Peer pressure and cliques

It's hard to put Ethan's explanations and emphasis into words - but after 2 months in school/daycare it's already started....

Day 1&2 - Anabelle was his best friend. She was drawn to him immediately. She's talkative and funny and apparently went out of her way to be nice to him and hold his hand and show him the ropes.
Fast forward a few days, weeks, and now when I ask about Anabelle I get this, "she's not my friend." when asked why "because I'm friends with Hayden and Ewan. Anabelle's a girl. I'm only friends with boys"Brodie hangs around as well, but "Brodie is Hayden's friend, I'm just friends with Hayden and Ewan" I picked him up from school last week and he went to tell Hayden good-bye. Unfortunately Hayden was reading books with Leah (a girl! stop the world!). Ethan told me that Hayden wasn't his friend today because he was Leah's friend. :( the dynamics of 3 yr old cliques....

(and yes, he and I talked about being friends with everyone....)

Today I drop Ethan off at school and Hayden sees me and says, "Hey Ethan's mom! look at this!" and he picks up his foot and shows me his new shoes and the cool orange bubbles on the bottom. Ethan looks at me and tells me, "Mommy, I need some sketchers"

I thought I had a little more time before he was concerned with name brands. although I should have seen it coming now that he's all concerned with what he wears and sometime over the last 3 weeks developed an opinion on what shirt he wears to school.