Opposites

When you have more than one child you come to realize that, although you love them the same, you don’t parent them the same.

When Carter was a baby I spent countless hours reading to him, playing with him, and teaching him things.  When Grant was a baby Carter was a toddler…soooo…yeah.  I didn’t do those things as much with him. 

By 18 months Carter had every book we owned memorized.  I’m not making this up.  I have witnesses.  One of the books in his repertoire was “Opposites” by Sandra Boynton. 

Today Grant happened to pull that book out and ask me to read it.  I don’t know why, having never really gone over it with him, I expected him to just know what opposites were.  But I did…and he didn’t. 

Here’s how the reading went:

Me: “Big and small.  Short and…”

Grant: “Giraffe.”

Me: “No.  What’s the opposite of short?”

Grant: “Giraffe.”

Moving on…

Me: “Heavy and light.  Day and…”

Grant: “Moon.”

Me: “No, it rhymes with LIGHT.  Heavy and light.  Day and…”

Grant: “Sleeping.”

Pretty soon he just started naming the animals instead of actually trying to guess the word...

In and turtle.  Whisper and hippo.

Me: “Hot and…”

Grant: “Warm.”

Me: “Warm is not the opposite of hot.  Try again.  Hot and…”

Grant: “Spicy.”

At least that’s an actual phrase. 

Me: “Ok.  Hot and COLD.  Young and…”

Grant: “Dinosaur.”

Correct!  When someone is really old they can be referred to as a dinosaur.  Way to think outside the box!

Me:  “Now he’s out in the rain and she’s under the umbrella.  So he’s wet and she’s…”

Grant: “Warm” (He apparently really wanted warm to be the answer one of these times.)

Me: “No, he’s getting wet and she’s…”

Grant: “A chick.”

He needs more work on opposites. 

But clearly, instead of going over it with him again I’m…writing a blog about it.