and mamie – the motivation behind the room separation is their VERY DIFFERENT sleep styles. Oh, we do have them on the same schedule/routine, but how lightly they sleep and the amount of jabbering they do when not yet asleep varies and impacts the other. I’m pretty easy going about lots of things, but I will protect their sleep like the FBI security detail protects a world leader.

however, having said that, I was telling howie this morning that there were white shirts soaking in the washing machine that I hadn’t meant to be ‘play clothes’ and his response was something along the lines of where did i expect them to be wearing these ‘non-play-clothes-non-dresses’ and I said ‘out. in public.’ so clearly I need to have them dressed like girls if we go out. interesting…

It’s only for a short while that she’ll let me pick her clothing

And Porter, he likes Dino, firetruck and doggie shirts. He’ll insist on wearing those.

So I don’t ignore it and yes I think the gender of my children impact they way I dress them.

My clothing issue is dressing them alike. I never really thought about it. But when they were born everyone bought us identical outfits and it became a habit. I never even gave it a thought. I bought two of everything. Then when I tried to dress them differently they FOUGHT! “I want to wear MY purple shirt too!” So – I dressed them alike to avoid confrontations and to get out of the house easier. Now – I just buy whatever. but I still gravitate to alike outfits out of habit. My summer clothing purchases have been same styles – maybe different colors or prints.

PS – my crazy over shopping days are OVER! The only good thing that came out of BOXES full of stuff that was hardly ever worn was the money I made on eBay selling it all

PPS – WHERE did you get the OBAMA shirt???? I LOVE It!

I think I am very practical in my approach to gender, and very traditional. If Jonathan wants to wear a bow, I say “no, bows are for girls. Give it back to your sister please.” He has no problem with that. He has never ever asked to do anything remotely like his sister other than the bows. And usually, he runs to her and tries to jam them into her hair.

I am grateful they are only two and I can still dictate their clothing choices for a few more months! One less battle to fight!

I’m with you. I figured it would be very easy to go overboard on girly girliness with monozygotic girls, so I went overboard in the other direction. However, my daughters have decided for themselves that they are seriously girly girls. Jessica doesn’t wear pants at home, because that way, “My shirt is just like a dress with no pants!”

Melody and Jess have decided for themselves that they are mermaids, princesses, ballerinas, doctors or Backyardigans characters at all times. They have decided for themselves that they love dresses and skirts and DO NOT wear jeans.

I have a great photo from just this morning of Melody in a summer dress and ribbon in her hair, playing with trucks.