You know what the coolest thing about kids is? How they are each born with their own personalities. From day one, Kaylee made herself known to the world. She sounded like an exotic jungle bird squawking while Sienna would just make an angry face at you. Kind of like this:
Heck, even in my belly, Sienna was – well – Sienna. Shoving her butt up in the air just to tick Kaylee off and start a huge battle that made my stomach look like aliens would burst forth at any second. She is still very deliberate in her devious ways. And Kaylee still screams like the world is being attacked by giant sea monsters any time she feels she is being wrong ed.
This is awful, but it kind of cracks me up that when I have to give them spankings (very very rare). Kaylee lets out a blood curdling scream the second you make contact with her skin. With Sienna, it’s almost a contest to see if you can make her cry. If you don’t get a good smack on her little bum, she doesn’t react at all.
If you go to our church or know us personally elsewhere, you know that Kaylee is the most gregarious child in the world. In fact, since you likely had to look gregarious up in the dictionary, you probably saw her picture there. No person is a stranger to that little blondie. She marches around like she owns the place (whatever place where we happen to be) and waves with her huge smile and says, “Hello!” to everyone. She also likes to talk about whatever might be happening that day or week. Such as, “Hi, my mommy and daddy took away my Penny Pony because I wouldn’t go to sleep.” Or, “Did you know that I pooped and that I had to wait for Mama to come and wipe my butt because I’m not allowed to wipe poopy, just pee and we always wash our hands even if we didn’t wipe ourselves.” New people are instantly her best friends.
Then there’s Sienna. Once, I took them to Wendy’s and while Kaylee was blatantly looking over the divider into the next booth to see what those people were doing, Sienna was literally hiding under the table so the people in the next booth wouldn’t see her. She is that kid that everyone wants to make smile and hug them but she won’t. She makes people feel bad because she takes a while to warm up to them, but they have just experienced very slobbery kisses from her outgoing sister so why wouldn’t they expect Sienna to do the same thing? Alas (just like her mommy when she was little), the brown-haired sister is shy. I kind of hate that term, thought. She’s just more cautious. She generally ends up liking everyone – once she’s seen that they are nice and trustworthy. If you are patient with her, she will warm up to you and then she’s as loyal as a three year old kid can be.
Kaylee is insanely care-free. Not much bothers her – for long, I mean she does make a big deal out of small things. But when it comes to learning something new or figuring out puzzles or learning to write letters or numbers or anything cerebral, she just doesn’t care. If she messes up – no big deal. As long as no one else is mad at her, she’s happy as a clam. She doesn’t seem to be obsessed with anything in particular – princesses, ponies, puppies, dolls, whatever. She loves them all and couldn’t care less about any of them (unless, of course, Sienna or Ethan care, then she does too.)
Sienna. Oh, my Sienna. I think her second word was “pink” (first one was “uh-oh”, fitting since she is the physically more daring of the two) and she is more than obsessed with princesses. She wants everything that exists in the world to have something to do with princesses. I don’t know why. She’s also extraordinarily particular and deliberate with everything she does. She enunciates very well and if she doesn’t remember how to say something, she asks how. She loves to sit in a corner with a book and make up stories out loud (so adorable, but she hasn’t let me catch her with a camera yet). Coloring in the lines is a goal for her and she does pretty darn well. She works very hard at writing letters (with no prompting from us)and is quite proficient at writing “p”.
So at this point, you might be wondering about Ethan. Why haven’t I mentioned him? Well, first, it’s just way easier to compare twins. But second, it’s because in many categories, he falls somewhere in the middle. Not overly out-going but not overly shy. Not too adventurous, but not particularly scared. He has interests, but not any obsessions, really. The funny thing about him, though, is that he is so mature. I hate saying that about a five year old – I work really hard to remember that he’s five because he says the most profound things sometimes. Not to mention that he blows me away with his mad reading skills. Seriously, that kid is amazing. Yeah, he’s my kid so I’m supposed to be proud, but if I am comparing, (which I am) the girls are no where near where he was as far as reading and writing go at this point. And remember, I was raising baby twins when he was two and learning to read; he’s pretty much taught himself. He learned the letters, then the sounds (thank you Fridge Phonics) and by the time he was three, he thought it was a fun game to read words we wrote on his Magnadoodle. I think, also, he’s the most sensitive of the three. He really really wants you to like him and to approve of him. He’s got a great daddy, because Tom doesn’t let him win (at least not easily) so when Ethan does win at a game, he is so proud of himself and he knows that we are genuinely impressed with him.
I guess the thing that fascinates me is the whole nature/nurture thing. It’s very clear to me that kids are born with predetermined personalities. Yet, we as parents have the responsibility to guide them as they grow so that they can maintain their own identities and use them to the best of their abilities. Crazy frightening when you think about it. So I try not to. I just watch with awe as they grow and marvel at the gifts God bestowed upon me.
Mommy in the Mirror 