Carter's Doll

At daycare the child closest to Carter's age is a little girl who is 11 months old.  Her favorite toys to play with are the baby dolls.  When I dropped Carter off a few days ago the little girl was playing with one of the dolls like usual.  Carter was sitting, surrounded by balls, but was all eyes for the little girl and her baby doll.  She was very sweetly patting the baby on the head.  Their teacher picked up a baby doll and was showing her how to pat the baby on the back, rather than the head.  Carter continued to watch and then began to fuss.  Realizing he wanted a baby doll to play with too, his teacher handed him one.  He very happily stopped fussing, grabbed the baby's arm, and began swinging it around.  Not the most gentle way to play with a baby doll, but he was happy.

Playing with a doll at daycare.

Saturday we were grocery shopping.  As we walked by the toy aisles Ty asked if Carter needed a new toy.  I emphatically answered yes!  We started down the aisle.  I was carrying Carter and held toys up to him.  He didn't show much interest in the first few toys.  Then I got to a baby doll.  When I held it up a huge smile reached across his face and he began reaching for her.  She had a button on her tummy that when pushed made baby giggles and sounds.  He smiled each time I pushed the button.  I figured if he loved her, he would really love the animals that wiggled and made noise.  When we got to those he had no interest, barely even looked at them.  All the way down the aisle we tried toys.  None of them got a reaction like the baby doll.  So we went back to the baby doll, again he smiled and reached for her.  That was it, he wanted that doll.

As we were leaving the toy area Ty saw a huge display of oversized plastic balls.  We stopped as he played with the balls for a few minutes and then he insisted that I play with one too.  So we ended up buying one of those as well, more for daddy than for Carter, but Carter and I played with it at home.

After we paid for our groceries and got to the car I couldn't wait to open the doll and let Carter play with her.  I even sat in the back seat on the way home so I could watch him.  It was so sweet to see him hug her tight and hold her hand.  When he holds her hand he swings her around in the air, it's quite comical.

He's going to be such a good big brother some day!

I'm so glad that Ty is such an easy going guy and has no problem letting Carter get whatever toy he wants, whether it's a toy intended for a boy or a girl.  When we found out Carter was a boy I had Ty read the book William's Doll by Charlotte Zolotow.  It was a great way to open up a discussion about what kinds of toys we would give Carter.  At that point Ty said Carter could have a doll if he wanted one and that he had lots of stuffed animals as a child.

My parents always allowed us to get whatever toys we wanted as kids.  We were never restricted to "girl" or "boy" toys.  Both my brothers and I had all of the surprises: the puppy surprise, kitty surprise, bunny surprise, bear surprise, horse surprise.  We loved those toys and we all played with them together.  We all also had G.I. Joes and transformers.

Anyone else have these as a kid?  Best toy ever!

One year for Christmas my little brother wrote a letter to Santa Claus asking for a baby wanna walk, an easy bake oven, and fake fingernails among other things.  My mom joked that she was a little embarrassed to send the letter in to the newspaper, but did anyway.  It may have seemed strange to other people, but he liked to put the fake fingernails on, pretend to be a werewolf, and chase me around.  I remember praying that Santa didn't bring them because it scared me so much!  He treated the baby wanna walk like a robot.  He would set her up and as she walked across the room he would shoot at her with a Nerf gun until she fell over.  Now the easy bake oven?  He just loved to bake!

Holding her hand.

I always respected the fact that my parents allowed us to be who we wanted to be and didn't force us into gender stereotypes and roles.  As a result I knew that I wanted to do the same thing for my children.  I'm so glad Ty feels the same way so we can allow Carter to be who he was meant to be and play with whatever his little heart desires!