Soft guy/Tough Guy

So the Oldest got off the school bus for the last time in second grade this past Thursday. Crying. Well, he had been crying. And as soon as he saw me, he started up again. The other kids were screaming and yelling and chasing each other with this huge water guns; celebrating "yippe!! schools out!" Not my child. Nope. And as soon as he was far enough away from the crowd, it turned into all out sobbing. "I'm sad Mom! I LIKE school!" insert more sobbing and jagged breaths laced with all the drama the boy could muster. "I'm gonna miss my teacher and my friends, Mom!" Imagine. Me, looking at him, knowing he was sad, he usually gets sad at the end of every year but never like this. So me, looking at him, thinking this one thought ONLY. "There was a reason I never had a daughter. God knew, he just KNEW I would lose it on a little girl." I cannot take the drama. I snap in 2.2 seconds. I'm all (in my head of course, would never utter these words to him or he might break in two before my eyes), "cut it with the crying, what is wrong with you?" You see sweet readers, I cannot stand it in myself or others yet I cry so very easily and clearly, so very clearly, so does he. Can I tell you that whatever relationship he finds himself in as he grows up, that person will have no issues whatsoever with his ease and ability to express his feelings. No issues. She will never be able to complain that he does not say how he feels. I'll do you one better, he not only says it, he says it with high noon passion.

We are walking home with no one in sight, sobbing little boy, me trying my best to console him (and I WAS trying to console him, good mamma that I am, never mind I was about to scream to the high Heavens for him to stop), the Littlest saying, "no cry Oldest, ok" with some prompting from me. Here's another secret sweet reader, my Littlest, my youngest son? He has built in emotional walls--he came equipped that way. Apparantly, he was born that way. Nothing much rattles him in a big way. He does not cry easy. He can bash his head on the wall and gets up and keeps going. Like the pink bunny on TV. Keeps going and going and going. Energizer, yes, that's him. He can be playing with a child and the other child decides he does not want to share a toy that he might want and he simply looks at the child and steps back. Not worth the fight I think he's feeling. He just walks away. The Oldest? At this age, he would have fought the good fight, screamed, pulled, yelled, given a little battle for it. The Littlest; he is just not super affectionate except with me. Everyone else has to absolutely coerce him into hugs and kisses. When he wants to cry he looks away. He gets a certain sad face but does allow the tears to come as easily as with me and the Oldest. Stark opposites. How does that happen? Any ideas? Two kids, raised the same, loved the same, don't get it. Night and Day.

The tough guy and the soft guy. GL.