Personality X 2

Life with two is  DRAMATICALLY different than life with one. Whoa. You know, with one, you still have some time to yourself.  When I first had Noah and was a new stay at home mom, it was tough for sure. But after coming off of 6 years teaching high schoolers, staying home with a sweet newborn that I loved more than life was a pleasure, a dream! And once the crazy first few months were out of the way, he napped regularly, and I actually had time to myself during the day. Not a ton, but some. However, with the arrival of numero dos, time to myself has gone down to NOTHING! NO TIME! Oh my goodness though, this number two is the sweetest (most exhausting) little person in existence. Definitely worth giving up any free time I may have treasured...of course a mother would say this!

When I was pregnant with London, Matt and I would speculate about her personality. We had long since labeled Noah as our drama king, so we were thinking that perhaps London would be more laid back. A little calmer, not so emotional, may be a little less "my word is law," than Noah. And at first that seemed to ring true. From London's first to third months of life, she was easy! She slept easily (except in the car...she hated the car!), she ate well, and she was quiet, pleasant and super smiley when awake.  She wasn't shy about letting us know when she needed something, but overall, easy. A few weeks ago though, she got an ear infection, and along with the sickness seemed to come a little bit of a personality shift. Obviously, her sickness affected the way she slept and ate, but even after recovering, it was apparent that she had changed. She has started screaming when she's ticked, and I mean full out eat drum-busting screaming. The first time I heard her do this, I was with friend Erin Moore, and I almost had her pull off the side of the road so I could check for whatever it was that was torturing my child. That was just the start. We actually Ferber-ed London tonight for the first time, and boy was she heated about it. When she screams like that, Matt says he can so tell that she's a girl. Noah never screamed like she does!  Well, that's one of her extremes. Her other extreme is the most joyous, heart melting thing ever. This girl has got a smile that seems to come from such a pure place of happiness, and boy is she generous with her smiles. She'll give them to anyone, any time. I just want to munch on her when she does this. It is the sweetest thing. I think she saves her biggest smiles for her daddy though. She gazes at him with her mouth wide open and both corners of it up as far as they can go, and somehow her eyes seem to glitter too.  It almost makes me tear up every time I see it.  A month or so ago, Matt told me that he can already see how she looks at him with such expectation, and how the weight of that feels hefty. He doesn't want to let her down, and by God's grace he won't.  

It will be interesting to see how her personality develops, especially in light of Noah's. Did we have two emotionally-charged kiddos? I bet we won't have a dull moment for another 20 years!