Before I had kids, I truly believed that boys and girls acted differently more because of how they were raised and not because of their gender.  Boys tend to be rough-housed more, cuddled less, given trucks, cars and diggers.  Girls are dressed in pink, frilly clothes, played with quietly and given dolls. 

I was determined to raise my kids equally, letting them decide what they liked.  When my daughter, Josie was born, I started the gender equality wheel rolling.  Of course I dressed her in pink.  My mom made sure I had a nice supply of fancy pink outfits with cute hairbows to match.  I preferred the boy clothes more.  I scoured rummage sales for jean bib overalls and flannel shirts. 

This was great!  My theory was correct!  I couldn't wait to tell my friends.  Then, my son was born.  Jakob came into this world as a rough and tumble 9 pound, 10 ounce boy, all bloody and battered.  Again, I was determined to encourage boy AND girl things.  I didn't dress him in pink, but he did wear his sister's pink pajamas.  For the first 9 months of his life, he cried and cried some more.  To say he was colicky is an understatement.  At 9 months old he stopped crying and started walking. 

Jakob blew my nature vs nurture theory so far out of the water, it was scary.  Once he stopped crying and started playing, he always picked toys with wheels.  Always boy toys.  He liked the gender neutral little people, as long as they were in a car.  He loved construction toys that moved and made noise.  He was ALL boy.  At 1 1/2, he climbed on things I didn't even think could be climbed on.  So much for my theory.  Despite my let-down of being wrong, I did let my kids find their own likes in toddlerhood. 

Somewhere along the way, Josie turned into a girly-girl.  At 3, she started picking out her own clothes to wear.  Everything was pink, the fancier the better.  Where did my little tomboy go?  She definitely made her own choices about what she liked. 

Josie is 5 now and loves to "fancy herself up" in front of the mirror, wear pink clothes with cutesy headbands and play dress-up with her feather boa.  Jakob is 3 and loves Josie's Thomas the tank engine clothes and toys (all his now), all things construction and Hot Wheels. 

Jakob is all boy and Josie has turned all girl on me!  I"m happy to report that my little experiment wasn't a complete disaster.  Josie still loves bugs and Jakob hates them.  He steps on any "pet" that Josie lets loose.  Of course she keeps her bugs in a fancy, pink decorated jar, but that's ok.  All in all, my kids are turning out great and discovering new things every day.  I plan to keep my experiment going, as long as both kids are willing participants.  Who knows, maybe someday Josie will be the fanciest entemologist the world has ever seen!