Like Night & Day

My darling daughters fascinate me. They are sisters and some things about them are amazingly the same. They have the same nose, the same toes, they melt into you the same way when they sleep, they both have the same "what the heck is going on here" look. Sisters. Yet they are night and day. I knew they would be different, but I wasn't expecting polar opposites...and that is exactly what it appears I have at this point.

Anyah is my night child. She is MELLOW. She sleeps a lot. When she is awake she is perfectly content to just hang out. She likes to be swaddled & she loves socks. She craves warmth. She loves being held in your arms in a craddling position. She has been home 2 weeks and at this point she has cried (like really cried) 3 times. She likes to be touched. She seldom makes a noise above a squeek and she only moves when she is searching for someone to hold her or trying to figure out why you've unswaddled her. She hates having her diaper changed and baths. She puts herself to sleep (sometimes mid bottle) and takes her time with everything. At this point she is calm and quiet like the night. She is peace and serenity.

Layla is my day child. She wakes up to the fullness of life around her. She has always hated being swaddled and wearing socks. She wants to be out and free. From the moment she was born she has been yelling, laughing, and trying to break free from anything that might keep her in one place for too long. When she was a baby she seldom slept, she hated being craddled (wanting to sit up and see what was around her) and she constantly made noise. She loved being sat in a swing and left to her own devices right from the start... still does (notice the picture). She hated being wet or dirty and loved bath time. She was hard to put to sleep but slept well once you got her to sleep. She did everything quickly (from drinking bottles as a newborn to the fast paced banter of a toddler) and with wreckless abandon. At this point she is vibrant and awakening like the midday sun. She is chaos and fun.

I know that they will change and grow more every day and they won't always be night and day. I know they'll rub off on each other and they'll develop more of the parts of their personality that aren't evident to me now. But it's still amazing as a parent to love two people who are so totally different in what they need and what they respond to. Yet I do love them. I love them with the whole of my being. And they love me back, they love everyone actually...I guess that's another trait they share as sisters... a more important one than button noses and long toes.