The problem with Sonya being first was that she was WAY ahead of all kids her age. I've mentioned this before. I promise it isn't bragging, it's just fact. I mean the kid knew ALL of her numbers, letters, and colors by 18 months. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself. So this is what we knew of children learning. We didn't realize that with most kids you have to actually do some teaching yourself, and that they don't learn by osmosis like Sonya did.
Lana is at a normal pace of learning things. She's where most kids her age are, perhaps even a bit ahead. She knows most of her letters, numbers, and all of her colors. But by the time Sonya was this age, she was starting on some reading skills. Lana still has a way to go to get there. Because of this, Andy gets concerned from time to time, that Lana isn't going to keep up. That and she doesn't seem to have as much an interest or attention span as Sonya did. Will Lana be the straight A student that Sonya most likely will be? Maybe, but she will probably have to work at it harder than her sister. Lana, however, has more of what people would refer to as, "street smarts" or even life logic. She has this all over Sonya. She can figure a way out of or into a situation much quicker than her older sister. This was made even more clear to me on our trip to the grocery store Tuesday morning.
After we finished our shopping I allowed the girls to each get a free balloons that Ralph's gives out. They were all fairly well behaved and they love balloons, so I gave it to them as a reward. Plus they're FREE! Who can complain?
It was a little windy that day and the balloons started blowing around when we walked outside. Keep in mind they were weighted, so they weren't going anywhere. As soon as they started blowing with the wind, Sonya got nervous. I assured her it wasn't going to blow away. I opened both doors to the van and put the kids and the balloons inside. It was at this point that there was a bigger gust of wind, and since both doors were open it created a cross breeze. Sonya's balloon, which she was holding on to AND was weighted, made it's way outside one of the doors. It was only the balloon part and she still had a hold of the string it was tied to, but she started a full scale flip out.
"MY BAAAALLLOOOONNNN!! NOOOO!! MYYY BAAALLOOOOON!!" She yelled.
"Sonya," I said in my most calm Mom voice. "Sonya, calm down and think about how to handle this situation. You don't need to get upset and flip out about this. You're balloon is not going anywhere."
The balloon continued to bob outside of the car and she tugged on the string, trying to reel it back in still yelling, "NOOOOOO!!! MY BAAALLLOOONN!!"
I continued to try and talk her down, then showed her how easy it was to gently bring the balloon back in the car.
"But it's going to fly out again!!" She wailed.
I started to try and appeal to any higher sense she had to think of a solution to the situation. Before I could get two words out, Lana who had been watching the entire scene, took it upon herself to push the button on the van that closes the door. The same door the balloon was trying to escape from. Problem solved.
"Nice job, Lana! That was smart thinking." I told her.
She just looked at me with a "what's the big deal?" look, and climbed into her car seat.
Okay no, Lana isn't as "book" smart as Sonya is, but she's not that far behind and she obviously thinks more logically than her sister. This may just give her an advantage over Sonya's smarts in the long run.
So yes Andy, I think Lana will be juuust fine.
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