We’ve kept a diary for our two boys since they were born. I love looking back on it and reading, but it does facilitate comparisons between the two of them. I usually find that when I think D is drastically behind C in some developmental milestone he’s actually at about the same point, it’s just that my memory has failed to go back longer than a year (there are 20 months between them). But occasionally, I will find that one of them has mastered something way earlier than the other (e.g. jumping off the sofa, to use an example that most people don’t worry about too much).
I’m sometimes not sure that I want that information. If I’m not careful, one will become the sporty one, and one will become the mathematical one etc. etc. in my head, and it will be a short step from my head to being a family truism, bought into by all members, including the boys.
It’s impossible not to compare them sometimes, but I’d like to make sure I don’t put them each in a box they find it hard to get out of. And comparison seems to make that more likely.
I think about this, too, esp. because I have a boy and a girl & so far they fit entirely within the stereotypes. In the last few days we have exclaimed about a thousand times over my daughter’s verbosity — and we always note that at her age my son only had 5 words. I don’t know why we always have to compare…