What will they be when they grow up?

There are people out there who think you can see the signs of who your kids will be even when they are very small. We've all heard them say, "Oh, I knew when he was two that he was going to be a performer!" Well, okay. So maybe that person liked to be the center of attention, but what two-year-old doesn't? I am not so sure I subscribe to that theory, knowing how much different experiences can change a person throughout his or her life, but just for today, let's pretend they will grow up and turn into whatever activities dominate their lives right now...

Aidan. Well, she likes a lot of different things, but if I took a little poll of what she spends more of her time on, coloring, or "doing crafts," as she likes to say, would rank right up there. Every day when I pick her up from preschool, she has about five art projects I have to wait for her to walk around the room and gather up. The painting station there is a free time option, and she paints nearly every day. Yesterday, we had a really good day, so I took her to Michael's and let her pick out some crafty stickers to make pictures with, and you would have thought I gave her
some huge prize. She literally then spent about 3 hours doing crafts yesterday afternoon.

However, Aidan really likes to sing, as well. She's only four, so it's not like she's in a choir or something, but she sings in the car, around the house, when she's supposed to be going to sleep...She actually has a knack for staying right on pitch and remembering words and tunes after only hearing them once or twice. She also makes up any words she can't remember, and that's one of the funniest things she does. Last night, we had on American Idol, and she would turn around and say, "Mommy, that girl is not singing the right notes." or..."Mommy, that girl is singing right AND she's pretty!"

Taylor. He likes to color, too. For about five minutes, and then he's on to something else, so I wouldn't say that was a huge interest for him. He likes to sing, too, but unfortunately, we're pretty sure that pitch is not his strong suit. Maybe he'll play the drums.

What he does do is put things together. He has lots of train sets down in the basement, and I'll come down the stairs and have to ask Aidan if she helped him put something together. Always no. Just over Christmas, he got a puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa for 3+. I hadn't messed with those yet because he's two and I was afraid he'd get frustrated. However, after a couple of times putting that one together with Grandpa, we came home, he found Aidan's other puzzles, and that's all he wants to do. He must put that Sesame Street puzzle in the picture together about twelve times per day.

So rather than thinking that I just know what they'll do when they get older, I tend towards the Multiple Intelligences theory. This states that we all have characteristics of all different kinds of intelligences: verbal, musical, kinesthetic (that might be Taylor using his hands to put things together), etc. However, we tend to favor certain ones more than others. This theory also claims that we can develop our weaker areas throughout life, even watching them become tendencies over the others. Both kids clearly favor certain things right now, but who really knows what they'll develop and change into over the next, oh, twenty years or so? I hope I'm here to find out!