Ladies and Gentlemen

I sit and watch my children playing and am amazed at how different they are. It is crazy that at such a young age they each have different loves. I have a boy and a girl. It blows me away how Brayden is All boy and Addison is All girl, without any specific direction given to them. They are starting to play well together. I am not saying that Addison won't play cars with Brayden, or that Brayden doesn't play kitchen with Addi. Brayden has always had a love of balls. Always. When he was a small baby he liked rolling them in his little hands and rolling them back and forth. Now he has an arm that is almost unbelievable. It was one of his first words "ball", and every time we go into a store, it is still the toy that he desires most. His new love is cars. I say new love... he has actually loved cars since he was about 1. He has a ton of them. He lines them up everywhere. Seeing the movie Cars only enhanced this love. I held out as long as I could with the movies. Not that I don't want them to watch movies, and I LOVE Disney. I just wanted them to play, without the constant influence of TV for as long as they could. Now he begs for the movie. He has favorite characters, which is adorable. I like that he picked out for himself, what it is that he loves in life. I know that each child, with the influence of their environment, will pick out a love out of what they are exposed to. BUT I LOVE THAT! Each of his little friends is a little different. He has a little friend that Loves Batman (from what I can tell from facebook-- he is a long distance friend-- I love that I can know that from facebook-- Amber I love you and your little family even though we don't get to see as much of each other as we would love to). And he has a little friend that is very much a cowboy and loves to bull-ride. I like that all of his friends aren't clones of himself. They play together, and are friends even though they are different. The lessons start early don't they.

Addison is a different story. She is very much a girlie girl. She is a nurturer. I have never seen a girl who loves baby dolls as much as she does. She learned to walk toting one in her arms. It was quite comical, watching her fumble around trying to make it, when she refused to take a single step without her dolly. She kisses everything. I love this about her. She is so sweet. (not that she doesn't have an ornery side... anyone who knows Addi knows that she is quite the spitfire) She is just a lover. She loves playing kitchen and putting on clothes. Addison did everything really fast in life. I think she didn't want to miss out on anything. She loves to get one over on Brayden. I catch her all the time grabbing something that she knows that he wants and running off with it. The chase is on. She is so quirky, and clumsy. She likes jewelry and things that are pretty. That was one of her first words "pretty". Everything is pretty to Addison. I love it.

I am also very thankful that I was fortunate enough to have my best friends have children at the same time that I did. I know that not everyone gets this experience. I feel like I am never alone. Any questions/frustrations/advice is only a phone-call away. They are going through the same things that I am, at exactly the same time. Sometimes it is just having someone that can relate. Our children are friends, and will grow up knowing each other. I enjoy spending time and catching up with each of you. I might go crazy without you guys! You guys are my lifelines, and don't mind that my house isn't perfect, or that I am not put together all of the time, and you understand that I don't have a sitter all the time and are completely fine going out with us with the kids. As hectic as it may sometimes be... I love it. It won't always be this way... I don't want to rush through it.