Kid Differences

Today I thought I'd write about the differences between my son and daughter.... I'm not sure if it will be possible to extrapolate this further to the difference between boys and girls - perhaps you can leave me a comment and let me know what you think.  I'm writing about this due to a little incident that happened yesterday, but more about that later.

So the first difference is the smell of a dirty nappy.  My son, Sabin positively stinks to high hell!  I always know he has a poo, because I can smell it from the other end of the house.  I discovered this difference fairly early on, when he was a baby... it's only getting worse.  I can only guess that he's trying to catch up to his father or his Poppy.  He has also started doing loud-ish farts, to which he looks over his shoulder at his nether regions.  If you ask him where the sound came from he promptly points at his bottom.  As a baby, my daughter, Chynna had pleasant smelling poo in comparison.  I do not remember her "passing wind" (she's a lady) as an 18 month old.  However she is making up for it now, as she likes to sneak up on me and leave little toot gifts.

The next difference is in my kids eating habits.  My daughter eats like a bird, and not a seagull either - a hummingbird!  She eats little and often.  Whereas my son too, eats like a bird - a GANNET!  Which is a seabird that eats large quantities of big fish whole.  He is the type of eater, who likes to have his mouth absolutely full, so that he can't shove another thing in and then he lets digestion occur in his mouth.  He would eat all day if it were possible.  I have noted that he is starting to get a little discerning with what he eats... no green or orange tortellini for him... just the usual yellow coloured ones thanks mum.  At least he eats a lot of what he likes.  My daughter is what I'd call fussy.  She even has an eating chart, where she gets a tick for trying new food with a reward after 7 new foods.  She would be lucky to get one tick a week.  It is the bane of my life!

My children have quite different temperaments.  Chynna is excitable and jumps straight into things and Sabin is calm and a bit slow to warm up.  He likes to take in the whole situation before acting.   I am excitable (what a nice way to put it) and my husband is calm. 

At 18 months, my daughter did not want to sleep.  She would cry, yell and carry on in effort to avoid sleep.  She did not sleep through the night consistently until 2 maybe 2.5 years old.  However (and thank God) my son is a great sleeper (touch wood).  He started sleeping through the night at around 8 weeks old.  Even now, he can be awake in his cot for an hour, but he doesn't cry.  I hear him talking to himself, sometimes he calls out, but generally we ignore him and he just goes off to sleep.  My little minx would have cried the house down and interrupted the neighbour’s television viewing.

My son is a helper.  He wants to help me take out the washing, carry in the shopping, feed the chooks, fill the washing machine, take out the rubbish etc etc.  This behaviour is a constant source of amazement to me... he just seemed to know that it was polite to help.  If I ask him to pick up his books or take his shoes to his room he usually obliges.  Chynna's answer to most requests is a big NO.  I know this is her age... but she was not helpful at 18 months old either, not in the way Sabin is.

I think my children also play quite differently.  Sabin likes to climb - Chynna never climbed anything.  Climbing is a testing activity - for the parent anyways, do I step in now, is he going to fall, will I be able to catch him... I prefer no climbing as a rule.  Luckily they both have the ability to entertain themselves.  Chynna can turn mundane items, like cutlery into characters for her own private fairy tale.  While Sabin is happy tipping the tea set on the floor for the 100th time this hour.  Sometime I think he'd fit as a candidate for OCD.  He does things over and over (very normal behaviour for kids his age) and he likes things just so.  One day I went into his room to collect him from his nap and he was sitting in the corner of his cot.  He stood up and pointed to a book on the bed in his room.  I put him on the floor and he picked up the book and put in the bookcase.  I bet it was irking him as soon as I put him in his cot.

Sabin is rougher than Chynna at 18 months.  Just a few days ago, I was in the kitchen doing the dishes, when Sabin marched in, opened a drawer with the large utensils in, grabbed the big whisk, closed the drawer and then came over to me and whacked me on the legs with the whisk.  He lined me up with a big tennis swing... Yesterday he marched into the kitchen with much purpose, opened the drawer, grabbed out a wooden spoon, closed the drawer and went to chase Chynna with it.  I stopped him, and then he decided to whack me.  My husband pondered what he must have been thinking when he opened the drawer, because it looked like the spoon grabbing was premeditated.

So back to the incident from yesterday... in sticking with the roughness theme, I was wrestling with my bullyboy.  It all began harmlessly enough, I was lying on my back and he was using his arms to crash onto me.  I noticed that he started to drop his knees in first and then crash on top of me with his arms.  I had a bit of a giggle thinking, what will happen when bullyboy is three and does this.  Then he changed tact.  He crawled over me.  I'm not sure what he was intending to do next, but he put his hands on my chest and I guess he was getting on top of me, but one of his hands slipped and his big forehead whacked me on the nose.  I sat up so quickly that Sabin slipped off to the floor.  He let out a wah, but that was it.  I raced to the freezer to get ice and a tissue in case the drip I could feel in my nose was blood - it wasn't.  It's not often a girl cops a head butt, but I now know I should avoid one at all costs.  It hurt so much I called my husband to cry.  He said, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt - yeah usually the child, but in this case me!! 

My nose is still sore today.  I bumped it a few times with my sunglasses and it put me through the roof.  I can say that my daughter never inflicted any injuries on me quite like this.  I think in the future I will leave most of the wrestling to my husband or I may need to invest in a helmet to protect my nose and eyes!

My kiddies are different.  I'm glad.  How boring would it have been if they were the same?  I have really enjoyed being their mother so far, they are a constant source of inspiration, amazement and humour.


PS.  I'm not sure I would be writing such lovely things about them if my nose was broken...