Who are my Monkeys?

I guess I should start by telling you about my wonderful boys.

Benjamin was born first by 1 minute. He is pure energy. Benjamin wakes up in the morning and is ready to go. He walked at 9 1/2 months and ran at 10 months. Now at 21 months (okay at 2 years I stop using this month thing because it is getting old), he jumps, climbs and throws his body around like a WWE wrestler. He is all boy until you notice that he is fascinated with women's shoes and likes to touch different fabrics. He is also my shopping buddy. He is totally cool to walk around Target with me for an hour just looking at different things and playing "five fingers" (not five finger discount by the way which is illegal).

Side Note: Five Fingers is something I started doing about 3 months ago to entertain the boys. I hold my hand up and count to five lifting a finger with each number. When I get to five, I exclaim "Five Fingers" and tickle on of them or both of them if I am feeling daring. I truly recommend this to anyone who is left in the care with two toddlers with nothing to do but wait for their father to return from an adventure in Home Depot.

Sorry about that tangent, I do that a lot so get used to it.

Okay where was I? Oh yeah, my Benner.... Well, he is definitely my "in-your-face" trouble-maker. Nothing sly or sneaky about Ben. He just does it because it feels right and you know what, I love that about him! He is my complete opposite and I means so much to me to know that he can just enjoy having fun being Ben.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a "devil" side to Ben that I would not wish on another living soul (including Paris Hilton and any other rich, skinny chick -- oh remind me to tell you my theory about how you should never trust a woman whose thighs don't touch at the top -- very scary). So Ben... He has a scream and cry that could rival Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween reference here for those who don't remember). I seriously think that inside that boy lives a Diva just trying to get out. If he doesn't get his way, he throws himself to the floor (dramatically, but slow enough that he doesn't do much damage) and cries as if the boogieman has come for dinner. When he was a baby I spent many a night bouncing him on my knee just to keep him from screaming and my husband (who is a stay-at-home dad) been at the point of placing Ben outside in the snow to get away from his screams.

All that said, My husband (Paul, for in the future if I use his name and not his rank while writing) and I use the following to sum up our Benjamin "Benjamin will some day jump the ramp."

Now that doesn't make sense without the second half of the Double Trouble Turners, but it will.

Zachary was 1 minute behind his brother and but was the first to give his mother a heart attack. Zachary had too much air in his stomach when he was born or something like that, nobody really ever explained it to me completely. Right after he was born, he could not keep anything on his stomach and it stayed like that so in the end the doctors fed him through a tube in the beginning to ensure he got the nutrients that he needed. It wasn't long until he was better but the reflux (as we later learned) continued until he was almost 5 months old. Zachary is a studier. He watches everything and doesn't perform when asked (Ben jumps when you say jump. Zach looks at you like you are a total loser). As you can see, Zachary got his mother's personality. He was the bitchest baby I have ever met and so mommy spent the first 4 months of his life attached to him. I held him constantly, fed him, rocked him, changed him and soothed him. Now he only has eyes for Daddy, but hey, we have the same personality so that makes sense.

Zachary not only studies, he practices too. He would not crawl or walk in front of his father or I, but at night we could hear him crawling and walking in his cribs. Both boys are delayed with their speech, but at night, Zachary talks up a storm. Nothing we understand, but he talks. God forbid you try to show the boy anything, he hates that. He has to figure it out on his own and when he gets frustrated, he will begin tossing things across the floor (see where my personality ends and Paul's begins). Zachary is just a more serious and cautious boy than Benjamin, but as I love Ben living in broad strokes, I love Zach living in carefully plan diagrams with full scale models.

Zachary is also addicted to Television. He has been since he could first focus his eyes on it. He gets mad when the TV is turned off but his brother will soon distract him. He gets so excited to see Mickey Mouse or Pablo from The Backyardigans. He will hop up and down on his hinney. We find him sometimes sitting in the recliner holding the remote as if he is practicing for his teenage years. We actively try to limit his TV time but honestly some days it is just easier than hearing him whine.

Oh yes, Zachary is our whinner. As Ben can shatter glass with his screams, Zach can make you want to stick bamboo in your eardrums to stop the constant irritation caused by his lack of happiness. We love the boy, but sometimes I just want to say "Grow some balls boy!" but of course, he is 21 months old and I think I am expecting too much but man when he is 16 and whines at me I am setting him straight... right, yeah, by then he will have trained me better than that....

Zachary is also our love bug. He loves to hug and snuggle (while watching TV) but if you don't let him do what he wants he will make you pay. You will hear about it and it will continue until you distract him (see TV addiction as one solution to this problem).

So going back to what Paul and I say about Ben, "Ben will some day jump the ramp" and the second part of that is "Yeah, but Zach will probably build it and then run to tattle on Ben for doing it."

As you can see, I have boys that are night and day different (that's the reason I call myself the Sun-Moon Mom.) and for that I am blessed. I enjoy the freedom that comes from Ben's reckless abandon and the pride that comes from Zachary's joy of figuring something out. I know that as they grow up, I will continue to find joy in their differences. For now, all I can do is wait for the day when I hear "Mom, he jumped it and I helped."