Like father, like son. Like mother, like daughter.

We try to keep from comparing or labeling the kids too much, but as they grow older their individual personalities and talents surface more and more.

For instance, there's a side of Soph that we refer to as Ms. Sophie.  When playing in this mode she speaks like a preschool teacher, saying things like, "Michael, you have two choices.  Either we can play with your trains, or we can make a puzzle.  What's your choice?" She also seems more mommy-like at times as she takes care of her Sweetie (stuffed bunny or doll or our cat) and says things like, "Sweetie, let's go get you a bath before we go to the museum."  The other day when we took Michael for a haircut, she walked up to him as he approached the chair, put her hands on her knees and said, "Aren't you excited?  You get to have your haircut!"  That's Ms. Sophie.

Michael has a very similar Mr. Michael/daddy-like side as well, and it's incredibly sweet.  However, Sophie is in that mode a lot more often.

Sophie is also quite the student.  She will practice something and practice it until she gets it right, urging you to quiz her again and again until she's there.  This happened with learning to spell her name (back during the summer, I believe) and recently as she learned to play "Twinkle, Twinkle" on her toy computer in piano mode.  She now plays it on Grandma's piano and anything else with a keyboard of that kind.  She also followed my verbal instructions on how to draw a cat the other night and wanted to "play that game" again and again.

The kids learn at the same pace for the most part, but Michael is more likely to sit on his own and figure something out while Sophie pushes you to be her tutor. However, they both enjoy an enthusiastic celebration of a new skill or discovery, no matter how they reach it!

Speaking of figuring things out, Michael is especially drawn to anything car/train/gear/machine-related.  Today he climbed out of the pool at swim lessons and just stood there staring at his feet.  Confused, I told Mike I hoped he wasn't peeing or something.  "No, he's watching the water splash in and out of the drain."  I hadn't even noticed the drain around the edge of the pool, but no doubt Mike himself had at some point considered how that whole system worked.  That's the kind of thing his mind will wander toward while I'm thinking about how obvious it is that the rec. center was built in the late nineties (greenish-teal and purple accents everywhere).  Michael also loves to look around, inside, or behind any barrier to how things work, and he'll ask all the how's and why's that are necessary.

This is why it made me laugh the other morning when I made Michael's bed and found this:

Apparently when he came downstairs to get something from the playroom, it wasn't exactly a snuggle buddy.  (It's a toy motorcycle that can be taken apart and put back together with little tools.)

Again, we try not to compare or pigeon-hole our kids, but they are who they are, and like it or not, who they are is often a lot like us.