I have a toddler son, a daycare baby girl, and my boyfriend’s five-year-old daughter here, most and some of the time respectively, so we have plenty of “girl” and “boy” toys. There is plastic food and toy kitchen equipment, dollies and princess crowns. And there are trucks, trains, rocks, and plastic frogs.

I’ve never had any intention of only buying “boy” toys for my son. I bought him a dolly when he found one in Target and I’m happy that he likes putting on my pink sandals and flip flopping around the house. And if Daycare Baby wants to play with trucks, I’m very encouraging.

But it’s strange how babies tend to gravitate towards toys designed for their gender, even when toys for the other gender are available. Daycare Baby loves stuffed animals and dollies. Toddler loves trains and building railroads and is currently obsessed with plastic flies.

And it’s curious how girls play with boy toys in their way. And boys do the same with girl toys.

Daycare baby took a dolly and a plastic horse for a ride in a dump truck this morning, and she’ll cuddle trains.

Toddler had a putting-things-to-bed phase, but it was putting rocks and fire trucks to bed. And he’ll spend an afternoon building a railroad because he found just the thing to wear to construct it: a ballet tutu.

And just now, Toddler is playing with the kitchen set. What is he pretending to cook? Frog in frog spew. And yes, that’s spew, not stew.