"I'm Elsa, and this is my gun"

Ever since Audrey was born, Leo has maintained that he wants to be a girl. In fact it started with him claiming that he was a girl, and at some point progressed to him wanting to be a girl.  He says this in a very matter-of-fact tone and with no apparent angst, and it doesn't stop him from acting like a stereotypical boy for much of the time (e.g. striking belligerent warrior poses and pretend-fighting with make-believe swords, often too realistically for comfort).  He also seems entirely unconcerned with my (or anyone else's) response, which tends to be a fairly off-hand, "That's fine, you can be a girl."  

At the beginning it seemed to be Leo's way of dealing with a new baby sister.  We were all a bit worried about how he would cope, as he had really only just emerged some six months prior from quite a difficult and protracted mummy-only phase.  We were hugely relieved when he seemed to take Audrey in his stride, with only the occasional slightly-rougher-than-comfortable-lets-see-what-mummy-says cuddle.

In those early days after Audrey was born, if a well-meaning adult commented, "you're a big boy now", Leo would invariably respond, "I'm a girl" with such conviction and in such a matter-of-fact tone that the adult would not dream of contradicting him, and would merely raise a surprised eyebrow in my direction.  If challenged, for instance by Oscar or Anouk, Leo did not seem upset, just determined.

Somehow being a girl seemed to correlate in his mind with being a baby.  At nursery school, Leo loved to play Mummies & Daddies with his friends, and he would almost always be the baby.  His friends were mostly girls, and he often ended up being the third wheel in a triangle with two girls who were bosom buddies.  Occasionally he would come home saying one of the girls didn't want to be his best friend anymore because she didn't like boys.  He fell out with his first pair of (girl) friends altogether because they would only ever let him be the baby or the daddy in their game, never the mummy.

On a few occasions, mainly at Anouk and Lucas' house and once during a playdate with one of his classmates Sophie, Leo really enjoyed dressing up in princess costumes. 

More recently, he has joined the universal obsession with Frozen heroines Elsa and Anna.  If there's ever a choice about who gets to play the King or queen or prince or princess in a game or contest, Leo invariably requests to be the princess, specifically Elsa.  In parallel, though, he has also enjoyed dressing up in various superhero and other male costumes:  Spider-Man, Batman, a pirate, Robin Hood, a cowboy...

(All these pictures were taken back in March - clearly a ripe month for fancy dress)

Even without a costume on Leo loves pretending he's a pirate or Spider-Man or a baddie and bouncing around pretend-fighting people.  So this morning, I wasn't particularly surprised when Leo greeted me with a secret:  "Mum" (whispering in my ear) "I'm Elsa" (cheeky grin) "and this is my gun" (shooting me with his makeshift gun made out of Audrey's Tegu blocks).  Pure Leo.