Different Personalities

Everyone knows that each baby is different, but it is amazing to see just what differences they have when it comes to siblings. Children are obviously the product of a male and a female - each with their own distinct personality - so it is amazing to me when I watch Jane and Alice and see the similarities and differences they both posses.

Both are very much their mothers' daughter. Their personality. The sparkle of mischief in their eye. The way they command the attention of a room. Both are happy and personable and rather astute. I see a lot of Mike in the girls, too. Just in different areas. Alice has his ability to remain quiet and take in a situation before approaching it. Jane, on the other hand, decides to BE the situation. Yet she is so observant and clever in a way that I can only attribute to Mike.

So while overall they are very alike, there are small differences that I have picked up on. Alice, as a baby, was much more physically advanced than Jane is at the same comparable age. Alice was sitting, rolling, and crawling way before many other children reached the milestone. Jane has needed physiotherapy to learn to push herself up into a sitting position. It took her until just after 10 months to do so.

Alice learned to crawl without doing the whole push-up thing. She just one day decided to crawl. Jane is now trying to crawl and is a very mobile baby, but she drags one leg behind her. (It is her weak leg. Physio is really working wonders, though)

Jane seems to grasp concepts much better than Alice did at the same comparable age. It took forever for Alice to even touch a sippy cup. Jane doesn't use one on her own, but knows how to get the liquid out when it is held up to her mouth. Alice took forever to learn cause and effect with toys - Jane takes mere seconds to figure things out. That's not to say Alice wasn't intelligent or anything, but I can see that Alice learns very much like I do. Lots of misunderstandings if we try to do it someone else's way, but we get it pretty fast if we figure out our own way to do things. Jane's learning curve seems to be like Mike's. You show her something and she gets it.

Another difference that has made itself apparent in recent weeks is meal time. Alice has never lived to get dirty. She likes her hands and face and body clean. She is really my clone - my parents say I was the neatest baby they'd ever met. Alice rarely wanted to feed herself and wouldn't dream of playing with her food - unless it was ice cream. She would make a huge mess with that - but that's ice cream.

Jane insists on trying to feed herself. She wants her spoon. She wants her puree on the table so she can grab the pile of mush in her hand and shove it into her face. I have to take off her clothes in order to feed her in order to save her clothing. She loves to play with the textures and often rubs food on myself or anyone else within arms reach. If you don't give her some food to make a mess with to distract her, you will not be getting any food into her mouth.

Right now I am looking at the bottom of Jane's exersaucer. There are saltine cracker bits all over it. It looks like someone just threw a crumpled bag of crackers into it - and I clean this thing daily! Alice's toys are still in pristine condition from her infanthood...well they were until we gave them to Jane.

These are just a few things I have noticed so far. I can't wait to see what other differences there will be as they grow up together.