Not The Same

Nicholas and Nathan are two very different little boys. It has to do with more than just their slight age difference and development. Really. It's two different personalities.

From the time that he was born, the first thing I would do upon removing Nicholas from the bathtub was to wrap him in a towel and hug him close to me. We still do this, even though he's three. I hold the towel and wrap my arms around him, and usually he then sits in my lap, soaking my pants with bathwater, but it doesn't matter. Nathan, on the other hand... well, he was never a cuddly baby. He never let me hold him close, not even when I was breastfeeding him, which is probably why I stopped early. He'd feed, but the whole time he would be kicking me in the stomach. When I took Nate out of the bath he would squirm so much that the only way I could cuddle with him was to wrap him up on the floor and practically lay on top of him, my face inches from his, as I bombarded him with kisses, and his feet kicked up trying to make contact with my body. These days, Nathan is difficult to get out of the bathtub at all, even after I have drained the water, and he pretends to slide down the end of the tub again and again. Many nights, after I remove him from the tub, he climbs back in. He is not interested in cuddling with me, and I can only distract him with the promise of toothpaste.

Nicholas is more likely to cry when something doesn't go his way, reminding me a lot of myself when I was little. Nathan reminds me more of my sisters, either shrieking until an adult hands over what he wants (Emily) or shooting sneaky looks over his shoulder before blatantly doing something he knows is naughty or ridiculous (Anne-E.)

Nicholas will always sit for a story, and even when he was small he liked looking at the pictures, at least for a little bit. Nathan likes stories, but not when I decide to read them. He wants to be the one to walk over to me and bash me over the head with a book. Only then, apparently, is a book worth reading. The stories I always read before nap and bedtime are never interesting. During these he likes to fling his body over the pages of the book, obscuring the words and the pictures, and driving me and Nick both crazy.

Last night was the first night I ran into trouble putting Nathan to bed. He's still in the crib, because up until last night, he hasn't shown any interest in climbing out. He did it once, but then forgot about it, Last night, however, he suddenly remembered, and kept swinging his leg up as soon as I placed him in there. Nicholas was terrible about waking up, but never had any problems falling asleep. Even moving him to the big bed from the crib presented few problems - at least at night. With Nathan... I'm thinking about all the nights I've left him in the crib, singing and talking to himself, trying to reach toys and pull them through the bars... and I think it's going to be a little more difficult.

I'm actually really glad that my kids are different. They make me laugh.