It's becoming more obvious as the weeks and months go by just how different the dink and his little brother are. As Baby K's personality, like his physical development, is exploding at the seams, facets of the Dink's personality are simultaneously revealing themselves. In some ways, I'm realizing that you can't get to know your first child's personality traits fully when they are your only. Because unless you've had the occasion to know many other babies intimately in your life, you have nothing to compare your baby to. So when the second one comes along, you start reflecting on the way number one was as it relates to how number two is. And so it is with me and my boys.
Dink was consistently behind on most of his milestones--sitting up, crawling, getting teeth, saying his first word, etc. But K--I can't keep up with him. He just turned 8 months a couple days ago, and already he is crawling like lightning across a room, can clap his hands, wave back at someone, say "hey" and "yay" and even "mama", most recently! He has even already pulled up a few times. It's so strange to me because in my mind, I still regard him as an infant, tensing up each night as I go to bed, wondering what the night will bring. But although it's true that he has only slept through the night twice in his entire life, his daytime behavior is far from infant-like. While my heart is rejoicing that the fussy days are finally gone, it is clenching to see him blowing through babyhood at such a pace. I just wish that I could steal my favorite moments at this age--like the biggest grins and gasps of excitement he gets just from seeing me, and that insanely precious way his nose wrinkles when he is grinning at me on the verge of laughter, and save that for when I have time to truly appreciate it and enjoy it to its fullest...I hate thinking about losing the memory of how amazing those moments feel.
The other night J was putting the dink to bed, and he mistakenly closed the door to the dink's bedroom as the dink was blowing him a kiss goodnight...which promptly ended with the dink bursting into genuine tears, not just hysterics, brokenhearted that daddy would ignore his kiss. It took J a few minutes when he went back in the dink's room to even understand what he was so upset about, but when he did, he of course blew the dink a big fat kiss goodnight. Then he came out, told me the story, and said that the whole experience "made him feel so amazing."
Dink was consistently behind on most of his milestones--sitting up, crawling, getting teeth, saying his first word, etc. But K--I can't keep up with him. He just turned 8 months a couple days ago, and already he is crawling like lightning across a room, can clap his hands, wave back at someone, say "hey" and "yay" and even "mama", most recently! He has even already pulled up a few times. It's so strange to me because in my mind, I still regard him as an infant, tensing up each night as I go to bed, wondering what the night will bring. But although it's true that he has only slept through the night twice in his entire life, his daytime behavior is far from infant-like. While my heart is rejoicing that the fussy days are finally gone, it is clenching to see him blowing through babyhood at such a pace. I just wish that I could steal my favorite moments at this age--like the biggest grins and gasps of excitement he gets just from seeing me, and that insanely precious way his nose wrinkles when he is grinning at me on the verge of laughter, and save that for when I have time to truly appreciate it and enjoy it to its fullest...I hate thinking about losing the memory of how amazing those moments feel.
The other night J was putting the dink to bed, and he mistakenly closed the door to the dink's bedroom as the dink was blowing him a kiss goodnight...which promptly ended with the dink bursting into genuine tears, not just hysterics, brokenhearted that daddy would ignore his kiss. It took J a few minutes when he went back in the dink's room to even understand what he was so upset about, but when he did, he of course blew the dink a big fat kiss goodnight. Then he came out, told me the story, and said that the whole experience "made him feel so amazing."
It's the stuff like that that I can't get enough of, and am so scared will go away before I even realize it and then I'll be dying to just remember what those moments were like. And maybe K will give us totally different experiences to cherish (or endure). Like I said in the beginning, they are definitely two different kids. Point in case: this past weekend, dink was playing with a fire truck or Legos or something, and Baby K sidled up to him, swatting at the toy in his hand. As usual, dink half screamed, half roared at K to scare him away--a tactic which has worked quite well for a couple months. Usually, K ends up scared and crying, and I end up interfering. But this time, at 8 months and 1 day old, K lunged at the dink and let out a scream/roar twice as big as the dink had proffered. And guess what? Dink ended up crying. Papa was there to witness Baby K's first attempt to stand up for himself and laughed all day about it. Aaaahh, can't wait to see what these two do next.
No comments:
Post a Comment