My children in a nutshell

The eldest: We filled out a summer camp application and had one sentence's space worth to summarize any special notes for the counselors.  We put, "Our son is shy and loves science and math."  If that's not proof that children are different from their parents, then I don't know what is.  It's fascinating watching him differentiate.

The middle:  Defiant social awareness.  More likely to say "no" than "yes."  When I ask him how he his day was, he doesn't tell me what he did (as his older brother would do).  Instead, he tells me all about other people, about who played with who on the playground, who wore Spiderman, who got in trouble.  At dinner out I notice him being quiet, looking over at the next booth, while munching on pizza, and I ask him what he's thinking about. "Just watching people eat," was his answer.

The youngest:  Has run head-long into the stereotypical two's.  He can communicate so well now that he's crestfallen when he knows we understand him... and we still don't do what he wants!  Full-on body tantrums have arrived.  But he's so affectionate and gives us so many kisses that all is forgiven.

I've also been reading up on how birth order shapes personality, thanks to my mother's gift of Jeffrey Kluger's The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Siblings Reveal About Us.  Apparently we have irrevocably messed up our children by giving birth to three of them and creating an eldest, middle, youngest dynamic.  Oh well!  College fund, therapy fund, it's all the same. :)