Gender Issue #1: Boys and Dolls?

Last week, I showed my class some of the pictures from Weston's first birthday as I took my turn to share with them how my weekend was.  As we came to the picture of him playing with his new doll, one of my students hollered, "Why does he have a doll?  He's a boy.  If you let him play with dolls, he'll become gay."  I laughed out loud, mostly because I was shocked by the ridiculousness of her statement, and told her that he wasn't going to become gay by playing with dolls.  The other students agreed with their classmate and thought I was totally nuts for letting my son play with a doll.

I didn't try to explain gender roles and social constructs to my class; I let it go.  I think it's precious how gentle Weston was with his doll when we first opened it up, and it's super cute when I say, "Molly's hungry!  Can you feed her?" and he grabs the spoon and shoves it into her mouth.

Gender stereotyping is such a funny issue.  I searched on Google for "boys playing with dolls" and was surprised to read how many parents were asking questions like "My one year-old son was over at a friend's house and he picked up a doll and started playing with it.  Should I be concerned?"  or  "My husband got mad at our son for playing with his sister's dolls the other day."  or  "Is it a crazy idea to let my son play with dolls?"

December 1974

This blogger discusses how gender roles have evolved over the past century.  It seems to me that boys are much more protected than girls are from the opposite gender's stereotypes.  For example, no one batted an eye when my older brothers taught me how to dribble a basketball at age 3.  Nor did any teacher call home to my mom in 3rd grade when I played with the boys at recess or in 4th grade when I picked the saxophone when I joined band.  I'm not sure what the current news is about where homosexuality stems--whether it's nature or nurture or none of the above--but I can tell you that this was the most recent news article when I searched for "what makes people gay":

Former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt Says Marketing Makes You Gay

Really?

I Hate Lead

It's was difficult to enjoy Mother's Day this year.  We had Weston's one-year physical last Monday and they did a finger prick to test for anemia and lead.  We got a call Tuesday from the pediatrician telling us that we had to go to Children's to get a venous draw because the first test came back positive for lead.  Not good.  So we went to Children's on Wednesday and Thursday (the first draw didn't yield enough blood so we had to go a second time).  Saturday our pediatrician called and said his blood lead level (BLL) was 16.4 μg/dL (micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood).


To make a long, worrisome story short, Weston's BLL is elevated.  Anything over 10 μg/dL is cause for concern, but after my hours and hours of researching lead poisoning on the Internet, there is no such thing as a safe BLL.  We have an appointment at the lead clinic on Wednesday, and from there they'll walk us through what our next steps are.


How did he get this??  No, he didn't get it from eating paint chips like is commonly thought...

Did You Eat a Lot of Paint Chips as a Kid?

I'm actually amazed at how babies and toddlers can pick up lead.  Because they're crawling around everywhere, exploring, and putting everything into their mouths, they can gradually accumulate lead in their system.  It's most easily obtained through ingestion.  Lead dust is something that occurs from lead paint that's been disturbed and not been properly removed.  We just moved into a completely renovated house that was built in 1892....lead paint was banned in the late 1970s...so it's most likely from the renovation dust that settled all over the house.  Of course, we cleaned before we moved in, but with a non-HEPA vacuum, which can just suck up the lead dust and blow it right out the back again.  I did wipe everything down with a wet rag, but obviously not well enough.

It's not easy to do either, especially keep calm

I really had no idea of the dangers of lead dust, or even what is was for that matter.  I'm more than angry about this whole situation, but we're getting it resolved.  The clinic works with the local health department and they will come out and do an assessment of the house to figure out where the lead is coming from.  In the mean time, we're washing his hands constantly and trying to mop the floors without vacuuming.  Our new Dyson HEPA filter vacuum should arrive on Wednesday...

What the What??!? Happy 1st Birthday!

Height: 32 in (96th percentile)
Weight: 21 lbs. 8 oz (30th percentile)
Head Circumference: 47 cm (70th percentile)

It's funny to think that a year ago Weston wasn't much more than a newborn pile, barely able to hold his head up.  Now he walks around everywhere, says "nana" for banana, and can shove a toothbrush into his mouth when I ask him to brush his teeth.

Cooking a birthday breakfast

Washing his face in a puddle

We went out to dinner to Weston's favorite restaurant, Dusmesh.  He loves Indian food for some reason.  However, I do not love his diaper the following day...

He got a doll from Grandma and Grandpa, and it was so cute to watch him check it out after I took it out of the box.  He feeds her with the spoon and gives her drinks of milk out of her sippy cup.

Checking out her face

A thirsty baby...

My good friend Molly came in for the weekend from Pittsburgh, and she baked a chocolate cake for the Birthday Boy.

Safety First: He lets us know that the match is hot several times while we sing (we didn't have candles).  He knows the sign for "hot" and he makes a good effort at signing it while he stares at the candle.




He wasn't sure about the cake experience at first, but as you can see at 0:29, he successfully guides a giant chunk of cake into his mouth.

Our little creation

Finally here's a video of him walking around.  He's pretty confident, and now that he realizes that he can carry something in his hands and walk, it's a much better alternative to crawling.