Karsten, our paradox

Karsten is a funny child. We call him our Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Some of the time, he is telling us how much he loves us and how beautiful I look in a certain outfit. At his school, they were talking about their moms and one of the kids asked his preschool teacher about her mom. She shared that her mom had died and Karsten said to her that it made him sad that her mother was dead. Sometimes when Peyton is upset and crying, he will go over to her and ask her if she is alright. He can be very sweet and very sentimental.

And then there is the rest of the time where he is yelling "I don't like you" when I ask him to pick up his toys. Or he we are in the bathtub and he is throwing a wet washcloth in Cooper's face, watching him choke on the water. Or he is poking Cooper or pulling on Cooper while they are buckled in their carseats, meanwhile Cooper is crying and pushing him away. I actually had to move Peyton's carseat between them because I got so tired of dealing with that. I don't know how many times a day I am telling him that Cooper is not a toy, he is an actual little boy who does not need to be poked and pushed around.

So I was telling my friend, Louise, about this and she said that she feels like, especially in little boys, those glimmers of empathy and tenderness are who they really are and that they just have too much little boy in them to be that way all the time. The more I thought about it, the better than made me feel. Peyton is an absolute sweet angel, but she does not say those really sensitive things that Karsten does. Maybe he will outgrow some of this insensitive behavoir and will turn out to be a really sweet man.