I was thinking about birth order today. Specifically wondering if it actually plays any role in how our kids behave. In reading about it here I think we may have some reverse syndrome going on. In case you don't feel like clicking over, it's the bit about the younger child being spoiled and pampered and the older child being "dethroned" when the younger one comes along that interests me. Because I think we have somehow done that backwards.
When the Wonderboy was a baby, and into his first years of toddler-hood we did the epic bedtimes. The sitting in there until he was asleep. Or doing the commando crawl across the floor, freezing at the slightest exhaled breath or body twitch like we were in the sites of a sniper. And though we no longer have to endure that specifically - he is almost seven after all - his bedtime is still way more involved then the Pixie's. Hers tops out at fifteen minutes. His story/chat/bathroom/drink/need to tell you something/now I need to tell Daddy something/I just want that toy/book/music on/dog with me in my bed/cat in the room/no cat in the room/how do you spell light/connect/freezer/when are you checking on me? can last an hour and a half. GAH!
I wonder if that is due to the fact that the Pixie just tends to be mellower? Or did she become mellower because she was the second one and we were way more relaxed by the time she came along. Putting her in her crib and letting her cry it out was a cinch. Maybe that's because she was a better sleeper all along though?
He is drama, pure and simple. Kid hasn't met a good melodramatic breakdown he didn't love. She can pitch a fit - don't get me wrong - but it's over so much quicker then his storms. How did they get this way? Each of them born to us, but different in so many ways. How much of their personalities are based on what they see and learn, and how much is inherited or innate? Does any of it come from which one of them was born first?
I don't know the answers to any of these questions, really. Yet it plays in my head when I look at the two of them. Not only as to what kind of little people they are now, but what they will be like as tweens, teenagers, adults. So much unknown.
I do know one thing though. If we have to deal with these bedtimes much longer? He's going to have to find his own apartment a lot sooner then expected!
