Different Play

One major difference I found between the boys lies in the way they play. 

I found this photo when I looked through my backlog. This was taken when Chip just turned 4. 

He used train tracks to create this maze while I was busy. When I came into the room to see him, I was so pleasantly surprised I had to take a photo of it. 

M plays like this too. But maybe not when he was just 3+ or 4. When he was around 4 years old, he spent almost all his indoor play time on Lego. Now and again, he may show a brief interest in other toys like train sets and play doh but it was obvious that Lego was his obsession.

With almost the same set of toys, I've noticed that Chip, who is 4 years old now, plays somewhat differently. 

To begin with, he has been the one who is more into pretend play and cuddly toys since a tender age. Maybe because I was more relaxed with him cuddling stuffed toys even when he was an infant, it had made a difference to his attachment to all the soft companions. 

With my first born, I was paranoid about stuffed animals and the risk of suffocation and whatnots. As a result, M didn't come in touch with stuffed toys till he was a toddler. By then, he had learnt to derive comfort and discovered pleasures from other sources. 

Chip also seems to reach the stage of symbolic play a lot earlier than M, maybe even when he was just about 3. Almost everything that Chip laid his hands on could be turned into something else. A torch becomes a rocket. A flute is now a machine gun. His pillow is transformed into a boat for his piggies. 

Now, if I were to give the kid a set of picture cards from a game set, he would come up with a different set of rules to play an entirely different game that he has thought of. 

In fact, on a daily basis now, the boys would imagine adventures to undertake and quests to conquer which require them to build up action-packed scenes using objects they find in the house. These are then played out in the comfort of their bedroom, which often looks like a war zone. 

I know all kids come with their idiosyncrasies, but I am sure there is something that we have done, directly or not, which have contributed to their differences.  

It would be interesting to give this more thought and figure it out.