Second Fiddle

It's tough being second fiddle, isn't it? Rand and I were both the oldest children in our family, so honestly we don't know how it feels to not be first. My second born is such a sweet soul. He is just naturally softer than Brendan. More sensitive, less sure (read "less confident"), very sweet and always second. He had a tough end to summer being in Brendan's shadow as Brendan got a lot of special attention. First Bren's birthday and party and then his manhood initiation and special retreat with Dad. Wyatt is a patient boy and he kept a lot to himself as Brendan got gifts and lots of attention. Wyatt is really good at articulating how he is feeling...better than any little boy I have ever heard. He will tell me he feels insecure, or lonely. It's heartbreaking actually, but I'm glad he does it. Once he was getting out of the car and said, "Mom, I just don't think my face fits in very well. Brendan's seems to fit in better than mine." How sad is that? Or, "Mom, I'm feeling a little lonely. I think I need to have a date with Dad."
He appreciates words of affirmation A LOT and gives them to others often. He will easily and frequently say encouraging things to others. "Mom, you are so beautiful. I like when you wear your hair like that." "Brendan, you are so good at that." He throws out lots of "I love you's" to lots of people, all the time (I just got one! :) ). And I can't even tell you how good he is with Easton.

So anyway, after a summer of Brendan, Wyatt decided he didn't like baseball anymore. I wasn't surprised and we so didn't make a big deal about it. All of sudden he just didn't want to go play catch out in the yard. He was done. So as we were talking about fall sign ups, he really didn't want to play (he was going to be on the same team as Brendan). So it turned out, instead, he really wanted to do karate. We found a place close to home and went and checked it out and he said, "yes! that's what I want to do". He's been going for a couple weeks. It has been TORTURE for Brendan to not participate. Brendan's baseball practices don't start until this week so he has just been watching Wyatt learn karate and can hardly handle not doing it too. But it has been so good for Wyatt to be doing his own thing. And I have to say it has been good for Brendan, in my opinion, to sit back and let Wyatt shine for a moment.

Since, Wyatt has come around and pitched a few perfect innings with Dad in the backyard and he got lots of praise for that too. For now though, we are really proud of our little karate kid!