My boy likes cars

My in-laws were just here for a 10-day visit. I love my in-laws, they are truly amazing people and I am blessed to have them in my life. They're very supportive, even if they don't necessarily see why we do certain things the way they do (as evidenced by the first question MIL asked me upon arriving - "So, is he sleeping in his own bed yet?" She seemed to understand what I meant when I phrased my response, "No, he sleeps with us."). We had a great visit and I was sorry to see it end so quickly.

After they left, my husband told me MIL had noted our boy's obvious like for all things cars. After he agreed with her, MIL asked delicately if we, er, "encouraged" him in that direction.

Heck no!

My boy just likes cars.

We haven't tried to push our son into playing with "boy things" anymore than we would push our girls into playing with "girl things". He has stuffed animals. He has dolls. He has cars and trucks. He has blocks. He has a whole pile of "toys that aren't really toys" (his favourites are a spare toothbrush and a cheap flashlight).

But he prefers his cars and trucks over everything else.

And *believe me*, I tried to get him attached to a stuffed animal, thinking it might help him sleep better if he had something besides me to snuggle with. No go, only Mom will do. He has no interest in dolls, day or night. None of this nurturing care towards dollies that my friends with similar aged children talk about. Forget the doll, he wants his cars.

They join us outside, on walks, at church, even in the shower. His favourite pajamas are covered in racecars. (This morning he sat on the bed pointing to each racecar in turn, while I mumbled a sleepy "mm-hmm...mm-hmm...yes, there's another car...mm-hmm...") His favourite t-shirts are his construction vehicles ones. He shows his toy cars off to the other condo residents in the elevators and hallways. They're the first thing he heads for in the church nursery when we go down for coffee hour.

He points them out when we're outside (buses are still his favourite, and oddly he seems to have a particular thing for red cars). His favourite books are filled with cars, trucks, buses and construction vehicles. His first almost-word was dump truck ("duh-truh!"), but sadly he won't say it anymore (much like "uh-oh"). Heck, he even points them out in catalogues! I was looking through the Wish Book last week and he had to point at every truck he saw. When I pointed out the more traditionally "girly" toys, he gave me a look of near disdain and flipped back to a picture of a toy truck.

So, to those who like to think that boys only like cars because we make them like cars...tell that to my son. He just likes cars. And we had nothing to do with it.