Gender Fluidity?

Bella: goes in too deep, loses her footing and falls slightly underwater, and decides she probably shouldn’t be out quite that far

Bean: goes in too deep, loses his footing and falls underwater backwards, with only his eyes above water; watches me calmly from underwater as I race to pull him out; goes in deeper, stands up and then continues falling backward underwater on purpose to see what happens

Playing outside when a light rain begins to fall

Bella: runs into the rain, squeals and giggles happily for a couple minutes, then runs back under the house to dry off a little

Bean: runs into the rain, looks bored, spies the one water spout where the water is collecting and gushing off the roof, and plants himself under it for ten minutes; he cannot open his eyes and can barely catch a breath, yet he loves the thrill

Playing in the rock garden

Bella: requests a baby wipe and begins polishing the rocks to make jewelry

Bean: uses the tweasers from his Bob the Builder tool set to pick up increasingly large rocks, examine each one, and place it into his mouth, attempting to discover the largest size rock that will fit

Tea party

Bella: carefully and sweetly pours water from the china teapot into the china teacups, names each pretend flavor of tea she is pouring, and sips hers as she offers me my favorite flavor

Bean: disappears with a full teacup when nobody is looking, pours the water on my alarm clock, then begins dropping the teacup from increasing altitudes onto the hardwood floor to explore the effect of gravity on china

Rice Krispie treat from gas station
Bella: removes packaging a little at a time as she enjoys it bite by bite

Bean: removes packaging in its entirety and inserts entire bar in his mouth, then goes from there

Playing in the waves at the beach

Bella: gets a mouthful of salt water as a large wave surprises her, then asks for a drink of fresh water and takes a short break to play in the sand

Bean: gets an intense faceful of salt water as a large wave consumes him, pops up, rubs his eyes vigorously then plants his feet in the sand and squints his eyes, inviting Neptune God-of-the-Sea to bring it on again

This is dedicated to all you gender-bender moms at the playground who buy your train-loving sons Barbie dolls so they can choose their gender when they get older.

My only remaining question is how any little boy lives to see adulthood. How can you not believe in guardian angels?