Gracie is, for the most part ruled by her emotions; Abigail, is governed by her thoughts.  Gracie will sit and reflect on a problem, telling everyone within earshot how she feels; Abigail takes charge and figures out a way (usually a completely unacceptable way) to solve whatever problem she has.  Basically, Gracie is a mini-me and Abigail is a mini-Steve.  To use a literary reference…Gracie is from Mars; Abigail is from Venus (I didn’t say it was a great literary reference just a literary reference)

One afternoon last week, I was frazzled.  Okay, I’m generally frazzled every day, but this was worse than normal.  Gracie was home with strep throat; Abigail’s nap schedule was off (meaning, she didn’t take a nap all week), and let me tell you  - sisterly love and peace and harmony weren’t happening.  I’d tried time outs;  I’d tried idle threats and senseless bribes; I’d tried everything I can think of – so I used a last resort.  No, I didn’t put both of them on the driveway with a sign offering them to the first taker.  And, no, I didn’t outfit them with boxing gloves and tell them to have at it.  Although, both of those ideas did cross my mind.  Nope, what I did was put myself in time out.  This is something that one of my friends does when she needs to take a minute to compose herself before she says something to her children she might regret.  And I was so there that afternoon.  So, I told the girls I needed a minute to myself, and went into my bedroom and locked the door.  And here’s where the difference between my girls really became apparent.

Gracie sat outside the bedroom door and cried.  “Oh Mommy!  I miss you sooooo much!  Please, please  mommy, open the door and let me in!  pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!”  It was a performance worthy of an Oscar.  She was so pitiful and sad.

Abigail said, “Mommy!  Open this door or I’m going to knock it down!”  She was quiet for a minute.  Then, she hollered, “Gracie!  Wait – I have an idea!”  I heard her run to her bedroom and then come running back.  “Look Gracie!  I brought my Legos – now we can BUILD something to knock the door down.”  After that statement, I opened the door pretty quickly, choking back my laughter…I love both of these girls, as different as they are, so very much…