First Words

My two children are a study in opposites.

Ethan loves fruit and vegetables. Marley will not eat anything green. She is so stubborn, in fact, about green things that once we tried to get her to eat a cucumber. We told her she couldn't get down from the table until she took one bite. She sat there for two hours. Then we gave up.

Marley hated the water, she screamed every time I washed her hair. Ethan dunks his whole head under water and laughs.

Marley looks nothing like me. Ethan at least looks like me a little.

Ethan is so incredibly shy, I still can't just leave him in Nursery and he practically cries when anyone he doesn't know looks at him. He covers his eyes when he is trying to hide from an embarassing situation. Marley is a show-off and not shy at all. I had to get her attention when I dropped her off at nursery the first time to say good-bye. And we all remember the Ward Christmas Party / Dance Performance.Marley was a very agreeable baby. She sat quietly watching me make dinner or do laundry. Ethan ... is not agreeable. He came out crying and (practically) hasn't stopped yet. They brought him to me in the hospital and I thought for sure something was wrong with him because he was making sounds like whining. It kept me up for hours and hours until I let the nurses take him to the nursery so I could take a nap.

Ethan still whines a lot and I thought this would change when started to say some words. It has, a little. But here again are the obvious differences manifesting themselves in their first words ...

Marley ... mommy, daddy (of course) puppy, kitty, monkey, please, thank you.

Ethan ... mommy, daddy (of course) No!, stop, more, move ... and cheese.