Vive la différence!

Liam has always been a crappy sleeper.  He went through a period during his infancy where he took 3 30 minute naps a day and was up at least 3 times overnight.  We sleep trained at 7 months.  He didn't sleep through the night until well after he turned 4 years old (it was after Jamie arrived).  We must adhere to a strict schedule with him.  Nap time was always sacrosanct and if you missed the tiny little nap window you were screwed.  Bedtime was also inviolate because going to bed late meant crappy (crappier?) sleep.  Try to wear him out so he would sleep?  Guaranteed up-6-times night.  We went through a phase where Liam hit the floor at 5:30 am every single day.  Being so incredibly strict about sleep bought us nights in which we were "only" up twice - with a 3 year old.  He fights sleep tooth and nail and I can count on one hand the number of times that he has voluntarily said he's tired and wants to go to bed.  We are only now capable of monkeying with his bedtime slightly.

Jamie is the antithesis of this - at least once he decided to give up the colic and we got his reflux under control.  He reliably took 2 naps a day, both of them at least 90 minutes long.  He goes to bed and sleeps all night - he has done so since he was 11 months old.  He now takes one nap a day that is generally 90 to 120 minutes long. 

What's more amazing to me is that from the time he's been able to walk, Jamie will run to the stairs if you say "Jamie, are you ready to go take your nap?"  He runs towards sleep, not away.

So today I was blown away when I was upstairs grabbing something and Jamie followed me up the stairs, ran into his room, and pointed emphatically at his crib.

"Do you want to take a nap, Jamie?"

 [vigorous head nod]

"I'm sorry honey, we have to leave in a few minutes to take your brother to school.  You can take a nap as soon as we get home."

Then, we headed back downstairs.  I had at least 20 minutes until I needed to leave to get Liam to school and Jamie ran around finding his shoes, his hat, Liam's backpack, Liam's shoes, and throwing them all at me in an effort to get us all to hurry up, dammit!  Let's get brother to school so I can take a damn nap, Mom!

Not only does the kid want to sleep but at less than 2 years of age, he's got reason enough to figure out that if we have to take Liam to school before he can take a nap then let's get this wagon train moving and get out the door!  Liam blew me away with his smarts (and still does), Jamie is actively scaring me with how much he understands.

I have said for years that I wanted my second child to be three things:  a sleeper, an eater, and an easy teether.  I got two - the sleeping and the eating.  To quote Meatloaf, "Two out of three ain't bad."

This Kid, He Amazes Me

Liam has been blowing me away with his smarts for years.  When he took apart my back door at 14 months of age, I knew he was smart.  When he was doing basic subtraction unsolicited at age 3, I was shocked (and proud!).

He did it to me again the other day.

We were on our way to Tae Kwon-Do and we were discussing the fact that he will have to test to move up from white belt.  The idea of taking this test was obviously weighing on him a bit so I was reassuring him that they wouldn't test him until they were sure he was ready.  I told him that he would be taught everything he was supposed to know to get his next belt before he took the test and that we could work together to learn his numbers.  (He has to know the numbers 1-10 in Korean to earn his yellow stripe.)

Then we began talking about how Tae Kwon-Do will make him strong.

"Yeah, because I do all those kicks and punches.  It makes my arms and legs strong," he said.

"Yes," I replied.  "It makes you strong in other ways, too.  It makes you strong in ways that don't have anything to do with your muscles.  It makes you strong of spirit."

"Yes!" he exclaimed.  "Like Spirited Away!"

We're big fans of Hayao Miyazaki in this house and Liam has seen a number of his films.  Spirited Away is still one of his favorites, and it's one of mine, too.  I saw it years before we ever had kids and it took me several viewings to really understand the plot and take away its true message - that being strong of spirit can really take you places.

Liam got it without any prompting.  I thought he just saw it as a cool story with a fairy tale like plot.  I shouldn't be surprised that he picked up on this, but I am.  He's so perceptive about such big concepts and he can turn it around and apply it to the stuff he does everyday.  It just amazes me.

When I talk about these sorts of things, I'm always afraid of coming off as the overly proud parent.  I think my kid is really smart.  Scary smart, really.  But doesn't every parent?  Also, because Liam is my first child, I have nothing to gauge his accomplishments against so for all I know, every 5.5 year old grasps these concepts.  What I do know is that my kid astounds me on a regular basis with his smarts, his humor, and his loving nature.  I love him for it.