Raising a Mixed Set

Since we have one of each gender, the games ebb and flow between traditional "boy" and "girl" games; they both play both kinds whole-heartedly, and sometimes they fully integrate both gender roles into whatever they are doing. It's very flexible and I love to listen to their games changing as they play.

One recent Saturday morning when we had no where to be, Luke and I were in the kitchen making breakfast. I opened the can and he put the biscuits in the pan. It was fancy.

Ella and the baby Maggie Beth were on the couch, which was Huddle House, having breakfast. I could hear her talking to Maggie about getting syrup on her shirt and so on. A few minutes later, she brought Maggie into the kitchen with a clean t-shirt and asked me to dress her because they were about to go out to lunch.

Me: (while dressing Maggie B) Lunch? Didn't you just have breakfast?
Ella: Yes, but this time we are going out to eat so that Jim and Lucas and Addison and Kylie can go with us.
(It's been a while since she's talked about him, so I'll remind you that Jim is her imaginary husband. The rest of those names are their children.)
Me: Oh, they didn't go with you to breakfast?
Ella: (pointedly) No, because Jim was helping you in the kitchen.
Me: (to Luke) I think she want's you to be Jim now, and go to lunch with her and the kids.
Luke: I'm not Jim. I'm a pirate.
Ella: (in her sassy voice, with a hand on one hip) No you aren't because I did not marry a pirate!
Luke: Oh, otay.

Then he climbed down out of the chair and took his rightful place as head of the family so they could go out to lunch.

The next morning, while we were getting ready for church, I heard him talking to Dave about his babies.When he isn't playing Jim, he has his own family of stuffed animals that he tends to - they are small and soft so that he can hold them all in his arms at one time. Seriously, stuffed animals have to meet a certain size criteria before he considers them one of his "babies". He currently has eight: Lemur, Coco Monkey, Bunny Bunny Pete, Peter Cottontail, Mickey, Fifi, Baby Bear, and No, Baby Bear (Yes, that's two bears named Baby Bear, because, for another month, he's two and it's funny to watch Mommy try to figure out which Baby Bear is needed at bedtime). I didn't catch the whole conversation with Dave, but I heard him finish with, "I a sugar daddy. You a sugar daddy, too. We are sugar daddies."

Dave asked him if that meant they were sweet daddies, but we'll never know the answer to that question.