It’s entirely possible that I’ll do a separate post for each tooth that this child pops out. When she’s teething, she morphs into this entirely different baby. She’s not unpleasant, she’s actually in a pretty decent mood as long as I’m within two feet of her at all times. But when I stray – to say, go to the bathroom, or shower, or God forbid, load the dishwasher, she sobs like I just cut off her leg.
All babies are wonderful, and all babies are challenging. Some more so than others. I’m blessed in that my kids are, temperment wise, all over the spectrum. Sam at one end, Julianna on the other, and Jessie occupying this special place in the middle. I find it fascinating – of course, they are my kids, so I don’t necessarily think that other people will find it as interesting, but it’s my blog :-).
Jessie and Sam are very similiar in their emotional sensitivity. Not always in their expression – Jessie is far more likely to storm off to her room than Sam is, but both of them are very dramatic and intense. Sam is super sensitive to correction – discipling him is difficult because he takes it so personally that he reacts like I (or Marc) am beating him with a stick when in fact, we actually just said very calmly – “hey, calm down a little, okay?” I exaggerate a little for emphasis, but he does tend to get much more upset than is warranted when his behavior is corrected. Jessie, on the other hand, I have to be careful to shield whatever I’m feeling – if I’m tense or stressed out, it’s a recipe for her to lose control. Any emotion that I’m feeling, she magnifies back at me. Which is great most of the time, because I’m pretty happy, but on mornings when I’m running late and everything is going wrong – well… there have been many mornings when both of us are sobbing before she leaves for school.
Julianna is very happy go lucky – she’s generally pretty convinved that the world is filled with people who love her and is delighted to learn more about it. She’s very social, likes to be in the center of the action. I wonder where she’ll fall… will she be one of those kids who just sort of rolls with it? I’m sensing not – she’s developed a bellow, a scream, almost – and it’s just when things aren’t going her way. The food isn’t appearing fast enough on her high chair, the toy she wants is still out of reach, Daddy is ignoring her. Whatever it is – she opens her mouth and just… bellows. That’s really the best way to describe it.
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