I Have My Hands Full This Time Around....

I have two beautiful daughters. They are alike in so many ways and yet, also very different. Rationally I know that being siblings doesn't make them carbon copies of one another, but they are just so drastically different. I love each of my daughters and they both have their own talents and their own beauty, but sometimes the differences can be challenging.

Both of my daughters love to learn and soak up everything - literally everything - around them. My eldest though has always been very eager to demonstrate everything she knows. She knew her ABC's by 2, could sing the Star Spangled Banner by the same age, loved to write and could clearly write her name by 3.

My youngest is a whole different story. My Emily, she does everything in her own way and on her own terms. Usually this is something that I encourage and admire, but it makes some aspects of being her mother very difficult. Unlike my oldest, she doesn't like to demonstrate what she knows, so sometimes figuring out the depths of her understanding is difficult. She loves to color and play school, but writing? She could take or leave it. She knows how to spell her name and yet refuses to recognize it at school - even when asked. Maybe especially when asked.

I know my daughter is smart - maybe too smart for her own good, if you know what I mean. I wish she were a little more malleable and a lot less stubborn, but then I realize that would be asking her to be other than she is. I love her for all that makes her a unique human being, I just hope that I am up to the challenge of being her mom and giving her all the things that she needs to make a success out of her life. Sometimes being a mom is really scary....