Boy toys vs. girl toys

Yesterday I was at a birthday party for a one year old girl.  Her brother and my son are in Jackson’s words, best buddies however yesterday they were having some trouble sharing when they started opening up her presents.  She was given a Minnie Mouse vacuum cleaner and the three boys around her, brother, cousin and my son, all between ages 18 months and 3 were fighting over this vacuum cleaner.  I do think a majority of the reason behind this was because it made cool noises that you heard with just a push of a button but this toy was all the rage.  I finally said to my son he did not want to play with it because it was a baby toy and it was a girl toy.  (Now disclaimer, I do not care what toys my kids play with.  I was mostly trying to get him focused on something else as the smaller kids were enjoying the toy.) My best friend who also keeps my boys in daycare says to me he does not know what the difference in boy and girl toys are.  To which I told her, you would be surprised of what this three year old knows.  I explained that the cover of my Gender Roles textbook has pictures of a “girl room” covered in pink and Hello Kitty and another picture of a “boy room” covered in blues, trucks and super heroes.  I went on to tell her that every time he sees me reading this book he states the “girl room” is for his sister and the “boy room” is for her.  He also asked me today as we were talking about coming to the party what kind it would be.  I told him I did not know and his answer is it would probably be Barbie, believing in his little brain that Barbies are for girls.  It is amazing to me that at three he already knows such things when we have not really taught this at home.