isn't it simply amazing how completely different two children, from the same two parents, can be? having two older sisters, i now see the contrasts in our personalities very clearly and often wonder how we can all possibly be related. but i never noticed the difference in two siblings' personalities as distinctly as i did when i had my second child.
as i sit here writing, my 2 1/2 year old daughter, ella jaymes, is running around the house in nothing more than a diaper. she is tackling our pug, pitino, and putting him in a headlock. my daughter madelyn, however, is lying quietly on her bed watching the latest episode of icarly. sure, there is a 3 1/2 year age gap, but it isn't age that is making the difference here. it's personality.
if madelyn is my little magnolia, then ella is pure steel. when madelyn was younger, i remember hearing my girlfriend's horror stories of her son waking up in the middle of the night and painting everybody in the house's face with magic marker, or the time he went on a ketchup-squirting rampage and her other son woke up thinking he was bleeding to death. i remember thinking, 'praise the lord that my children are not like that.' madelyn was a very sweet, calm, and well behaved toddler. then came ella. once she took that first step, i realized that no wall in the house was safe from crayon marks, all cleaning products had to be locked away, and if the front door remained unlocked then ella would go bolting straight through it into the street. luckily, i live at the end of a cul-de-sac.
don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining, i'm just making an observation. and they definitely switch roles from time to time. madelyn has thrown fits that would make linda blair's character from the exorcist look like a saint. and when ella prays at the dinner table, you would swear that you had never seen such an angel. but for the most part, they are as different as night and....oh, hold on, ella's about to slide down the banister.
