The Differences Between Kids

I know so many people with two kids - a boy and a girl. Often, I hear how different these two kids are, with the differences chalked up to the fact that the kids are two different species (if you consider boys and girls as different species, like I pretty much do).

I can see how that would make sense. Boys are different than girls because they are boys. And girls are different than boys, because they are girls.

But I have two kids, too. Both girls. And you know what? They are WAAAAY different from each other. As it turns out, when it comes to the difference of kids, sex of child has nothing to do with it. My girls have been different from the very first day, when they were nothing but little tadpoles inside me.

Gracie - made me sick as a dog in the 1st trimester/ Annelie - made me ten times sicker.

Gracie - never stopped kicking/ Annelie - never moved in my stomach.

Gracie - while pregnant, my body hurt too much to move/ Annelie - made me feel so refreshed that up until her delivery, I was hiking and mountain climbing (some would call it small-hill walking... I call it mountain climbing)

Gracie - never slept as a newborn/ Annelie - Didn't wake up until she was about 4 months old.

Now that Gracie and Annelie are 5 and 3 years old, the differences between them have only grown. Gracie lives in dreamland and doesn't interact with kids very much on the playground, preferring to pal around with her imaginary boyfriends, Harry Potter and Justin Bieber. Annelie only plays pretend when Gracie ropes her into it, preferring to run around with other kids at the park instead. And while they both love playing dress-up, Annelie is much more interested in running into the backyard and swinging for hours or catching bugs (and sticking them in her hair - but that's a story for another day).

And as to potty-training...

Gracie - potty-trained easily and without a hitch/ Annelie - a never-ending potty-training NIGHTMARE!

When it comes to learning, my girls are also VERY different. Gracie is able to memorize quickly, but doesn't find problem solving very easy and struggles to relay back what she's learned. Annelie doesn't memorize letters/numbers or words as easily, but excels at problem solving. Also, when she sees a movie, she can tell you everything about it in clear, concise sentences (she gets that from her dad... I'm too long-winded to have passed on that gene).

When Gracie sees the word STOP, she knows what it says because she's already memorized it. Annelie sees STOP and knows what it says because she knows that the 'S' sound combined with the 'T' 'O' and 'P' sounds can be smashed together to make the sound STOP. As much as we work on that concept with Gracie, it just doesn't make any sense to her.

Yesterday, I was playing Tic-Tac-Toe with my girls. 5 year old Gracie lost every time. She just didn't get it, no matter how much I explained the rules to her, and eventually gave up to play with her imaginary boyfriend. 3 year old Annelie understood the rules immediately and after only two games, was already kicking my butt.

Not to mention: Gracie - the sweet, sensitive kid/ Annelie - the temper-tantrum throwing hellion with a love for destruction and making her sister cry.

It never fails to amaze me how two kids - both girls, both coming from the same place and from the same two people - can be SO DIFFERENT in just about all aspects of their lives. When I hear other moms talking about their kids, how different their son is from their daughter, I can only smile and nod and say, "Yeah, I know what you mean. My daughter is WAAAY different than my daughter."

It's not just the gender that makes them different. It's the kids.

xoxo,