Clifford
Yesterday I went to Target with my two boys: 4year old Roman and Dominik 2 years old to purchase them some puzzles. I stopped a moment to look at the dolls when a small dark baby caught my attention. I gave one to each of the boys.

Roman exclaimed, “Baby” followed by Dominik’s shrieking voice “BABY!”I glanced around at the shelves and noticed dolls with a milk bottle included and it appeared as if the doll was drinking the milk. I also noticed all the merchandise was geared for little girls "little mommy" was the label on almost every box, “what about little daddy”, I thought. All the dolls were "baby girls" and of course pink was the color of choice.

I looked at Roman and he was quite entertained with the doll as he was talking to it and replacing the little hat that had fallen off.
Dominik was looking around with an expression that said, “Can we PLEASE move on to the puzzles?”

We finally made it to the puzzle aisle and each of the boys chose their own puzzle. As we were heading to the checkout counter I asked Roman if he wanted to take a baby home. His reply, “Can I pleaseeeeeeee?” I had originally intended to only buy them the puzzles, but I gave it a second thought, “why not it would be good for them to have a baby around the house to play with”. I nodded OK. Dominik on the other hand didn’t want a baby doll so we only purchased one.
When we got home, I started cooking dinner and the boys played in the living room. I had visions of Roman nurturing the baby. But to my surprise he was slamming the doll on the pillow. “OH LOOO”, I thought and went back to cooking dinner.
But later that evening Roman was tightly holding his baby. As we prepared for bedtime I pointed to the baby and asked, “Is it a BOY or a GIRL?” Roman inspected it, removed the hat then said, ‘it’s a BOY!” I asked, “Why do you think it is a boy?” He pointed to the bald head (daddy has a bald head, so he assumed he was a boy).

Then I asked Dominik the same question and after inspecting it and removing the doll’s clothes he exclaimed, “It’s a BOY” and he mumbled, “He is dark, LOOK, dark here”. Dark there as he pointed to the legs, face and arms of the doll.I had intentionally purchased a darker doll. So I guess Dominik assumed since the baby was dark then just like daddy he must be a boy.I asked Roman “what are you going to name the baby?” he thought for a while then responded, Clifford!”

The next morning, when I took them to school, Roman took out his Monkey (his favorite toy) from his blankets and replaced it with the baby. When asked, “Roman are you going to sleep with the baby during your naptime?”
Dominik interrupted and said, “MOMMY, it is NOT a baby, it’s CLIFFORD.