Oh, Brother!

God blessed me with a son (Emerson) who is sweet, emotional, considerate of others (mostly), likes quiet play, loves his momma, and making others happy.

God also blessed me with another son (Henry) who is loud, rambunctious, active, snuggly, mischievous, funny, and loves his daddy.

These two brothers are night and day. Not only in personality, but in looks. Emerson has thick light hair like me, and Henry has brown wispy (and once very curly) hair like his daddy. Both have big brown eyes that have very different shapes when they smile and cry. Both different smiles and nose scrunches.  I don't think anyone will ever look at them and ask "are you brothers?". Just not going to happen.

When it comes to discipline, Emerson gets super sweet and is very remorseful. He usually tells me (with big tears in his eyes) that he loves me after he gets in trouble, which of course melts my anger away and I scoop him up and hug him. Henry, not so much. He usually just runs away yelling "no" to me when I tell him he needs a timeout, thus sky rocketing my blood pressure. Sigh.

Emerson's the rule follower and Henry's the rule breaker.

There's the relationship they have with each other. Where to begin with that one. My role in life right now is a referee. These two are at each others throats most of the time, but then they flip a  switch and will play so nice together and give each other hugs and kisses. They will greet each other in the morning with a "Good morning, Brother!" and give big waves as they come down the stairs. They also hate when they are apart. Henry will cry if he wakes before his big brother after nap and will keep crying most days until Emerson wakes up to play. Hot and cold.

Then there's the individual relationships they have with us, momma and daddy.  Emerson is like me in personality in almost every way and he seems to know that as well. He usually prefers me at night when it's bedtime, where as Henry is just like his daddy in personality and prefers him at night when it's time for bed.

Because of all their differences, I constantly ask myself  "how in the world am I supposed to raise these kids?" and "how in the world am I going to keep them out of counseling due to all our parenting mistakes?".

And then they have these moments with each other...

 

 

 

 
... and all my worries about raising them go away. God loves them, they love each other and they are loved by family and friends. They will survive in this world together because they have each other.