Thor & Anna - July 2006 

Thor 23 months, Anna 8 weeks

Thor has been talking so much more latey. He can say everything, practically, and is staring to use two word sentences. "See Nana." or "Light off." A cute quirk -- he adds "n" to the end of most words. Like, light is "lightn" or stuck is "stuckn" or milk is "milkn." It's very funny. He repeats or tries to repeat nearly everything we say. He naps for 2-3 hours every day, goes to sleep about 8pm, sometime during the night wanders into our room and cuddles and goes back to sleep, then wakes about 6:30am. He still loves his paci, eats pretty well, and LOVES to play with other kids. He's a big ham, and really likes his friends, especially Grace, Griffin, Logan and Caleb. Though him & Caleb get in big toy battles sometimes. He has much more fun outside at the beach and at parks. Loves to swing, climb and go down slides. He has been just so great about Anna, shares nursing pretty well -- if anything he's just a little rough with her sometimes, and wants to feed her crackers, put his fingers in her mouth, or lie right on top of her.

Anna -- Wow, such an amazing, beautiful, sweet baby. Can't get enough of her. I haven't been away from her for more than a half hour since she was born (and that was only once) and I don't want to be! She sleeps a lot, nurses great, and is getting SO big. She's got such a sweet chubby little body, smiles all the time, and is starting to coo and respond to me when I talk to her. She's got a beautiful dark complexion, little rosebud lips, and dark blue eyes. A little bit of dark hair, but not much.

She sleeps so much differently than Thor, and it really makes me realize how much of a personality babies are born with. Or perhaps, how we seem to be born with our temperment in a very set way. Maybe personality is more dependant on how you are raised, but temperment is quite set. From the first hours after Anna was born, I could see the difference in her and Thor. For instance, during her first couple days, I'd swaddle Anna and lie her in her bassinette by my bed in the hospital and she'd look around and FALL ASLEEP. Thor fell asleep on his own maybe twice in his whole life. Anna still falls asleep on her own at night. I put her in her crib right by my side of the bed and she looks around, coos, and falls asleep. Then sleeps for 5 hours straight. Again, TOTALLY unlike Thor who needed to nurse to sleep, then woke every 2-3 hours for a long time.

Learning this has been great because with Thor I often felt like, what am I doing wrong? And why is he not like the books say ("Lie your baby down awake so that they can learn to go to sleep on their own..."). Yeah, right, Thor obviously hadn't read that book... ha ha. NOw I realize, though, that I was just dealing with a different temperment than most babies, and that he was a little more difficult to parent. Anna makes having a baby seem rather easy... sleeps well, eats well, is rather docile.