Jared and Matthew have recently arrived at a mutual understanding. They are playing together wonderfully.

One of their favorite games would drive most people crazy. They chase each other around the house chanting, “Tanana! Tanana! Tanana!” It is very silly and fun for them.

Jared’s placement as the middle child seems to be a perfect fit for him. On the one hand, he always watches before jumping in. He has taken advantage of Ethan’s jump-right-in nature many times, letting Ethan happily be the guinea pig while Jared assesses it from the sidelines. Then Jared can feel safe and self-assured when he’s ready to give it a shot. A great example was when Jared was 2 and watched Ethan swinging the bat at pitched balls for at least 20 minutes before he would give it a try. When he was ready to try, he hit the ball on the first swing.

On the other hand, by having a younger brother Jared also gets to play big brother. He gets to be the role model, the leader, the teacher with Matthew. Matthew seems independent enough to not mind following his brothers; he will strike out on his own instead of following when he chooses. But I think Jared benefits from both roles.

Of course, I’m not a middle child and haven’t read up on it much. I do know that Jared is a contrarian and that is in reaction to Ethan.

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Yesterday Jared created a speech pattern and identified it as such. Great, right? However, he didn’t use words that can be taken into polite society.

“Butt, penis, penis, butt, penis, penis, butt,… hey mom, it’s a pattern… “

He made up a few more similar patterns.