Different Children

Before I had kids of my own, I always heard parents say that their kids were so different.

Mine are no exception. In fact I looked forward to seeing their personalities develop to see what their similarities and differences might be.

For the most part, Fletcher is a compliant, rules follower and pretty cautious. He is tenderhearted and sometimes overly dramatic when he gets "hurt". He is also very social. He thrives on being around people. Sleeping is not his favorite thing because he has to do that alone. He is a complete morning person to the point that we had to put a clock in his room and tell him that he cannot come out until 7:00 am. Otherwise, he'd bound out of bed at 6:00 or even earlier asking me to make him some breakfast.

On the other hand, Luke sees rules as mere suggestions. To him "pick up your toys now" means "pick up your toys if you feel like it sometime in the next week or so, but if you don't, don't worry about it." He isn't cautious about anything. But if he falls and hurts himself being a daredevil, he just gets right back up and keeps going. He likes people ok, but if several kids are here, he is fine playing by himself in his room.

Luke is NOT a morning person and I get that completely because I'm not a morning person either. This is a typical morning or after nap scenario with him. Sometimes he sleeps as late as 7:30 or 8:30 am.

Mom: (going into his room): Hey buddy! Good morning!
Luke: (putting Rocky over his eyes to shield the light) I not done seepin'
Mom: Did you have good night-night sleeps?
Luke: No. I not done. Come seep wif me.
Mom: (So I lay down with him for a minute)
Luke: You wanna sniff? (he goes to sleep by sniffing his stuffed dog Rocky's tail - weird, I know)
Mom: Sure
Luke: (He lets me sniff, then he takes a sniff) You need some covers?
Mom: Sure. Ok, ready to go potty?
Luke: Not yet.
Mom: (so we lay there a little longer - I have to consciously try not to fall back asleep because I sure could)
Mom: How about now?
Luke: Yeah, I done seepin'

Then we start our day. Sometimes it takes him awhile to get in a good mood. Tuesday morning he was so grumpy I asked if he needed to go lay back down and he did! For about 10 more minutes. Then he came out of his room all happy and ready to eat breakfast.