Differences

Right now we are at one of my favorite places in the world, Cannon Beach, Oregon. I grew up coming here every summer. In my opinion, the Oregon Coast is some of the prettiest landscape I have ever seen. I have yet to see a more beautiful place. Of course, coming here with my own kids now is a totally different experience. No longer free to come and go as I please. Spending much more time in the room than I would like with a napping or sleeping child. But that is just the season of my life right now. And it is a joy to be able to share this place with my children. Emmory loves the beach. Absolutely loves it. And he hasn't even gone in the water yet (and probably won't be since it's freezing cold). He is perfectly content to play in the sand with his dump trucks and diggers. He would stay there all day if we let him. We have to make him leave each time we are on the beach, and whenever we aren't on the beach, he is asking to go to the "deach". This is pretty amazing for my son who is so busy. I can't think of one thing he loves more than the beach. He will be sad when we have to leave.
But, that isn't the reason I wanted to post tonight. I wanted to post about the differences in my two children. I always knew once I had Emmory that when we had more kids, they wouldn't be the same. But it was just hard for me to picture in my mind what another kid would be like, since Emmory was all I knew. But this trip has been the perfect example of the differences in my kids, and it is amazing how early you can see it. Emmory is so laid back. You might not think so because he is a busy kid, but he is laid back. He goes with the flow, he's very adaptable, very easily distracted, etc etc. Evan is not the same. He is going to be more stubborn, he gets his mind on something and he wants it and doesn't forget. He is more bothered by things.  Of course they both could change, but Mark and I are predicting how their relationship is going to be. And we think as soon as Evan gets a little older and can hold his own, he is going to give it to Emmory once, and that'll be the end of it. No more picking on Evan. Emmory will just find a different way to go or something different to do rather than cross Evan. We think he'll push his older brother around and control the relationship. But who knows, that's just our prediction. But here is a perfect example of the differences between these two. At the hotel we are staying at, there are only two bedrooms to be shared between us, the boys, and my parents. It was not going to work out to put the boys in the same room because Evan has been waking up early and we didn't want Emmory getting up at 6 also....not to mention naps. So we decided Emmory would sleep in my parents bathroom, since he sleeps later, and Evan is in the bedroom with us. So, the first night we got here, I went in our bedroom to put Evan to sleep, and immediately he started crying as soon as I walked in the room. I laid him down and he continued to cry (and scream) for an hour. He never does this at home. It was all because he was in a new place. However, when we went back to put Emmory to bed, we showed him the pack n play in the bathroom (which is a much stranger place to be sleeping than a bedroom), and he said "that's Emmory's room", and I put him down and he went right to sleep without a peep. After this happened I thought, that is a perfect example of the differences in my two boys.
Evan is the second child that I needed. He will test me in ways that Emmory won't. So between the two of them, I should be covered all around with opportunities to grow :) That's the reason we have kids anyways, right? God certainly uses them to humble us, grow us, change us.