So...some girls like pink and purple and sparkly things and tiaras and skirts. All this is just fine.

Why, though, do they get pigeonholed as "princess" girls? Gack. The last real princess I saw was one of Fergie's daughters, and she was NOT wearing pink or a tiara.

Zoe likes pink/purple/sparkly/tiaras/skirts/etc. She even liked the little fake earrings that a friend's mom stuck onto her earlobes. (although she didn't seem sad when they fell off.)

HOWEVER.

She also likes trampolines and getting dirty and pretending to be a train and throwing balls and helping in the kitchen (helping her DAD, most of the time) and playing with cars and running races and giving big hugs and covering her face with chocolate or ketchup or whatever else is handy.

It seems sometimes that we think it has to be one or the other - you like pink, you can't like Matchbox cars. You love trains, you can't wear a skirt.

As far as I know, I'm not descended from royalty (well, Charlemagne, but isn't everyone of Western European descent a relative of Charlemagne?), so my kids are NOT princesses. (Despite the sparkly purple tiara on the younger one.)

Rant over.