So Different

How can two little brothers be so different?  We made them both, of that I’m sure.  The family resemblances are undeniable.  Though Griffin favors Tamara’s side more and Gage my side, we can see our traits in both of them.  Griffin might be a Brown in appearance, but he’s got his daddy’s love of crawling around in tight spaces, not to mention a killer sense of direction.  Gage is the spitting image of me at his age, but he’s the boy of a thousand faces.  If you check Tamara’s old picture albums, you’ll quickly come across a few looks that he stole straight from his mother’s playbook.

On some level, you’d think that if they were both our kids, they would be nearly identical.  I guess it just doesn’t work that way.  Consider something as basic as eating habits.  Griffin gags when he tries to eat eggs.  We’ve tried scrambled, fried, boiled, deviled, and even flan.  The best we’ve been able to do is French Toast.  Maybe it’s all the syrup that lets him get past the egg taste.  On the other hand, with Gage…chickens tremble at the mention of his name.  I have seen the boy put away six scrambled eggs in one sitting before his mother finally cut him off.  To my knowledge, we’ve never officially tested to see how many he would eat if we didn’t stop him.  I fear he would blow himself apart at the seam.

And it’s not just with food, though we could go on and on about that.  Even with something as simple as TV time, they differ so greatly.  Griffin could literally watch the television all day and then cry when you make him turn it off.  Gage would cry too, but only because brother is doing it.  His attention span for cartoons is closer to twenty minutes.  He gets bored just lying on the couch and staring.

Our older boy is a little clingier too.  He needs to be around people.  He doesn’t mind playing by himself as long as someone else is in close vicinity to him.  Gage is perfectly content to head back to his room and play cars or transformers for hours on end without coming out to check and see if an adult is still in the house.

I was reminded again of this oddity when we went to the book fair earlier this week.  While Tamara went about the process of paying for the books, I took the boys out to see our hometown heroes.  On display in the parking lot, we had an ambulance, a police car, and a fire rescue vehicle.  It was funny how the boys naturally gravitated toward different service vehicles.  Griffin wanted to be on the Fire Truck and Gage in the Police Car.  Thankfully, Gage gravitated toward the front seat instead of the back.

Things like this leave me wondering what little sister will be like when her personality starts to come in.  Will she favor one side of the family more than the other?  Will she be more like Griffin as opposed to Gage?  Or will she be something entirely different on her own?

Despite the many personalities that exist within our little home, I can truly say that I love them all.  There’s not a thing I would change about my family and I’m happy that all the trials and decisions have led me to this point and these people.