I'm the mother of three, um, energetic boys (two of them six-year-old twins).
Yup, I'm THAT mother. I spend a lot of time trying to figure out and understand my sons (talking and thinking about who their true, authentic little selves might be). My theory: you've got to know your kids to parent them the right way. And to stay reasonably sane.
But just when I think I've gotten the little buggers pegged, they go and do something completely out of their natures. Take the whole water/swimming thing. Tommy, my outgoing, precociously social kindergartner, was always the water-lover. At three, he jumped into our friend Suzanne's pool, shrieking with excitement. And stayed in the water until his fingertips were shriveled. He reveled in baths and showers, begging for a "few more minutes." At the beach, he leaped confidently over the baby waves. The swimming teacher from last summer told me, "He?s a natural in the water." James, my artistic little huggy bear (see how well I know him?) would always rather build in the sand. Or, preferably, skip the beach altogether. Should the water so much as touch his feet, he'd run toward the boardwalk, yelling, "I'm out of here!" Okay, so one water-loving extrovert and one artistic water-wary homebody.
Got it.
Then, darn, it, they went and changed. Why? Not a clue. But last week, I watched as James hurled his skinny little body into the waves again and again?triumphantly riding the little wavelets toward shore on his blue boogie board. He even kept up with his daredevil nine-year-old brother. "I'm ready for swimming lessons now!" he announced when he finally came out to dry off. And Tommy? He hugged the shallows near the shoreline all day, asking me to "stay here, please, mommy." Later, Tommy sat on my lap, upset. "Why can't I boogie board like James?" he asked. "He never used to go in the water. It's not fair." I hugged him and stroked his sun-blonde hair and we talked about how things change, even when we don't expect them to. And how they will probably change again.