Gender-Based Toys and other fun things

As many of you probably know, Target has recently announced they will be removing signs in their toy section designating "girl toys" and "boy toys."  There has been a lot of backlash, with people saying Target has gone too far and is caving in to the "radical progressive BS."  People are claiming they now will have a more difficult time navigating Target's stores.  I'm not sure that it is going to be that much more difficult to go the aisle that says "Legos" and then pick the Lego set you're looking for - instead of before finding the aisle that said "Girl Legos."  Apparently the sign that set this all off was one that said "Building Sets," and below it "Girls Building Sets."  So, if Target does as they promise, you will still go to the aisle that says "Building Sets" to buy a building set.  Not sure how that's more difficult than before.

In any case, I am a mama who is grateful for the change. My sensitive little boy whose favorite color is purple does not need to be told he cannot buy a purple cup because it is "for girls."  And I'm speaking from experience here.  This is the cup Jayden asked me to buy him today.

The motivation was the purple lid/straw.  I don't know if he saw the other pictures, and if he did, he definitely didn't care.

I was going to stand my ground and tell him no, we wouldn't buy it.  But part of me loves that this tough little boy loves purple and doesn't care one bit whether or not his cup has princesses on it.  When we got home, Carmen noticed the cup and commented "I didn't realize it was a princess cup."  Jayden was napping, and it's not like Carmen cares either (this is the guy who wears floral shoes, pink shoes, funky socks and whatever other fashion trend gets sent to him for free), but I don't want Jayden to hear the comments.  I'm sure he'll get it enough as he gets older.  I just hope he has as much confidence as Carmen does to deflect and stand by his choices.

So, long story short, I'm happy Target removed the "boys" and "girls" signs.  I read that the toys are still segregated exactly as they were before, they just aren't labeled.  And that's enough for me.

And here's proof of our tough little boy:

Besides the layer (or ten) of dirt covering his face, he got two pretty good scratches on Friday - one near his eye and one on his jawline.  He also got a pretty good scrape on his elbow.  His elbow came from scraping his arm on a brick wall.  His face came from falling off the monkey bars.  He told me he cried both times, but that he was okay.  And his face scratches happened about 15 minutes before I arrived on Friday, and he was smiling and happy when I got there.  So that's our tough little guy.

Jayden tells us a lot of stories about his "other house" or about things he did when he was "older."  He has "friends" who do a lot of things he'd like to do (especially when we say no - for instance, I tell him he can't have two desserts, and he says "well, mom, my friends, at their house, they say I have to have two desserts because that's how they do it."  It's hard for me to argue with that, since it's completely not true.  He has another house.  I think that house has a water slide and a bounce house.  And probably a gigantic Hot Wheels track.

Speaking of bounce houses, Jayden and I were driving to pick up dinner today and we saw a bounce house on the way.  He pointed it out and I told him they must be having a party.  He told me all the things he would do on the bounce house and was suggesting we stop by.  I explained we didn't know those people and so we couldn't go use their bounce house.  He said "well, we can just ask them their names!"  Which is so funny, because it's exactly what he would NOT do his first week of preschool.   But now he's Mr. Social Butterfly apparently.  In any case, we did not stop by the random people's house just to play in the bounce house.

Jayden had a great swim class today.  At the end, he was "surfing" on the surf board.  He's gotten pretty good at balancing, which is awesome.

Jayden, as always, has been cute with his sister.  Sometimes he is overly affectionate or playful.  For instance, today he reached over and hit her on the head with his fist.  Because that's what he'd do to me or Carmen.  I knew he didn't do it on purpose, but I had to rather sternly explain that it was not okay for him to do that.  I have to do it in a way that doesn't make him feel too badly, though, because he's prone to shutting down if I do that.  If I explain the limitations calmly, and explain why, he reacts much more favorably.

Hanging out on the play mat this morning.  Dakota just stares and stares at her big brother.  

Jayden always seems to think he needs to get within inches of her face to talk to her. I've had to almost pull him off of her, so that he's not essentially breathing in her face - especially because he's been coughing a bit recently.  Life is hard.  

One other challenge with two younger kids, maybe one of the biggest, is bedtime.  We're trying to get bedtimes to be close together.  It gives Carmen and me some time either together or, if nothing else, to get things done that we can't get done during the day.  BUT, it's nearly impossible to get them down at the same time.  And I nurse Dakota for her last feeding before bedtime, so my bedtime routine with the kids takes somewhere between two and three hours.  I have no idea how I'm going to handle that when I go back to work. Basically we go upstairs between 6:45 and 7, and I get back downstairs sometime between 8:30 and 9:30.  Thank goodness I can be on my phone or iPad or whatever while putting Dakota to bed.  It will at least allow me to respond to work emails or handle other little things during that time.

And then there are those nights where Dakota decides it's actually not bedtime.  When that happens, this is what I see:

I know it's a dark picture - it's basically Dakota's face by the light of the iPad.  Wide-eyed and cooing.  She says "hi" in her own little way - "ayyyyy!"  It's so hard not to engage her.  But responding at 8:45 pm gets you nowhere, except to bed a whole lot later than you want!

I'm trying to prepare myself to just be tired for the next however many years, but I know myself and I know how much I treasure sleep, so I'm going to have to figure something out.  There's got to be a way for me to be two places at once - upstairs putting Dakota to bed and downstairs getting her bottles ready for the next day, or upstairs reading to Jayden and downstairs reviewing a document for work.  It's just not possible.  At least not yet.  I know I will definitely be making my lunch a whole lot less, or eating a whole lot more canned soup or frozen meals.  I just have to take deep breaths, make sure the kids are taken care of and ready, and then put myself in survival mode.  I can do it.  Right?  Tell me I can do it...