These two.
I love 'em.
But sometimes...sometimes it takes every ounce of patience I can muster up to navigate their conflicting ways of thinking.
Their personalities are oh, so different.
Take the picture for example. One of my boys loves sports of almost any kind. He loves strategy and watched every play of the game. The other one split his time watching the cheerleaders, the jumbo-tron, and asking when the game would be over.
One loves spiders, snakes, and everything with six or eight legs. The other one despises them.
One loves math and thinks everything in life would just be better if it could be solved with a math problem. The other one? Math is his least favorite subject. He loves history and science.
One asks me to play games with him. The other asks me to do craft projects with him.
One asks his dad to play basketball with him. The other asks his dad to go hunting with him.
One loves legos, the other doesn't. One loves puzzles, the other doesn't. One will try almost any kind of food. The other gets pickier every day.
One, for the most part, is an avid rule-follower. The other, in a matter of one hour on Tuesday, tried to pick a lock into a classroom at school, breaking the paper clip he was using and jamming up the lock for the better part of the day. He quickly followed this up by showing some older boys how he could reach up into the snack machine and extract snacks without paying (about which he promised me he always put them back and never ate any, because "that would be stealing, mom!").
One is grounded for life. The other isn't.
One falls asleep quickly and wakes up early. Always. The other takes forever to fall asleep and wakes up late. Always.
This week I found myself thinking this could be a really difficult summer (the lock-picking and snack-grabbing incidents may have had something to do with that...).
The list of differences is so easy to come up with, so I tried to flip to the positive and think of some common interests they have.
Turns out there are several.
Jet skiing and tubing -- even when the waves are high and it is so cold you wear sweatshirts under your life jackets.
Boat time with grandpa and grandma.
Dirt-biking.
Rollerblading.
Traveling.
Long trips, short trips, hotel stays, or visiting family...they love it all. This is a good thing since we will be logging well over 3,900 miles this summer.
Camping. Our home away from home.
Swimming.
Okay, so these things are probably favorites of just about any kid. But at least one doesn't hate water or being at the lake.
They may be opposites, but I am incredibly thankful they have each other. One makes the other be a little more of a risk taker. The other one helps rein in a little bit of craziness.
I hope and pray that someday down the road they will be best of friends.
For now, I will just put on my referee shirt and spend a lot of time at the lake.
