Nature vs. Nurture

As parents to children of both sexes, it's been interesting to watch them develop. Our philosophy was to encourage the children to develop their own interests and to be as gender-neutral as possible when it came to play items. Devlin, being the first-born, received lots of stuffed animals as gifts. We also purchased gender-neutral toys, like building blocks, lego, sorting puzzles and the like.
While we have never consciously pushed certain toys to either Devlin or Ceilidh (Aisling is too young to count at this point), Ceilidh has gravitated to dolls and stuffed animals whereas Devlin never showed a huge interest in his teddy bears. In all fairness, Devlin received lots of cars and trucks as gifts from his cousins since he was a baby so that may explain his fondness for such. But even from the tender age of 15 months, Ceilidh displayed a "mothering" behaviour with her bears, puppies and dolls. She would cradle them gently, pat them tenderly, and wrap them in blankets. When putting the toys away, she would gently place the dolls on the couch.
In the same respect, I haven't really "dressed up" Ceilidh in skirts or dresses. One, I strongly believe in the tradition of hand-me-downs and I tried to purchase gender-neutral coloured clothing for Devlin for that purpose. Two, buckling a child into a car seat is much easier when clad in pants or shorts and not a frilly skirt. Third, coaxing a toddler into leotards is like trying to dress an octopus. Ever tried it?
But in recent months, Ceilidh has been requesting dresses and skirts. She loves wearing girly clothes, and walks around the house with a purse and pretends to put on make-up. I have no idea where she gets that from, because I hardly wear any make-up, and I rarely wear skirts outside of the office. Whenever she sees my high heels, she says "ooh, pretty shoes!" and she loves to touch my earrings. One of her favorite playtime activities is dress-up. I bought her some dress-up outfits, complete with shoes and costume jewellery. I often come home to see her wearing outrageous outfits with a crown on her head and bracelets dangling off her arms.
Devlin likes dress-up too, but only in the super-hero outfits. (I often hit the after Halloween sales for the dress up outfits.)