Gary and I may not be the most gentle people around (we’re not), but it’s not like we purposely rough-house with Remy just because he’s a boy or something. He likes being thrown up into the air (not dangerously), hung upside down and in general being swung side to side and all around. We know he’s liking it because it makes him laugh hysterically. It’s interesting that he likes that stuff because he’s a pretty careful little guy when it comes to trying new things. He’s not one to jump into the ocean with both feet without checking for sharks, if you know what I mean.
Besides the penchant for parental rollercoaster action, he shows other ruff n’ tuff characteristics. I understand that as an infant, I enjoyed sitting around looking at the pictures in magazines. Remy enjoys sitting around and tearing magazines to pieces and waving them in the air while grunting, growling and spitting. I’m pretty sure I didn’t teach him those skills. Maybe we didn’t discourage them specifically when we laugh at the cute baby making funny sounds. You can see why he’s not allowed to play with the library books (much to his chagrin).
Prior to having my own child, I was unsure of how different little boys and little girls really are naturally. I mean, sure, there’s no guarantee that we’re treating him exactly the same as we would a baby girl, but I’d like to think that our household isn’t a den of gender stereotypes with athlete-working Mom and awesome caretaking-dinner-cooking Dad. But Remy’s a BOY through and through. Stick a pink bow on his head and he’d just look silly.
It’s funny, we always talk about how Zach is “all boy.” I don’t think we treat him any differently than we would if we had a girl but he definetly shows different characteristics than the little girls our friends have.
I always thought Tim and I were being too rough with the boys until a few months ago when my parents told me that my sister and I did the exact same things when we were babies. She said we loved to rough house with the best of them. I don’t think it’s a difference in boys vs. girls as much as it is the parents’ perception of those gender difference. Hope that makes sense.
Remy sounds like Angeline.. except she’s not careful at all with new things. She’s into it in a heart beat.
She loves being thrown up, tilted up side down, laughs… and pulling books off the shelf and tearing them apart (which is also hilarious). She is super active and loves crawling and standing and climbing on everything.
So I’m not sure it’s a boy vs girl thing, because she’s a girl and acts much more like a “boy.” In fact, as far as we can tell, she’s her daddy in a tiny female package!
Heather,
That’s awesome! I love hearing about a rough-housing, unafraid little girl.
I can also relate to the pulling books off the shelves thing. When he starts crawling, we’re going to have to be super vigilant. Oh my!