Somewhere In-Between

I've wondered a lot the past several months about what baby bug #3 will be like.  

I'm fully expecting this little one to pop out looking like Andrew's third mini-me as all of our children tend to favor him pretty much immediately.  Dark hair, but not a crazy amount, pouty lips, and the cutest furrowed brow.  Thank goodness Nelle was a girl and had headbands on in some of those first few day old photos because side-by-side Ham's brand spanking new baby pics it's hard to tell them apart.  

 

Even lately I've been getting comments that Henry and Nelle are favoring each other more and more. 

But once we're past the similarities in features, all I can think about is how different they are - and have been from the very beginning.

Nelle has always been the best cuddler and is sweet as can be.  She cuddles me probably 20 times a day.  I can't get that from Henry in two weeks.  Unless he's feeling jealous of Nelle and then he promptly wants her down and him hoisted up over my baby bump for a two-second cuddle time of 

"I can do that too, and I don't know why it's that great."  And then he's down back to smashing trucks and throwing pillows off of the couch.

 

She wakes up slow like me, and he wakes up the instant his eyes flutter open just like Andrew.  

I can tell it annoys Nelle just as much as it does me as we're huddled up together under the covers trying to adjust to daybreak.   

Henry's language skills always had me worried until he finally put everything together (or maybe just decided to use them as I think he knew quite a bit before he let on).  Nelle has been repeating everything we say for months now, and even every once in a while throws out one of her two sentences at us.  "Mama up" or "Hi Dada"..."pet puh-puh (puppy)" is hovering at a close third.  She tries to sing the moon lullaby we use to calm her down, but has never been as daring or sure on her feet as Henry was at her age.  Daring or oblivious to danger.  You pick.  

She's at such an exhausting age when we're out in public.  I spend all 30 minutes of Henry's swimming lessons chasing her down and making sure she's not getting to close to the edge of the pool.  The other (sitting, watching, relaxing) moms comment at how busy she is, but I just reply with yes...but she's 10x easier than Henry was at this age so I'll take it.  Because Henry would have already jumped in the pool by this point.

 

Henry is rough and tumble, no holding back all the live long day, 

while Nelle gets pretty old of his relentless aggression and finds refuge on my lap all the live long day.  

And Nelle is such a doll until you tell her no, and then she's all sass.  She even refused to make eye contact with Andrew and stuck her bottom lip out when he told her no the other night.  OMG, her teenage years!  Meanwhile time out for Henry hardly phases him...which must be why he's frequented it so often these past few days...ha!    

I can't help but think this little one is going to find his/her place somewhere right in the middle. 

 

Just shy of four months from finding out.