A different kettle of fish – Siblings

When you have more than one child, you fully expect them to be different from their siblings. Sure, they might look like each other, they might have similar mannerisms and the like but on the whole, unless they are born under the same star signs they often tend to be very different and nothing could be more true than with our little Jelly Bean.

For starters, he’s our blonde haired, blue-eyed boy. Curly WAS bright blonde with brown eyes but now has light brown hair with dark brown eyes, Little Bean has dark blonde hair and brown eyes, Beanie Boy has dark hair and very dark brown eyes. Jelly Bean is the only one of the six of us with blue eyes – I blame his Nanny for those! Although I have to say, I love them. His eyes are big like Beanie Boys but such a pretty blue.

Curly had tight blonde Curly hair (hence his nickname) when he was little but over time it has eased off a little, he now has very thick wavy hair. Little Bean and Beanie Boy have my poker straight hair and Jelly Bean has gorgeous curly hair at the moment but we have yet to see whether it is here to stay.

But those aren’t necessarily the differences I mean. Jelly Bean’s temperament is different. As a baby he was a very happy little fella, always free with his smiles for anyone who happened to look at him and now although he is still very smiley, his smile is more often replaced with a frown (unless you’re a pretty lady – then he will flirt with you big time).

His siblings all started walking at around 11 months of age but not our JB, nope he has waited until now (17 months) to show us what he can do and although he can walk about 10 steps, he still chooses to crawl because for now it’s faster.

I have noticed other differences in him too. He’s a smart little cookie. I don’t mean the others aren’t but his dexterity is brilliant. When the others were little it would take them a good few weeks/months to master the toys where you push a button, pull a lever or twist a wheel to get a squeaky character to pop up but with JB he mastered it within a week. He just seems to ‘get’ things. This morning he came into my bathroom and found a small empty pot which I had left on my cupboard and another random lid from somewhere. He played with the three items, getting the feel of them, looking them over and then popping the correct lid straight onto the pot. He then studied the spare lid and tried that one for size but straight away decided it wasn’t right so he threw it away.

He’s quite adept at stacking toys too or cups that sit inside each other. Again he just seems to ‘get’ it from the off whereas the others had to figure it out. Perhaps that’s why it’s taken him a bit longer to start walking – he’s been too busy getting to grips with other things.

I often tell people JB is going to be my ‘trouble’. He is such a character, very headstrong and mischievious but oh such a charmer! He defies the word no, he can be quite the bully and then turn into the sweetest, most loving little dude in a split second. He will keep me on my toes!! Curly is a bookworm, he loves to talk and is very sensitive but boy is he disorganised, Little Bean is fiercely independent like her Mummy but she has a very caring side too, she’s also suddenly developing quite a taste for photography like me (I wonder how long before she has her own blog?) and Beanie Boy is the uber-sensitive Mummy’s Boy who is very eager to please. Over the past year he has grown a lot but yet still seems like such a little boy, he gets upset very easily but he is also a follower and I hope that in the future that doesn’t get him into trouble. I need to help him see the good people from the non-so-good.

I often sit and watch them and wonder what they will be like as adults but for now I just want to squeeze every ounce of childhood out of them as I can muster – they have forever to be ‘grown-ups’ so what’s the rush.