You Just Get Bullet Points at 1:00am

• I have no excuses for not blogging lately. It's my blog and no one pays me so I can do that.
• I appreciate all of your kind words and concern for Aaron. That post was an admittedly bad one to leave off at.
• Aaron has been fine. His pediatrician does think it was the MMR vaccine, despite what the ER doc said. He (ped) said it was his first febrile seizure from an MMR in seven years.
• My one concern about Aaron has been that his walking has seemed to taken a step backwards since the seizure. He was walking steadily with me holding just one hand. Now he seems to be walking somewhat wobbly with lots of balance checks. It's where we were about 2 months ago or so. I mentioned this to the ped, and he seems to think I'm making it up.
• I'm not.
• Since Aaron still seems motivated to try to walk with me, I'm just going to keep at it and watch it to see if it improves. If it doesn't, ped will have to deal with one of my "Lisa talks".
• He won't like it.
• However, he will give me my neural exam and a PT by the end of it.
• The healthy start teacher brought over a toy shopping cart for Aaron to use to walk with.
• He really liked it and walked all over the house with it. It is light and maneuverable and easy to pick up and turn around, which has got to be good for his balance.
• I looked on-line to see about buying him one. I usually don't buy toys on-line except for eBay or sometimes craigslist.
• I was shocked, SHOCKED at what I found on all the major toy websites. Target, Toys R Us and others.
• Did you know they separate toys on these sites into girl toys and boy toys?????
• Did you know that girl toys include dolls, kitchens, cookware and food, vacuum cleaners, brooms, makeup sets, princess dress-up, barbies and vanity dressers?
• Did you know that every single toy in the girl's section is pastel pink?
• OK. You probably did.
• In the boys section we find blocks, Lego's, dinosaurs, space and astronomy items, war-inspired action figures, chemistry sets, erector sets, cars, trucks and other construction equipment, doctors kits, fireman/policeman dress-up and other 'professional' pretend play items?
• You probably knew that, too.
• Its not that I didn't know that our culture sees these toys as boy toys and girl toys...its just I didn't know that any company would be so bold as to actually categorize their websites that way. I mean, that's your first search option on the front page. And are something like Lego's cross categorized?
• No.
• And everything in the girls section (especially the doll and cleaning/kitchen gear) is called something like "My Little Mommy."
• I bought Aaron a "Little Mommy" toy shopping cart. It is lavender, I believe.
• Sue me.
• You know, too also? Aaron likes flowers and butterflies and ladybugs and sunshines, as well as anything with wheels.
• But when I look at the world through his eyes, I see a society that worships cars. They are the predominant thing he sees outside. They are on a good portion of his clothing. He is starting to be very interested in what is on his clothing now.
• I really, really, really want for him to be able to wear a shirt with some nice flowers on them. Or a butterfly. He would like that.
• The only way to make that possible is to purchase girls clothing for him that are all in pastel colors.
• I don't know if I'm that brave.
• Call me wimpy if you must, but isn't that a sad state of affairs when the social faux pas of putting your boy in something with nature on it is so harsh that even I am afraid to deal with the consequences?
• I mean, the last thing that usually concerns me is appearances. But I'm afraid there would be a public outcry. Have any of you done it?
• But I could manage it with pajamas. He always likes to look at what is on his pajamas. He would be happily surprised to find some flowers or cute bugs.
• I know this because there is a cute little girl at the gym daycare that wears these things and he always points to them and says, 'FWAH-AH'.
• This little girl is about three and has brown hair and glasses, so she reminds me of me as a kid. She is always hugging on "Awan and Namy".
• The other day, she was with her mom and said goodbye to Awan and Namy, and went over to hug them and her mother said, "No, no, no! Don't touch!"
• I thought that was weird.
• In other news, I'm completely irritated about the coverage of Elizabeth Vargas quitting her job as anchor of ABC because she is pregnant.
• Some people say she is being pushed out. If this is true, that sucks shit.
• Other people say she is throwing her life away and lamenting at how women can't "have it all."
• I think this is the wrong discussion to have.
• I think the right discussion to have would be to look at why it is so easy for Charlie Gibson, Dan Rather, Larry King, Ted Koppel, etc to have it all.
• Some or all of them have wives and children, too. Exactly how did they do it and what did their wives sacrifice in order to let them do it?
• My point being that woman fought for and are still fighting for equality in the workforce, but they are not even close to getting equality at home.
• My point being that you can't expect women to be able to 'have it all' when they are still doing almost the entire job for their husbands at home. We need a little equity there, and I don't see it coming anytime soon when the toy vacuum cleaners are labeled girls toys and the toy doctors kits are boys toys.
• Completely different topic, I finished my Sunday School teaching last week.
• I enjoyed it, but yea!
• I'm going to church tomorrow because I know the kids made me (and all the teachers) a little something that they are giving us tomorrow.
• Then I'm taking a church break.
• But next year, I'm already signed up to teach again. I think I'm teaching about Islam.
• I know next to nothing about Islam.
• Thank God (Allah?) for prewritten curriculum.
• And for guest speakers. So I'm sure I'll learn a lot.
• And the kids, too, of course.
• I'm sick of doing laundry.
• I do a load every single damned day.
• Monday: Diapers. Tuesday: Kids clothes. Wednesday: My clothes. Thursday: Diapers. Friday: Sheets and towels.
• It seems like I get weekends off, doesn't it?
• But I don't because I usually don't finish at least some of that and it is still hanging over my head.
• Naim drops everything in the laundry.
• I have to pull it all out before it hits the washing machine. Toys, cups, toothbrushes, my tennis shoe, clean clothes from the dryer that he puts back in the dirty clothes.
• I got smart and hid the diaper laundry behind the clothes laundry.
• So now most of the time, I only have to search through the clothes, not the dirty diapers.
• That is much more pleasant.
• Are you still reading this? You must be bored to tears.
• Good night.

Comments

[Nickie]

Wow, I can't believe toy stores are so bold either. I thought we'd be less discriminatory by now. I'm glad your little one is doing better. Here's hoping he gets back to walking soon!

[shannon]

It's so much easier to cross-dress a girl! Nat has plenty of clothes from the "boy" section of clothing stores. (And when she wears them, people say "what a big boy! What's his name?" and I say "Nat!" smugly and grin.)

At the Gap, they have well made pj's with nature on them. They are in both the boys and girls sections. Nat has nice pj's with bugs. Here's the kicker: on the boys' side, the bugs were orange and on the girls' side, the bugs were pink. Same bugs, otherwise. Same thing with a fish theme. (I got Nat the orange ones, because it was a nicer orange than the pink was pink, I thought.)

So you could get Naim some pink bug jammies at the Gap.

They're pricey though.

[Emmie]

Pajamas! With flowers on them! What a great idea! I have the same problem (or rather, I have male twin 14-month-olds, and society has the problem). O is all about the trucks already (as was I at his age, admittedly), but N is sooo into flowers, trees, bugs, dolls, and animals. I’ve tried to at least get him clothes with animals rather than cars on them, but without much luck, as we buy a lot of things used. I’ve even gotten comments about a shirt that he has that’s lime green with a picture of a bee and a worm. Somehow, after the age of 6 months, even lime green is a “girls” color. Bah. I’m not that brave either, mainly because I don’t want them to get comments that make them feel funny. However, if they insist on wearing pink, or a dress, or a feather boa, they will be allowed that and God help anyone who tries to stop them. Unless it’s a Bratz outfit, of course! Seriously, the pj’s thing is a great idea. I’m in the market for 2T’s, and I will check out the “pepto-bismal” section of Target’s children’s area. The toy thing is also just plain infuriating. Oh, but it’s all “genetic”, right? Even though billions are spent on making sure my toddlers have a fixed gender identity? Right.

[Lisa M]

I love your posts. Love them. Thank you so much for them. Good for you, in buying the lavander cart. I think that is great. Maybe he'll do more SHOPPING and helping, than most men. *chuckle*

You're such a good mommie.

I would not be at all surprised about the seizure causing some regression in walking. YOU get that PT my friend. I mean, can it hurt?

Goodness!

Thanks for the bullets. I loved them.

[Jonathan Dresner]

Our little guy just loves bright colors, flowers, long hair.... we're fortunate to live someplace where guys can get away with some of that without getting QUITE as many odd looks, but it's still a struggle sometimes. So many of the clothes he wants are on the "wrong" side of the aisle now, but they really are pretty (and the stuff for boys is just tacky, unless you get into really high-priced stuff).

The toy thing is just dumb: do they know how much money they're losing by not selling stuff to EVERYBODY?