Equal, but different

I am starting to get the whole idea of what people mean when they say they love their kids equally but differently. Although it seems like we've only seen a teeny tiny fraction of Mallory's personality, there are a few things we do know about her, and she sometimes seems to be Liam's polar opposite. And the funny thing is, I love certain things about her, like how outgoing she can be, just as much as I love the opposite thing about Liam (his social hermit tendencies can be frustrating at times, but overall I find them hilarious and not far off from how I often feel, though I think I do a bit better job of covering it up!) And whenever one of them is bothering the other, I get so defensive on their behalf. Yesterday Liam was jumping on the bed and crashed into Mallory; tears ensued, and man, was I ticked at him for hurting her. Likewise, I can get really frustrated with her when I'm doing something with Liam and she starts grumbling for seemingly no reason.

(I am super mindful, when I do these posts, of how many of the previous week's posts have been devoted to one kiddo or the other. Don't think the guilt isn't mounting as I've posted photo after photo of Mallory this week. In my defense, there is just much more that is new with her, since she seems to be hitting milestones daily (her first bowl of cereal or his 429th: which would you rather see??)There's also the fact that Liam gets out more, spending one day a week with Cindy and, for much of the summer, time with Gramma and Grampa, too; so he is around the camera less. He is also generally more camera shy (unless I can bribe him with a Twirl Pop...))

Last night, the evidence of their equally-adorable-but-definitely-different personalities culminated in a perfect example. Chad is out of town this week on business, and we spent the day in London yesterday, doing some shopping and taking advantage of his hotel's pool before meeting him for dinner. On the drive home, both kiddos fell asleep. When we got home, already after dark, I hefted Liam upstairs, changed his diaper, put his PJs on and dumped him into bed - and all the while, he was still sawing logs, and didn't wake up until this morning. On the other hand, Mallory woke up as soon as the car engine was turned off, and she treated the rest she'd just had as a second wind. She was up and raring to go for several more hours before finally settling into bed very late last night. Equal... but different!