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. 

Introductions

My good people, I’ve missed my introduction!  I’ve been writing about my kids for a while, so I thought this might be a good time to let you in on the true make-up of their personalities.   We’ll start with the oldest.

Griffin is five years and five months old.  He’s as good of a big brother as we could have hoped for.  He’s constantly concerned with the well-being of his younger sibling, and a very responsible boy.  It’s not surprising for him to see something that needs to be done and just do it on his own without being told (like feeding the dog and letting her out).

If I had to sum him up, though, I’d have to settle on the words ‘Problem Solver’.  I don’t know if it’s inborn or if we fostered this behavior, but this kid is extremely inquisitive and creative.  At a young age, I started teaching him how to use tools to get things he wanted, like using a broom handle to get a ball out from under the couch.  He quickly learned door knobs and handles and could open them from the time he could reach them.  It didn’t dawn on me how much trouble we were in until he picked our bedroom lock one morning.  That’s just not something you want your kid doing at the drop of a hat.

Present him with a problem, and you can instantly see his little mind whir into action, ciphering through all his limited knowledge to come up with at least one solution for you.  Sometimes, they’re really good ideas, too.  He’s a smart one.

Gage, weighing in at two years and ten months, has a few more outstanding features than his older brother.  Where Griffin delights in the occasional round of mischief, Gage absolutely revels in it.  He’s never happier than when he’s being ornery.  He got a generous helping of this gene from both sides of the family, and hopefully we can channel that into light-hearted orneriness instead of mean-spirited.

Gage is also our little athlete.   Before he had even turned two, he could keep control of a soccer ball while running and kicking, he could also shoot a basketball over his brother’s head into their in-room basketball goal, and he could hit anything he was aiming at while throwing a ball.  This caused us a great deal of trouble, since he tended to aim for your face and rarely warned you he was about to throw.

The last feature of his little personality can be summed up into one word, ‘Charmer’.  I don’t know where he gets it from, but he knows how to turn on a smile for the ladies.  He also learned how to wink at a very young age, and has put that to good use.  Speaking from personal experience, it’s a little annoying to have such a lady’s man in the house.  On more than one occasion, Tamara has walked out of the bedroom after getting ready, only to have the youngest pipe up and say, “You look like a Princess!”  Oh, that’s so cute, you might say, but then when your wife turns to you and lifts her eyebrow in anticipation of your response, there’s really nothing left for you to bring to the plate.  “Yeah, what he said,” is about the best you can do.

I love our kids, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what traits our little girl will have.