Overall today, Ben was actually a bit more of a pistol and not so much "sweetness", but I guess that happens from time to time.

At one point though he was playing with this Fisher Price Little People "Christmas Train" that we bought for him last year and just pulled out of the closet. It has three train cars, an engine, an animal pen, and then the caboose, which features an oven with a working door and baking gingerbread cookies. It also has a Santa Claus, a Mrs. Claus who is holding a cookie, and a reindeer.

As Ben was setting it up and playing he first noticed that Mrs. Claus was holding a gingerbread cookie in her hand. This made him very excited as he just learned about gingerbread cookies while Matt & Laura were here. He calls them "cookie men". So first things first he pretended to eat the cookie man out of her hand.

At that point he lost interest in Mrs. Claus and picked up the reindeer and put him in the boxcar. He turned and looked at me and said, "What's a reindeer say?" Anyone know? Because I don't. I said, "I don't know, buddy. I don't think reindeer say anything." That was obviously not a good answer so he decided that reindeer say "hee-haw" like donkeys.

Next, he found that the caboose car has an oven in the back where more cookie men are baking. It has a spot for one of the Little People to stand there and bake. He looked over his choices: Santa or Mrs. Claus, who mind you, is holding a cookie. He grabbed Santa and stuck him in the back to bake...while mom internally cheered. Mrs. Claus was then promoted to the engine car where she drives the car while holding the cookie man apparently as a snack just in case being in charge makes her hungry!

Three cheers for my baby who doesn' t yet know about gender stereotypes!

PS. I pointed this out to Andrew and he decided it was okay because the whole Santa-thing is obviously make-believe so it doesn't matter that Mrs. Claus drives while Santa bakes. And several days later, he's still setting it up the same way. :)