’t come until age 4 with the bigger one — until then he was blissfully ambigendered. Didn’t give a hoot about trucks or planes or fighting or yelling or sports. He liked books. (he still likes books) The younger one, of course, was going POW POW at 18 months; whether because of older influences or different personalities or (most likely) both.
My son enjoys dressing up in whatever his friends at daycare are wearing for dress-up. On days that it’s the two girls? This means tutus (over his pants) and princess slippers. Outside of that, it’s just as you’ve written here, with the exception of that mine doesn’t pee standing up yet.
My boy was the least boyish of his peer group when he was little – huge distaste for rough play, huge interest in babies and nurturing. He’s eleven now and quite boy-ey – he’s a freakin’ baseball prodigy, which has astonished both my husband and me. My girl is pretty girly, but always willing to wrestle a round or two with her brother. Neither of them are off-the-charts stereotypical, but both of them are enough so that there’s no doubt in my mind that they’re just born with a lot of it.
Interesting. I guess people change over time (what a shocker!). Theo does love babies and is quite caring if a kid is hurt or upset (so long as HE wasn’t the reason).
Harriet Fancott harriet@karmavore.com
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Ari is all testosterone. Theo and him would be best buddies if I lived in Vancouver. They would take turns beating the crap out of each other.
Seriously!!
Harriet Fancott harriet@karmavore.com
Nice one:) I have a similar list for our boy. One of the first things I thought of was how we always got peed on when changing his diaper back in his baby days. Lol. Speaking of diapers, I was told that once when he ran out of pull-ups to nap in at daycare and the teacher put on a pink one on him, he was super upset. He had a sad face and told the other teacher that he was wearing a “girl” pull-up:( He’s a boy and likes it that way!