Thursday, November 29, 2007

Blue and the Y chromosome


Jack and Lily have now become pals. They play together pretty well which is a change from the days when Lily constantly harassed Jack. She could do it because her motor skills were (and still are) way ahead of Jack's. She walks, waves, claps and does sign language. I mentioned this to our doctor who said "girls are more advanced." I assume she means at this age but when does that difference end and why? What is it about the double X that makes girls advance more quickly? The Y is pretty puny .. but I don't get it. I am sure there is a book on it somewhere but I don't have time to read it.

Watching Jack and Lily makes me think a lot about the characteristics we assign to each gender. I never want Jack to feel he has to be a certain way -- aggressive or stoic or whatever - just because he is a boy. I thought I would just try to avoid owning the stereotypical boy things. I always said I wouldn't put Jack in all blue - we didn't find out his gender so we would get gender-neutral gifts... but then I thought, what does color have to do with gender? If Jack wears pink every day of his life, will he be sensitive? Highly unlikely yet I don't dress him in pink. I feel strange about it so clearly we have assigned some meaning to color in relationship to gender.

Lily has many fabulous girl clothes including this gold jacket. I think Jack looks happy in the coat.. Would my dad agree? No.




3 comments:

megan said...

OMG Jack is so money. Puff Baby - or is it - P Bibby? I love it.

erma said...

Would you be upset if I said he resembles a certain North Korean dictator, but much, much cuter, and certainly more benevolent?

dgf said...

What fun it is to hear about Jack and your trials and tribulations as a new mom. I can relate! A while back you asked me about Miles and how we deal with his logistics on the road. While Jack and Miles were born on the same day, Miles is, in theory, three months developmentally behind Jack. So, we have just in the last month started dealing with crawling and more eating, etc.. Actually, we do well on the road. He still nurses frequently and is a good eater. I make his meals when we were are in our apartment in Munich and I take baby food when we are on the road. He gobbles it all up either way. He naps either on me (or Dean), in the stroller, or carseat. It all seems to work out ok and is fun trying to figure it out! lisa