At Play - The Difference Between My Boy and My Girl

Have you ever thought about how much boys and girls are different at birth?  We often wonder if these differences are a result of nature or nurture.  Well, when you have two kids of the opposite sex close in age, it is very interesting to watch the differences in their development and their preferences as well as how they play and interact.  I have witnessed firsthand that the differences are largely due to nature and have little to do with nurture with Dylan and Zoe. 

This morning was like any other morning in our household and I was observing Dylan and Zoe playing together in their own ways.  Initally they were both playing with Zoe's new dollhouse she received from Bop and Nana for Christmas.  Zoe was playing with "DaDa," "MaMa", and "Baby" as she calls them.  She had brought over play food from her kitchen and was pretending to feed them despite the play food is about ten times the size of the dolls. She was manuevering the dolls in and out of rooms in the house and Dylan was playing along somewhat.  That sort of play only held Dylan's interest for about two minutes and then he decided that he was going to be a robot and try to "melt the house down."  So the dolls go everywhere and the house is knocked over.  Where does this stuff come from?  And of course Zoe ends up crying at Dylan's boyish rough and tumble play while Dylan is all happy because Robot Dylan melts the house down!  Once things calm down again, they were quickly on to the next thing which ended up being legos.  Zoe can build a pretty tall tower of legos as she learned this from watching Dylan.  Dylan is building some sort of house when he then notices Zoe's tower (also known as a tall building according to Dylan) and decided that he was going to be a robot and knock down the tall building.  So then again we had Zoe crying and Dylan excited that the robot has successfully knocked down the tall building.  This was all in the matter of about fifteen minutes or so. 

So I then decided it was time to move on to "music time" to restore some peace in the house.  Dylan and Zoe both enjoy getting out the instruments and playing with them and singing.  Dylan primarily sings and plays the instruments while Zoe dances.  I always enjoy music time with my kids. 

Now for some, you may be wondering why don't the two kids just play with different things.  Well, we have been wondering that very question for about a year now.  We do try to get them interested in playing with different toys at the same time, but one sibling always wonders over to whatever the other one is playing with.  So most of the play around our house is only done solo by one kid when the other kid is napping or not here.  After all, isn't the toy that your sibling is playing with always the most desired?  Hopefully in time this will teach them firsthand how be great sharers and how to pick thier battles.  I realize that is may be asking way too much to ask of two toddlers right now.