So far, I have raised my children the same. I give them the same love, I feed them the same food, they have the same rules to follow. Yet, the difference between Abby and Caleb is simply amazing.
Let's take a look at our house when it is time to get ready to do anything.
I open the doors to both bedrooms, turn off the fans, and turn on the lights.
Abby takes about a second to wake up, then bounces out of bed, goes to the bathroom, and heads down to breakfast.
Caleb covers his head with his blankets, moans, and rolls over to fall back asleep. It then takes the work of two parents to coax, sometimes threaten, him out of bed. He then skips the whole bathroom routine (no idea how) and drags his feet to breakfast.
Abby eats her breakfast quickly, then runs upstairs to get dressed, brush her hair and her teeth. She hurries back downstairs to look for her shoes and coat.
While Abby is looking for her shoes and coat, Caleb is still at the table, halfway done with his cereal. When he eventually finishes, he drags his feet upstairs and just looks at his clothes that are laid out for him.
After looking at them for a couple of minutes, then hearing my threatening voice, he starts getting dressed. This takes awhile because he has to stop and play with every item that he sees around his room in the midst of changing his clothes. I am not kidding. Yesterday, I was "helping" him get dressed, i.e. standing there to keep him on task, when I watched the following...
He took off his pajama bottoms, put on his underwear, but decided that they did not fit right. He threw them on the floor, then put them in the drawer when I reminded him where they go, took out another pair, but also grabbed a toy on his dresser and started playing with it. I reminded him to put on his underwear, he did, then his pants, then he walked over for another toy before I had to remind him that his pajama top was still on. He laughed, started to take off his pajama top, then left it on top of his head for awhile since it made a funny hat. Hilarious. By some miracle he finally changed his shirt, then made his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth, pausing only three times to pick up more toys.
Meanwhile, Abby was downstairs, fully dressed with coat and shoes, backpack on and ready to go.
My personal favorite was last night. He went to his room to get his pajamas on for bed. Noah followed him and by the time I got to their room, this is what I saw...
Caleb had pulled his pants and underwear down, but not completely off, because he had got distracted by his new remote controlled car. The car had gone under his bed so both he and Noah were on their knees, looking under the bed. Again, he had his pants and underwear down to his ankles. He was bent over. With his butt to me.
Lovely.
I looked to my left at Abby's room. Her pajamas were on, teeth brushed, and she was sitting at her vanity, brushing her hair.
Oh sweet Abby, please do not go to college and leave me alone with these boys.
3 comments:
I think some of that may be the difference between first and second born. Not that I disagree that boys and girls are different--they certainly are. But here, my oldest is the same as Abby--out of bed immediately and completely ready for school all by himself at least 30 minutes early. But his sister...don't even get me started.
:-)
Yeah, me too. My oldest is always the one to do as told when he is told and a little more... My second born son is in la-la land... ALL OF THE TIME! I almost wonder if that's because older brother does everything, and the second one just knows what he can get away with.
Caleb is just like his father.....
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