By Way of Comparison

You are probably not supposed to compare your children, but how can you not?  In a spare moment yesterday, I perused some pictures of my three girls, all around the age of five or six months old.  Tony had been telling me that sometimes when he holds Miriam as of late, he has flashbacks to little Afton.  The pictures confirmed what I had been suspecting -- in terms of physical features Miriam is definitely more of a Afton 2.0 than an Ainsley 2.0.   

 (Afton)

 (Ainsley)

(Miriam)

The funny thing is, I can see now how babies have their own temperaments early on because none of these girls have been quite the same in terms of personality.  Afton was an intense little girl from the get-go.  Her pediatrician often reminded me that that would be what gets her through graduate school, and it will.  But as a baby, it meant she not only demanded to be held, but to be looked at and played with ALL THE TIME.  Ainsley was a happy baby, and she could live with out us constantly interacting with her, but she wanted to be held a lot too.  I wore her in a baby bjorn or a wrap for most of the first year of her life.  Then came Miriam.  She is so mellow.  I can lay her on her little play mat on the floor, walk away, forget she's there, come back thirty minutes later and she's just looking around and sucking on her fingers.  I do a mom-tot gymnastics class with Ainsley on Wednesday mornings.  During the class I lay Miriam either in her car seat or on a blanket on the floor.  She just chills at the edge of the room while the two-year-olds bounce around and shriek and the coach gives instructions and the parents constantly redirect the kids who are trying to wander in every which direction... and then she'll fall asleep.  Sometimes I think, "Did I really birth this kid?"  

All I can say is, it's probably a good thing we got these kids in the order we did.  All personalities have their strengths, but Miriam's little mellow self is making the transition from two kids to three much easier.  Now if she could figure out how to sleep through the night in the next month or so, then she could definitely win some awards around here ;).

Happy Easter!

Spring has (mostly) sprung!  We celebrated this year by having another Easter egg hunt with some families in the neighborhood, enjoying a few days with Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Reed, dyeing Easter eggs, following clues to the spot where the Easter bunny hid our Easter baskets, sporting new Easter outfits, and having Easter dinner with Grandma and Grandpa G.  The girls were amply treated by grandparents and the Easter bunny.

I must say, it was one of our best Easters yet.  No snow during the Easter egg hunt for the first time in three years.  Ainsley caught the vision of the Easter egg hunt, which resulted in some aggressive egg collection while the other two-year-olds meandered about. Afton has hit the age where she can remember the traditions from previous years.  She was very excited as she talked about where the Easter bunny might hide the baskets this year, and she woke up early in anticipation of the fun.  Miriam is still a bit of a blob at these events, but she is a cute one.  Tony was, yet again, a great partner in crime with the Easter bunny.  We managed a fairly decent family photo just before church on Easter morning.  And I only had a mild tension headache by Easter afternoon.

Happy Easter!