Boys and Girls

I was looking again at the photos from our beach morning last week and I noticed something:




Here's my girl, sitting quietly, digging in the sand.

Here's her brother, on the run, chasing birds, screaming the entire time.

Still running. Screaming even louder.

I would swear that we don't parent them much differently...we wrestle with Millie, run and kick the soccer ball, play loud games. We encourage Simon to draw at the easel, 'read' books, give his baby doll big hugs. And still, this is a typical scene in the house. Si bounces off things and keeps on movin'. Millie takes a tumble and is immediately wailing and flailing on the floor. It's quite a scene. The two of them look so much alike, but have such different spirits.

Speaking of scene, we were a bit of a spectacle in Target a few weeks ago. I was rushing us through, trying to get in and out of there with only the items on my list (head straight for the ballet section...must avoid housewares/make-up/book departments...look away from the accessories). The kids were goofing around with each other and eventually got themselves into a very loud "B-I-B-L-E" sing-off. The song ends with an enthusiastic shriek of "Bible!" which caused a lot of people to jump and then stare at us. Between the laughing and embarrassment I wasn't able to get the live action on video, but here's a re-enactment when we got in the car.