I love this age

Fiona's at the age where society's preconcieved notions of gender haven't taken over. She's a fantastic mix of girly-girl and tomboy. Today we had a toenail painting party while she decided which princess dress she was going to wear. Yesterday she announced that she wanted to be a firefighter when she grew up. (But that she might not be able to do it because she thought I might miss her too much when she was driving the truck.) She loves watching the girls do their spins and things in figure skating, but is determined that she is going to play hockey when she learns how to skate. She would love to wear dresses to school every day, but only if they don't interfere with playing on the floor with the boys in the gym. She likes playing with dolls, but isn't really into the nurturing thing, she usually ties the doll carrier to a jumprope and creates ways to raise and lower the doll from a door handle or drag it around the house like a puppy.

I'd like for this stage to last as long as possible, I just hate the thought that as she gets introduced to more and older kids in school that she'll start being told that she can't do something or should behave a certain way because she's a girl. I'm also afraid that this will happen sooner rather than later and the new baby will never go through this stage because she'll have an older sister telling her that hockey is for boys. I guess all we can do is continue to tell Fiona that she can be whatever she wants to be and hope she believes us.