Henry wanted to wear Elizabeth’s shirt yesterday, and we allowed it for a couple of hours. It was surprisingly shocking to see him in it. Partly, I think, because Elizabeth was Late in the Hair Department, so he doesn’t look too different than she did at this age.
Henry in Elizabeth’s shirt
It reminded me of when we did an April Fool’s Day photo of the twins wearing each other’s clothing, and I sent it out to a bunch of friends and family, and pretty much nobody noticed the joke.
At first, I was all, “No way! Henry is ALL BOY. He definitely does not look like a girl, which Elizabeth definitely is!” And then I scrolled down to the gag photo of the twins, and I was all, “Oh.”
Hee hee, love the picture! I live in Korea and was just in the states for a visit. I can never get anything I want here so I hit Goodwill FREQUENTLY to stock up. And Target. And Starbucks, because I needed energy for all my stocking up.
I was looking for winter stuff for my 4 and 2 year old boys, and I found the most excellent lavender and blue parka for the 4 year old. I was all, ‘But it’s purple, he probably won’t wear it’, but it was such a great deal I bought it anyway.
I took it home and told him I had a purple coat for him, thinking he would reject it instantly. Instead, he said excitedly, ‘Is it purple and pink?!’
I couldn’t care less what colors he wears but I’m still a little nervous about it. You have more kids than me; do you think the other kids will make fun of him?
This makes me think of Catherine Newman’s excellent essay about Ben liking pink.
Great photos!
So cute! My little guy loves pink. I told him he could pick out any color Keenes he wanted at REI, and he picked pink. Surprisingly (or not), not one other kid has made any comment about them.
My nine-year old nephew sports a t-shirt that says ‘Real Men Wear Pink’ and also wore a pink cast when he broke his arm playing football last fall. Henry is super-cool.
I love that April Fool’s photo – I definitely had to do a double-take. :0) Our B didn’t have much hair until she was almost three, so pictures of her little brother look much like she did (especially when he was wearing jewels and her tiara). Now when I look at pictures of her as a toddler, it looks like our son with girly clothes on.
I had the exact same reaction as Dr. Maureen. Very funny!
I second the Catherine Newman, and boy (haha) this is hilarious! Thank you for sharing both pictures… My boys get called girls all the time because of their hair, even if they’re in the most boyishly boyish clothes we own.
SO CUTE!!
bwahahahahhah, LOVE IT! I was teasing Jeff the other day about how I’m going to dress Baby Bert up in dresses and hair bows. He was not pleased.
Hee hee. They are all cute, no matter what they’re wearing!
There is something so appealing about pink to little boys – I think it’s the “off limits” factor. He looks great in it! That 2nd photo is really funny!
I totally never would have noticed the joke either. Apparently, the clothes really do make the man. Or boy. And girl.
Weird my husband and I were talking about this EXACT THING today while doing chores. Apparently my husband used to bedazzle himself with all of his grandmother’s costume jewelry as a kid. He was wondering if it was weird. I thought no.
The picture of the twins is too much–Edward looks perfect in that dress.
HAHAHAHA I totally thought “Henry is a boy, Elizabeth is a girl” and then “Oh.” Glad it’s not just me!
My son still wears his sister’s dress up,and plays barbies regularly; and he is almost six. He doesn’t have any big boys aroung to tell him it isn’t cool. I try to be really flexible about it.
I hate living in such a strict pink/blue world. I am worried about what all pink all the time is doing to my daughter. She chooses it, but I wonder what the influence is. I am trying to push other colors as much as I can.
I always think Eli looks so adorable when he plays with Addy’s dress up clothes, and the thought will often cross my mind- “He’d make a BEAUTIFUl girl.”
Ha, I bought an adorable Mickey Mouse shirt at Costco a few years ago, for my boy. It was red and I am always complaining how kids’ clothes don’t come in red so I bought it. I put it on him – he was like 2, I think, and I realized it was a girls’ shirt. It had pretty poofy shoulders, which I didn’t notice until he had it on. I didn’t put him in it but you can BET I took a picture of it!
Egg loves Piglet and people assume that he is a girl because he is holding a pink animal. But Piglet is a boy. Pigs ARE PINK. Unless they’re not. Whatever.
Also? I figured out the cost for Blogher ’10 and realized that I want new counter tops MORE and they are about the same cost. So Blogher ’11. Not ’10. I HATE my counter tops.
My son is loving all my daughter’s shoes at the moment, especially the pink sparkly ones. It is driving my hubby crazy. I think it is funny.
That picture at the end is SO CUTE!
I like when parents dress babies up in gender-specific clothing though, because sometimes with babies it IS hard to tell what gender they are just by looking at them … and then parents get really pissed off if you accidentally refer to them by a gender – and it’s not what they are.
So I sort of like gender-specific clothing just to make it easier on the world… something universal so people see, yes, this is a boy and yes, this is a girl… just so I don’t have huffy mom’s getting mad at me if I make a weensy mistake.
Anna- I wonder about this ALL THE TIME. Like when one of my sons wanted his room painted pink. Or when another one wanted to wear nail polish. I haven’t yet figured out the right balance of “geezus, let them make their own harmless decisions” and “well, let’s not expose them to feedback about issues they don’t yet know about.”e
Responding to Steph: I like seeing parents stretch the gender barriers, whether in clothes or in naming, but it makes no sense to me when they then get offended if you guess wrong. If you’re trying to challenge social assumptions about the meaning of gender, why get into a snit about it?
Wow, the clothes make the baby! I did a triple take at the pic of the twins.
BTW-I never get offended when people assume my baby boy, Charlie, is a girl because a) he looks just like me and b) he is awfully pretty! :)
Well, I don’t care. I’d eat them all up. Too cute.
My niece, (My baby. I claim her happily!) Evelyn Grace, gets mistaken for a boy all the time. My brother and sister-in-law even got her ears pierced with pink sparkly flower earrings. The day afterwards, they had to make a late store run, so of course they took her along. She was dressed in pink footie pajamas and wrapped in a pink blanket, and they still called her a boy. She sure looks like a girl to me, ’cause she’s just too pretty to be a boy!
My sister says she has the same problem with my nephew (he’s two weeks older than Evie) and I don’t get that, either, ’cause while he’s a cute little boy, he’d make an ugly girl. That child spends most of his life in blue!
With the color thing, though… Well, I made quilts for the kids and didn’t manage to finish them until almost their first birthdays. They were identical in every way but color. One was in shades of blue, and the other in shades of pink. Evie used to drag around the unfinished pink quilt and totally ignored the blue one. Heck, now that it’s at my brother’s house, she probably still drags it around!
this has been making me laugh since you posted it.
Jake loves pink. And makeup, and nail polish, and barettes, and and and
I don’t let him wear makeup or polish or barettes, but if he accidently gets a pink shirt put on him, I don’t mind
That little Henry just looks too cute — even in a pink shirt! I just want to gobble him up, but I suppose I’d have to catch him first :)
My son (older than Henry) is still fond of the pink water shoes. And when my b/g twins were 7 months old I did a very similar photo and posted it on my blog on April 1, with the line “Happy April” and most people just wrote “cute!” or something like that. Only the mother of middle schoolers noticed the switch (I imagine she was primed for April foolery).
jason was worried about us having babies of the same sex (they are boy/girl) because he was thinking he would have a REALLY hard time telling them apart because our babies all look alike too! my x-mil looked at a frame i had up that had pics of jayden in it, and there is one where jayden is dressed very “boyish” and she said “why is james in the my girl frame?”…”uh, ma, that’s jayden”…”oh yeah, i guess it is”…hehehe…edward did make a pretty girl! and at least henry is wearing a shirt, izzy has taken to wanting to wear nothing at all…
The picture of the twins is hilarious. Like most other readers, I had to do a double take. My baby brother loved to play dress up and Barbie with me – usually because it was what my friends and I were doing and he wanted to be a part of it. Don’t know why it’s an issue. Girls wear boys clothing all the time and no one thinks anything of it.