T-ball & sibling differences.

Two t-ball games down; several to go. I'm the team mom by default since Thomas is the head coach, and let me tell you.. making sure 13 little boys and 1 little girl between the ages of 4 and 6 are relatively behaved for an entire hour is HARD work. In fact, it's excellent birth control! Tommy's first game was stressful. He was exhausted and overwhelmed and had four meltdowns in the hour-long game. Thankfully his game yesterday went SO much better! He got on base every time he went up to bat and he even caught a ball thrown to him from first base! (he was playing catcher). 

In a little over a week Tommy will be turning the big 5 years old. Gone is my baby, my toddler, and soon, my preschooler. I'm still in denial that he starts Kindergarten this Fall and will be gone all day. I'm not ready for this big step, but he sure is. He's thriving in school and I've never been so proud. Anyways, we won't be having his party until the following weekend after his birthday since my father-in-law won't be back in town until then. He's having a baseball theme, of course.

Anyone who knows me probably has gotten the impression that Tommy is a good kid. Compassionate, thoughtful, sensitive, and gentle. I used to think I had the biggest hand in molding his personality.. and maybe I did; atleast a fraction of it, anyways. I try my hardest to mimic the qualities that I want to instill in my kids. All of the characteristics that Tommy posesses. But my dearest baby girl sure is giving me a run for my money. She is everything Tommy is not. She's aggressive and abrasive. Rough and tumble. Outspoken (even though she's only 14 months and can't say a whole heck of a lot) and demanding.  

I am already struggling with finding the best tools to teach and guide her. I can already tell that the discipline methods I implement with Tommy are going to require much more persistence if I want them to be as effective with Emma. Tommy has always responded to gentle guidance and redirection. He's the kind of kid who will break down in tears if I so much as raise my voice with him. Emma, on the other hand? She already laughs at me when I get firm with her. Currently I'm having a hard time with her aggressiveness. She's the hitter Tommy never was. It is absolutely no exaggeration when I declare that Tommy has never, not once!, hit or smacked me with the intention of defiance. Oh, but my little princess sure is the EXACT opposite. She 'speaks' with her hands. When she's excited, she smacks. When she's upset, she slaps. When she's mad, she hits. Now, I know that she is not doing this with the sole intention of hurting me or defying me. She's too young, plain and simple. But I know that it will progress to that if I don't find a way to show her another way to release her frustrations. So, for now I cling to the hope that firmness and consistency is key. When she winds up to take a swing, I shield her hand and firmly tell her "No ma'am. We do not hit". Sometimes she does it anyways, but sometimes, and progressingly more often than in the past, she takes that as a cue that it is a big no no, and she will redirect her anger elsewhere.

She definitely keeps me on my toes, that's for sure. But it goes without saying that I love her all the same as her big brother. Life would be boring if we were all the same, right? She definitely gives me a more empathetic perspective when it comes to parenting in general. One of my biggest hurdles in parenting is to not be so extreme. It's okay to make mistakes, so long as you learn from them, right?

And with that, Thomas should be home any minute so I'm off to do the cleaning in the next 10 minutes, that I should have done the past 9 hours that I have been awake.