So my kids are still very young and my only boy is still a baby so I haven't noticed too many differences between the two sexes yet. I find it funny how some things just seem to be genetically ingrained into boys and girls to make them different. And maybe as parents we unknowingly perpetuate the gender stereotypes: I know that I've never actually bought monster trucks and Transformers for my girls and I'm not buying dolls for Jameson to play with!
I like to consider myself an expert on girls. First of all, I am one. Yes, shocking!! Second of all, I have two younger sisters. I would never claim to have helped raise them in any way, shape or form. My parents created them, my mother gave birth to them, they were the ones up in the middle of the night with them, paying for everything, diapering, worrying about their well being as parents do. BUT being the oldest, I did do my fair share of babysitting. My middle sister and I are three years apart in age and we spent a lot of summers home alone together when we were out of school. Mostly she just stayed in her room and came out to eat lunch once in awhile (we weren't quite the best friends we are today!!). But I do have some fun memories of us sitting on the couch watching Saved By The Bell together and calling who got to "be" Kelly Kapowski. Fun times! Since we were fairly close in age though we've always had more of a peer relationship. Given the large seven and a half year gap between my youngest sister and I, I can recall more memories of me helping out with her. Babysitting, walking her to school for a Halloween carnival (a fun memory!) and picking her up from the babysitter's down the street, tripping over the curb and dropping her on her head (whoops! That probably explains a lot.......). I think my most fun "sister" memory happened when I was in my early teens. She had the Super Nintendo in her room and I would go in there and ask if I could play it. I look back and know that she just must have loved having her big sister come in and want to spend time with HER. I think she also loved the fact that I always put on her Britney Spears CDs and told her not to tell anyone that I actually liked them. Hehehehe, guess that secret is out now!
But I digress. What was my point exactly? Oh yeah. Two younger sisters. Surrounded by everything girly. Check. Fast forward a few years and I gave birth to my first child, a girl! I immediately had visions of a mini-me and couldn't wait for her to do everything that I did and more. She does all the things I always dreamed my daughter would do: she wears dresses and loves the color pink, but she plays soccer and can run circles around the boys. She is girly but sporty at the same time so I get the best of both worlds with her. Then it was time to have another baby and lo and behold, another little girl! I was thrilled to have a second daughter not just for myself, but I was estatic to give Calli a sister. I think every girl should have a sister, it really should be a law or something! It's a built in girlfriend you have for life and WE GAVE them that gift in each other. Not to mention it was another little person I would be best friends with when she is an adult (based on the relationship my own mother and I have I would be pleased if my girls loved me half as much).
And then I get pregnant again. By this time I was convinced we were destined to have all girls. In fact, I started referring to the baby in my belly as a "she" and Calli started talking about her "other little sister". That's how sure I was that it was going to be another girl. I looked at girls' names, I thought about pink, I just knew it was a girl! So I was quite taken by surprise when, at 15 weeks pregnant and having my ultrasound, the technician pauses the screen on something that looks distinctly...boy-like. "Um, is that what I think it is?" I asked her. "It's a boy!" I was told. Wow. A boy. Are you sure? I could have sworn it was going to be another girl. I know nothing about boys!! And there I was, with a person carrying a Y chromosome in my belly. Calli was extremely disappointed at first. I will never forget the moment I told her: we were standing in the kitchen after getting home from the appointment. She was hugging my belly and I told her that she was going to have a little brother, not another little sister. Still clutching my belly with her hands she looked up at me and said "nooooo........" It was pretty funny and she didn't take long at all to get used to the idea of a little boy, but I will never forget that initial reaction. (and don't worry, she loves her baby brother like crazy now!).
Of course I was excited, just as I would have been if it was another sweet girl. I wondered what in the world I would do with a boy. Everything I had known my whole life was GIRL. Everything I had for my kids was pink and now I was going to have to introduce the color blue. Of course I had the feelings of "will I love a boy as much as I love my girls?" It's a silly question, but you always think it.
When Jameson was born, he was just a baby. Nothing was different from the girls except what was in the diaper. We had one different decision to make before he got out of the hospital, but for the first six months or so everything was virtually the same. Even now that he is nearly eight months, it's the same. If I give him a doll, he will eat it. If there is a Barbie on the ground, he goes for it. He doesn't care if I put a bow on his head and snap a picture: he smiles like crazy for the camera.
The small differences I notice are in size and appetite. Jameson is massive. He is bigger than most boys his age even and overall he is just a thick, solid BOY. And he eats like a boy already. I never had the girls on Stage Three Gerber purees because I always had them on table foods before that. But Jameson needs that bigger portion of food. And I'm having to feed him three meals a day of solids and had to start about a month ago. I had to cut him back on his formula because he could honestly eat 40 ounces a day like nothing. Neither of the girls ever ate more than six ounces in a bottle, but Jameson will eat 7-8 ounces (four times a day). I can also already tell he is going to be an active little boy. He never sits still! He crawls everywhere and even when you pick him up, he has his legs and arms pumping a mile a minute. He looks longingly at the girls when they are playing as if to say "I can't wait until I can join you!" I will be thrilled when he can walk and keep up with them.
So I am very interested to see the differences between boys and girls as my kids get older. It will be fun to just see the differences in each of them as people as well. Despite the fact that Calli and Serena are both girls, they could not have more different personalities. Calli is my outgoing, friendly and happy little girl. Serena on the other hand is more reserved, shy, sensitive and serious. She is adorable as heck, but she doesn't hand out smiles like candy. I see more of Calli's personality in Jameson and that scares me. Calli is already a bit of a handful so her personality on a boy, who is prewired to be crazy, is a little frightning. Nonetheless, I can't wait to watch each of them grow.
So here are some perfect photos of my boy being a boy and my girls being girls!
I like to consider myself an expert on girls. First of all, I am one. Yes, shocking!! Second of all, I have two younger sisters. I would never claim to have helped raise them in any way, shape or form. My parents created them, my mother gave birth to them, they were the ones up in the middle of the night with them, paying for everything, diapering, worrying about their well being as parents do. BUT being the oldest, I did do my fair share of babysitting. My middle sister and I are three years apart in age and we spent a lot of summers home alone together when we were out of school. Mostly she just stayed in her room and came out to eat lunch once in awhile (we weren't quite the best friends we are today!!). But I do have some fun memories of us sitting on the couch watching Saved By The Bell together and calling who got to "be" Kelly Kapowski. Fun times! Since we were fairly close in age though we've always had more of a peer relationship. Given the large seven and a half year gap between my youngest sister and I, I can recall more memories of me helping out with her. Babysitting, walking her to school for a Halloween carnival (a fun memory!) and picking her up from the babysitter's down the street, tripping over the curb and dropping her on her head (whoops! That probably explains a lot.......). I think my most fun "sister" memory happened when I was in my early teens. She had the Super Nintendo in her room and I would go in there and ask if I could play it. I look back and know that she just must have loved having her big sister come in and want to spend time with HER. I think she also loved the fact that I always put on her Britney Spears CDs and told her not to tell anyone that I actually liked them. Hehehehe, guess that secret is out now!
But I digress. What was my point exactly? Oh yeah. Two younger sisters. Surrounded by everything girly. Check. Fast forward a few years and I gave birth to my first child, a girl! I immediately had visions of a mini-me and couldn't wait for her to do everything that I did and more. She does all the things I always dreamed my daughter would do: she wears dresses and loves the color pink, but she plays soccer and can run circles around the boys. She is girly but sporty at the same time so I get the best of both worlds with her. Then it was time to have another baby and lo and behold, another little girl! I was thrilled to have a second daughter not just for myself, but I was estatic to give Calli a sister. I think every girl should have a sister, it really should be a law or something! It's a built in girlfriend you have for life and WE GAVE them that gift in each other. Not to mention it was another little person I would be best friends with when she is an adult (based on the relationship my own mother and I have I would be pleased if my girls loved me half as much).
And then I get pregnant again. By this time I was convinced we were destined to have all girls. In fact, I started referring to the baby in my belly as a "she" and Calli started talking about her "other little sister". That's how sure I was that it was going to be another girl. I looked at girls' names, I thought about pink, I just knew it was a girl! So I was quite taken by surprise when, at 15 weeks pregnant and having my ultrasound, the technician pauses the screen on something that looks distinctly...boy-like. "Um, is that what I think it is?" I asked her. "It's a boy!" I was told. Wow. A boy. Are you sure? I could have sworn it was going to be another girl. I know nothing about boys!! And there I was, with a person carrying a Y chromosome in my belly. Calli was extremely disappointed at first. I will never forget the moment I told her: we were standing in the kitchen after getting home from the appointment. She was hugging my belly and I told her that she was going to have a little brother, not another little sister. Still clutching my belly with her hands she looked up at me and said "nooooo........" It was pretty funny and she didn't take long at all to get used to the idea of a little boy, but I will never forget that initial reaction. (and don't worry, she loves her baby brother like crazy now!).
Of course I was excited, just as I would have been if it was another sweet girl. I wondered what in the world I would do with a boy. Everything I had known my whole life was GIRL. Everything I had for my kids was pink and now I was going to have to introduce the color blue. Of course I had the feelings of "will I love a boy as much as I love my girls?" It's a silly question, but you always think it.
When Jameson was born, he was just a baby. Nothing was different from the girls except what was in the diaper. We had one different decision to make before he got out of the hospital, but for the first six months or so everything was virtually the same. Even now that he is nearly eight months, it's the same. If I give him a doll, he will eat it. If there is a Barbie on the ground, he goes for it. He doesn't care if I put a bow on his head and snap a picture: he smiles like crazy for the camera.
The small differences I notice are in size and appetite. Jameson is massive. He is bigger than most boys his age even and overall he is just a thick, solid BOY. And he eats like a boy already. I never had the girls on Stage Three Gerber purees because I always had them on table foods before that. But Jameson needs that bigger portion of food. And I'm having to feed him three meals a day of solids and had to start about a month ago. I had to cut him back on his formula because he could honestly eat 40 ounces a day like nothing. Neither of the girls ever ate more than six ounces in a bottle, but Jameson will eat 7-8 ounces (four times a day). I can also already tell he is going to be an active little boy. He never sits still! He crawls everywhere and even when you pick him up, he has his legs and arms pumping a mile a minute. He looks longingly at the girls when they are playing as if to say "I can't wait until I can join you!" I will be thrilled when he can walk and keep up with them.
So I am very interested to see the differences between boys and girls as my kids get older. It will be fun to just see the differences in each of them as people as well. Despite the fact that Calli and Serena are both girls, they could not have more different personalities. Calli is my outgoing, friendly and happy little girl. Serena on the other hand is more reserved, shy, sensitive and serious. She is adorable as heck, but she doesn't hand out smiles like candy. I see more of Calli's personality in Jameson and that scares me. Calli is already a bit of a handful so her personality on a boy, who is prewired to be crazy, is a little frightning. Nonetheless, I can't wait to watch each of them grow.
So here are some perfect photos of my boy being a boy and my girls being girls!
Jameson with his mohawk!
Calli and Serena wearing their dress up wings
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