if ever a camera phone was in need.

yesterday penn and i made a trek to target on a quest for neosporin. you can't go to target and not visit the toy section. in the toy section there is a 15 foot cage of big ass balls. all colors. penn loves these balls and i don't know why i haven't gotten him one yet. i suppose i save it as a treat for suffering the target trips with me.

penn pointed and asked for a ball. i pulled out a big blue one and he threw it and chased it down the aisle and brought it back to me. and then he looked up. he filled his lungs to capacity in 1/25th of a second then giggled and danced and blabbered and pointed. he wanted the pink ball. the barbie pink ball.

but it was a weird sort've delight he was having at seeing the barbie pink ball. he had to have it, so i got it down and returned the blue ball back to the fifteen foot cage. ecstatic, i tell you. literally dancing with joy. we wandered with the huge barbie pink ball down the doll aisle.

penn stopped in the middle of the aisle, holding his ball and looked around as if he had entered another world. i don't think we had ever found our way down the doll aisle before. he was entranced. he walked up to each of them and waved and smiled that baby introduction that is beyond adult comprehension. he seemed to think the dolls were real children. he stopped at one in particular and decided it was his new best friend.

he showed the doll his ball and told it that it was wearing socks and that it had a nose and eyes and a hat. he talked for a long time with this doll, completely enthralled. he then got up, sucked in a bunch of air and danced again. he had spotted a polly pocket purse. star shaped and rainbowed out and he ran to it and put it over his shoulder. he showed it to his new best doll friend.

then he spotted a line of horses. big tall two foot horses all realistically colored except for one. one was white with a drag the ground glitter mane and stars on it's butt. that was, of course, the one he loved. and so he pranced around with his purse and his barbie pink ball petting the star butted horse and talking to his dolly.

i can't explain how cute/odd it was to see my little boy on the pink frilly aisle having the time of his life.

benji says if i have to get penn a doll, he'd like it to be "manly." now. where do i find a "manly" doll?

social gender issues say all of this is weird. i'd like to gaurd against this, but at the same time, my son obviously LOVES dolls. why shouldn't he play with one? 'cause some closed-minded red neck thinks it's sissy and it would be much more rational to give him a gun and let him pretend to shoot someone?

i probably won't get penn a doll. but i'll probably keep wanting to. fyi: he's only 17 months old so this means nothing.