Girl power

Although I don't let my constant stream of observation on gender and child development surface here TOO often, Eliot is my primary experiment. She manifests plenty of girl behavior: early orientation to faces, strong need to communicate, intent studying of facial response, interest in shoes, necklaces and color, strong opinions about clothes-- "No undershirt-- just blue jamies!", "NOOOOO, not green boots, white shoes!"-- and had great delight last night when she got to wear tights and a BLUE dress to a party ("No more blue jeans-- blue dress, tights!"). And she found Lucinda's sweet strawberry sunhat to proudly wear with it. She and Anselm share a love of Babar, Go Dog Go and Ping, but he wouldn't have tolerated Little Miss Giggles, and tired much sooner of the baby book. She never had his fascination with the animal encyclopedia, which was his favorite from 11 through maybe 18 months (when all animals became either "Bites" or "Nice": the male dichotomy crystallized). She loves Mother Goose, which didn't really grab Anselm.

But she is also very into Anselm's toys, more than he was, and will play on her own for long stretches building with baby Lego, stacking, and for the last day, playing with a miniature Buzz Lightyear and his ship, putting him in and out, shutting all the doors, opening them again. Currently no interest in dolls, but a teddy bear, such as I had and loved for many years, was popular, til we left him in Whistler, not that she noticed.