CHRISTMAS, 1958

'Tis the season to . . . receive a bunch of catalogs. I am sure that the postal employees everywhere lament the coming of the Christmas season. In addition to having to tote the cards and packages shipped, they are also bringing armloads of catalogs. Just by judging from the amount that we receive, I can only surmise that most American households are being bombarded by the retailers. One of the catalogs we received in today's mail was from Lillian Vernon. This catalog is the third we have received from that company in the last two weeks. As Maggie was working on her homework, I sat at the kitchen table with her and leafed through the catalog. Apparently the Lillian Vernon is still under the impression that it is 1958. Need proof?
Check out the following pictures, taken straight from their catalog:

The following are toys that are apparently acceptable for boys to play with. I guess in Lillian's world, boys can aspire to be:

DOCTORS

POLICEMEN

FISHERMEN

BASEBALL PLAYERS

HOCKEY PLAYERS

Meanwhile, for the girls in "Lillian's World," there are apparently far lower expectations. Girls can aspire to do the following:

COOK

DRESS UP IN LACE AND SEQUINS

WORK AT MCDONALD'S

CLEAN THE HOUSE

I kid you not, the caption by this picture states, "She'll feel like the queen of clean."

Thank you, Lillian Vernon, on behalf of the working women of America for working so dilligently to set up back about 50 years.

MAKING PRINCE CHARMING WALK THE PLANK

I have written often about the distinct differences in my kids. Maggie is the girly girl, and Aleita is the son we never had. Maggie loves Barbies, long hair, pink and purple, and stories of princesses. Aleita loves Power Rangers, motorcycles, red and black, and stories of dinosaurs and a curious little monkey named George who is always getting into mischief.

To further illustrate this point, the kids were playing together yesterday morning before church. Maggie “locked” Aleita in the tower (her bedroom) and told her that the only way she could escape was to have the prince come to get her and give her the secret password. Maggie said she would go and make sure that the dragon wasn’t coming. Aleita patiently waited in “the tower” for about all of twenty seconds after Maggie went downstairs to look for the dragon. When Maggie came back upstairs and saw Aleita out of her room, she said, “How did you get out of the tower? Did the Prince give you the password?”Without missing a beat, Aleita responded, “No. A pirate came by and knocked down the door to the tower with his sword and then the prince runned away.”

I’ll bet Sleeping Beauty wouldn’t have known what to think if Blackbeard had shown up instead of Prince Charming.

JUST ONE OF THE BOYS - PART TWO

A few days ago, I stood in Target looking around unfamiliarly in the “boy” aisle of toys. My sweet little soon-to-be four year old daughter is enamored with all things rough and tumble. I am ok with this - - it doesn’t bother me in the least that she isn’t what you would consider really girly-girl. Don’t get me wrong – Aleita does have some tendencies toward the female persuasion – she insists on being sprayed with her special strawberry body spray each morning, she loves to wear barrettes and hair thingies as often as possible, and she loves when she gets to wear a nightgown instead of regular pajama pants. However, when it comes to playtime, she definitely prefers to be just “one of the boys.”

As I have mentioned on my blog before, Aleita almost primarily plays with the boys at her daycare. When she mentions her best buddies at school, they are all boys. In fact, she has become something of the leader among the boys in her class. Unlike her older sister who developed an interest in all things Barbie by age three, Aleita could really care less for the ever-smiling, perpetually tippy-toed long-haired doll with the big boobs, skinny waist, expansive wardrobe, and unlimited career options. Of late, Aleita much prefers Power Rangers, Spiderman, cars, trains, and trucks – which lead me to my confused state in Target a few days ago.

I stood there simply overwhelmed in the boy toy aisle. I don’t have sons, and have always been a pretty girly-girl myself, so I was completely clueless. Aleita’s birthday is next week, but her birthday party is this Friday. I had already been to order her “Power Ranger” cake at Wal-Mart, then stopped by Target for a few things. Since I was at Target anyway, I hit the toy aisle in hope of some inspiration. I stood before the Power Ranger toys and realized that they all looked alike to me. I am sure that Chris would have known instantly exactly which Power Ranger figures she already had, but I simply had no idea. Instead of accidentally buying one that she already had, I settled on a Power Ranger headband that makes noises and in which she can change the color from red to green to yellow and back again.

Yesterday, I took Maggie birthday shopping for Aleita. She picked out some Power Ranger underpants in the little boys department (no, I am not kidding), a blue Power Ranger toy, and two Hot Wheels cars. It was difficult to hold Maggie’s interest long enough to really look carefully at the toys she was selecting for her sister. I too, actually had difficulty taking the time to look – they all just seem to be an assortment of colored plastic men with varying weapons to me. The moment she was done, she said, “can we go look at the Barbie aisle now?” I gladly let her roam down the pink aisle full of Barbies and dolls before we continued on our way. At least this aisle, I understand.

Hangin' with the Boys

When Aleita started attending the daycare center that she is at about three months ago, she came home talking about her new best friends - - she constantly brought up Polly and Adrian. Turns out she was talking about Paul(y) and Hadrian – both boys. When Aleita names the kids she likes the best in her class, they are actually all boys.

When we go to pick Aleita up at daycare after work, it is common to walk in to find two groups of kids playing: the girls are generally playing dolls and dressup on the right side of the room, while the boys are usually found playing with cars, blocks, and action figures on the left side of the room. There is an exception - - nine times out of ten, Aleita can be found playing with the boys. Anyone who knows Aleita knows that she is something of a bruiser. By and large, she prefers rough and tumble play to quiet, subdued anything.

The boys seem to have no qualms about having a girl in their midst. If they did, I have no doubts that Aleita would quickly set them straight. She can definitely hold her own with them.

This Christmas, Aleita asked Santa Claus for Power Rangers, Spiderman, and a motorcycle. Santa, being the obliging sort, indeed got her all of those things (Spiderman actually rides the motorcycle – we considered one of those battery-powered deals for about five seconds, but we had visions of her taking off unannounced and making her way down the street to see our friends, Barb and Greg, or making an attempt to head through the country to her Grandma and Papa’s house.)

A few weeks ago, Aleita and I went to McDonald’s for lunch. As she watched the girl put together her Happy Meal, she piped up about the time the toy got dropped in. “I don’t want a doll!” she yelled. “I want the boy toy!”

This morning, after I had gotten the kids ready for school and was getting ready myself, Maggie asked Aleita if she wanted to play in her room with her (a rare request these days.) Aleita, who had been playing with her Spiderman, carried him into Maggie’s room with her. Maggie said to her, “let’s play Barbies,” to which Aleita said, “ok.” About two minutes later, Aleita was shrieking and being pushed out of Maggie’s room.

I asked what was going on, and Maggie complained, “everytime I set one of my Barbies down, she runs over it with her motorcycle!” to which Aleita responded, “well that’s how I play Barbies!”