This weekend, Noah had a play date with two amazing little girls- M who is 4 years old and D who is almost 19 months old.  These two fabulous little girls belong to my best friend from graduate school and Noah has had many, many play dates with these cuties.

Needless to say, their house is FULL of little girl toys- barbies, princess dolls, princess dress-up clothes and shoes, and lots and lots of baby dolls.  The morning started out a little slow.  Noah is very hesitant in new situations.  He likes to stand back and observe his surroundings before he commits to taking any action.  He brought a shark toy with him so that he could have a conversation starter and he was wearing his Batman shirt just in case he needed to fall into a secret identity.

M and D started out the same way- hanging close to mommy before deciding whether this shark-wielding Batman was a safe character to play with.  After Noah shared all the he knew about sharks, sang his “Bat-Mam” song, and discovered the toy box, there was no stopping him.

He was rooting through that box, pulling out doll after doll, trying on princess shoes, and riding around on a choo-choo train wearing a sun bonnet.  The kid loves to play.  He has always taken on playing as though it was a very serious job.  He carefully calculates which toys to play with and in what order.  He is meticulous about how each toy is used and he makes sure that no toy is left un-played with.

Once M and D saw how much fun Noah was having with their toys, they were quick to jump in.  M, being older, was very good at sharing and helping Noah figure out the intricacies of all of these unfamiliar toys.  After a little while of playing, M disappeared for a couple of minutes and then reappeared back in the den wearing a Rapunzel wedding dress (which, I gotta admit- if I could get away with wearing a princess dress on a Saturday morning, you better believe I would!).

Then, after Noah had explored all of the new toys and fully tested the practical use of all of this “girly” stuff, something changed.  It was as though an alarm in his brain went off that said, “You’re a boy!  Do boy stuff!”

Suddenly, the shoe box that had been transformed into a doll bed for a baby was now a captain’s hat.  The yard stick that was quietly sitting in the corner was now a sword and the plastic knife from the sweet little play-kitchen needed to be stabbed into something.  He wanted to run and wrestle and this was a new and “unconquered” world that needed to be, for lack of a better word, destroyed. 

Sensing that a change of scenery might be good for this collision-of-worlds, I suggested that M show Noah the new color she had picked out to paint her room.  Well, I didn’t need to say that twice.  Before I could blink, Noah had M by the hand and was literally dragging her up the stairs to her bedroom.

I don’t know if there is a class somewhere that I didn’t know about where they teach boys how to convince a girl to go up to her bedroom but Noah enrolled in it way too early and appears to have passed with flying colors.

I’ve got my hands full… and apparently Noah has a thing for blondes.