A Difference

When I was pregnant with Son and we found out we were having a boy, I felt strangely unexcited. (I know I'm going to get flamed for saying that, but hear me out.) I remember finding out with Daughter and just feeling this immense joy and excitement. Dressing her in cute little girly outfits, playing dolls with her, shopping with her, scrapbooking with her, planning her wedding...all those fun girly things. My brother is 12 years older than me, so I didn't really grow up with a younger boy sibling, so I didn't really know what to do with a boy. Hubby was always telling me all these "cute" stories about him and his brother playing in the woods and his mother hosing them off with a hose because they were so filthy with mud and dirt, or how they caught lizards, frogs and the like and snuck them in the house and then proceed to lose them in the house, or how they swung from a rope tied to a tree over a rock pit into a disgusting river. I was horrified! I mean, I'm not really an outdoor girl. I'm not a big fan of things like dirt or bugs or anything in the reptile or amphibian family. I didn't know what I had gotten myself into.

When Daughter was born, she came out and wanted to be independent immediately. She preferred for you to lay her on the floor and let her stretch out. She didn't really like to be held or cuddled. Miss Independent, this one. I don't find myself to be very overprotective of her. And furthermore, she was born a Daddy's girl. She would spend every waking, breathing moment with him if she could. There are days when she still gets upset at the very thought of him going to work instead of staying home with her. And I'm okay with it. I love that she loves her Daddy so much! I sometimes think that God gave me such an independent first child because He knew I had to go back to work, so He gave me a child that didn't mind being left, that took to other people with ease and wasn't especially attached to me.

Well, Son has been the exact opposite. He is cuddly and dependent and loves being a baby. He is a snuggler, which I love. He has little interest in anything that requires him not to be held by someone. And he's attached to his mama, and I am not complaining! I find myself more overprotective of him, less inclined to leave him with anyone but Hubby. Maybe it feels different because I am nursing him, or because he was a c-section, or because I'm not working. I can't figure it out or explain it, but it's just different.

And let me just say before anyone jumps to any conclusions, that I love and adore BOTH my children. I guess I just love and adore them differently, for lack of better words.