Robot fun

A Day in Robotville



Robot snack made of bread,
cheese, and cucumber

       Liliana loves to play with her wooden robots so yesterday morning we created a robotscape from fabric, blocks, and foam flooring.  She really works to carefully stack the acrobatic robots.  While we waited for cousins to come play with us, we continued the fun by constructing a robot snack made of bread, cucumber, and cheese.  Liliana especially requested a "happy robot" with "robot toes."
       Robots are such great gender-neutral toys.  Since Liliana and Vera Rose have no brothers, I'm sometimes worried that they will become too "girly" but days such as yesterday, make me reassured.  I was just so lucky to have a brother as one of my siblings because I played lots of trucks, cowboys, etc in addition to my dolls and "play house" and I want my girls to play with such stereotypically "boy" toys, too (in addition to all the gloriously pink dollies and play cupcakes!) 
       I'm thankful that some of my earliest toys were Playmobile construction sets (complete with tiny orange cones and pipes), miniature tractors, and a huge crane.  I want to foster a love for everything in my girls--just like my parents did for me.  And kudos to my Grandma (my Dad's mother), too, who lovingly sewed clothing for a "Little Boy Blue" doll for my brother, back when it wasn't even common to view men as caregivers.  Little Boy Blue never became Jeremy's favorite (how can you compete with Cowboy Bear?!) but I thought it was such a beautiful gift of love which promotes the idea that gender does not need to be the most defining characteristic of a child.  Do you have any suggestions for raising a child to look beyond gender stereotypes?  If so, I'd love to hear them!



Yes, the blue robots are stacked two high! 
A happy accomplishment--oh, I love how children find such happiness in tiny things!