People love to talk about how subsequent children don't get as much as attention as the first kid got. And that's true-- there are only so many minutes in a day, and the more kids you have, the less individual attention each can get from Mommy. (With the advent of smartphones, though, ALL kids are having so many more pictures taken of them than we ever had as babies, the whole thing is sort of mind-boggling. So that whole "we don't have any pictures of our subsequent children, only the first" thing has been thrown at the window. And as a 3rd child, I bid it a hearty good riddance.)
But there are so many other differences between the oldest and youngest that I find so fascinating, and not nearly as well documented. The most obvious example right now is coming from the words Colton says.
He has three words now. His first word is (the same as Kendra's): Uh-oh! This is a very useful word for babies and is pretty fun to watch their little mouths form. Colton's second word is: Mama! He only uses it when he can't get to me, though. So I will frequently hear from the other side of the bathroom door a rather angry, "Mama! MaMA!"
So far, these are both pretty normal. It's his third word that proves he's not our firstborn. He likes to try and sing, "Na na na na na na na na BATMAN!" This is thanks to the time that Ryder was singing this over and over again in the car. Eventually Colton figured out how to do it, too, and it's now one of his favorite things to yell out, preferably during church. I can assure you, at 17 months, Bentley had never heard of Batman.
In the same vein, Ryder likes to meander around pretending to be a zombie. At age three, Bentley did not know what a zombie was, and certainly wouldn't have thought to pretend to be one.
The difference here, obviously, is the presence of more worldly older brother, changing everything from my kids' vocabularies to the games they play. My Mom assures me that it's nothing to worry about. It's the same reason my youngest sister knew the word "sexy" (although she pronounced it "sucky") when she was two: she had a 14-year-old sister to help educate her.
Actually, it's making me a little more glad my kids are so dang close together! Imagine if Bentley was fourteen what he'd be teaching them!
3 comments:
You described this phenomena very well! I love picturing Colton singing Batman. I remember Rachael singing "Whatever Lola Wants" when she was two as we walked through Safeway ( I was trying to "shush" her.
I've noticed this with Malcolm. He plays in a totally different way than Gareth did at his age because he's trying to mimic Gareth. I've often wondered what he'd be like if Gareth weren't around. I think it'd be interesting to compare the two Malcolms, to see how his personality and habits have been shaped by Gareth or not.
Let's be honest, everyone knows that in a large family, the fourth is always the nicest, most intelligent, most well-rounded, and all out best child!!! Oh, and of course the most humble, as well! ;0)
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