Tom-boy or girly girl?

There are many who look at Anna and peg her a tom-boy. And they would be partly right. She has two older brothers to keep up with, and all. She loves to join in on their wrestling matches. And she scurries up the rock wall at the park with the rest of them. She is not shy about picking up live spiders and worms and coming to show me. The other day she fell off Will's bike and was crying a little. I asked her if she was ok and she sucked it up and said "yaaaa". A few minutes later as she was happily back to playing I noticed blood and saw that she had cut her chin a little. So, yes, in some ways she is most definitely a tom-boy.

But on the other hand I have never seen a tom-boy get this excited about playing dress up in a fancy dress. Or wanting to wear dresses everyday. Or putting on lipstick and painting her nails. And then there's her babies. She's been into babies for a long time now and most recently her play has centered around me being the baby and her being the mommy. Several time a day she'll come to me and say,

"Mommy, let's play baby. You be baby. I be mommy. You say waaahh-waaahh."

I am happy to oblige and be the baby while she takes care of me. She brings me pacifiers and blankets and gives me lots of hugs, pats and kisses. She sings songs to me and says things like "it's ok, baby" and "close you eyes baby, go to sleep"

In fact almost any object can fulfill the role of mommy and baby in Anna's world. For example:

Knife (mommy) and spoon (baby)

Big bottle of nail polish (mommy) and small bottle of nail polish (baby)

Big carrot stick (mommy) and small carrot stick (baby)

And and exemplified in the pictures below, even cars can be used to play mommy and baby. In this instance the big orange car was the mommy and the smaller orange car that looked like the "mommy" car was the baby. So, at first glance you might look at this child and call her a tom-boy. But with the loving care she gives those cars, I'd have to disagree!