Boys versus girls

One of the questions that Liam's new therapist at Cardinal Hill Rehab asked me during his evaluation was, "Does Liam know the difference between boys and girls?" I said no. I mean, at the time he didn't go around saying "boy" or "girl" as a rule. He didn't ever say to me, "Mama, I'm a boy." She told me that this was a big red flag for her in terms of ASD. I blew it off, because I knew that it just wasn't something we had really "worked on" in terms of helping Liam to identify the genders. I'll admit too that at this age it's hard to teach this concept using books or toys without a gender bias. But we've been working on it and I think it's sinking in.

We were at Target over the weekend. A baby with a big pink bow in her hair cruised by. Liam commented, "A baby girl!" She did look pretty girly, like she fell in a vat of Pepto Bismol. ha! I don't have girls but even if I did I can't see myself drowning them in pink. ???

He tends to refer to baby boys as "Baby Beckett."

We made a trip to the store to buy a new keyboard (see previous post!) and we had to make a journey through the DVDs (or dBds as Liam refers to them!). He noticed a Blues Clues video and it was all over after that. Now usually I don't give in to the fits over wanting things--it's pretty infrequent actually. He's content to pick something up, look at it and he listens when I say no. Plus I really don't buy things that often--he's not especially "into" things really and it has always hurt when people have given him things that he has no interest in. Luckily that is changing...so I let him keep the video. He says to me:

Liam: Open, please. (holding video up to me)
Me: No, I can't do that. You can watch when you get home.
Liam: Have to pay for it.
Me: That's right, we have to pay for it.

One of our favorite things to do is play with his dollhouse (the Fisher Price Sweet Sounds home--I never activate the sounds though). He likes to put the people around the table to eat, they use the bathroom, take a bath, sit in front of the computer, etc. One of the things he likes to do is have them come in and out of the front door. So last night we put the little people to bed.

Liam: Shh! Be quiet.
Me: Are they asleep?
Liam: Good night, girls!

And you know, we only had the girls in bed. Good call Liam.