It constantly amazes me how different my kids are from each other. I know they were both made the same factory and cooked in the same oven, but the end results were polar opposites.
Usually, I consider Leah my easy baby and Isaiah my hard one. Isaiah is super dramatic. Something as simple as, “No, you can’t have a cookie,” can result in a complete meltdown. He’s as intense about play as he is about complaining, so there’s always lots of screaming, throwing and wrestling going on.
Leah, on the other hand is calm and content. She play on the floor for long stretches without needing any attention. When I lay her down for bed, she whimpers a little, but quickly complies and goes to sleep on her own.
The one thing that Isaiah never has made a stink about is pain. When he falls down, he gets up and brushes himself off like nothing happened. Even when he was a baby and got his shots, the drama was over as soon as the needle was put away.
Pain, however is the one thing that makes Leah freak out. Having such an easy baby throws us off when she does decide to assert her opinion about something. We took Leah for her shots yesterday. She took the actual event a lot harder than Isaiah ever did. But it didn’t stop there. We literally had to hold her the rest of the day. Even though she was completely exhausted, she refused to let us lay her in bed.
The one thing my kids do agree on is that they like each other and they like their dog.
Isaiah likes to push Leah in her baby swing. If she’s crying, he’ll tell her, “You’re fine, Baby.” And anytime Isaiah pays attention to her, Leah smiles from ear to ear. You can tell that she thinks her big brother is the coolest thing ever!
They do have slightly different ways of showing their mutual affection for Chester. Isaiah uses the tough love approach. Pushing, tackling and shoving are his usual methods, but sometimes he does offer a hug or kiss. However, Chester is so used to Isaiah wanting to roughhouse, that he is pretty hesitant to stand still for a kiss.
Leah’s love for Chester is a recent phenomenon, probably because she just discovered him. She follows him around the room with her eyes, a huge grin on her face. Unfortunately Chester has never really warmed up to her. I think he’s still a little scared of her. So if I let her touch his fur, he ends up walking away and sitting on the other side of the room. He’s goofy.