Growing up

Skipper is on her way. She laughs! She tries to eat everything! She's sitting in the high chair to join us at meals, and this week I started putting her on my back in the Ergo for short periods. She seems cool with all of this. She's pretty cool.

The weirdest thing about having a second kid is how she worships the first kid. She watches Dutch adoringly, laughs at her antics, and almost always enjoys even Dutch's most invasive dealings with her,* things that REALLY irritate me. This is both good, because Dutch entertains Skipper marvelously well for remarkably long periods (no need for electronic toys when you've got a demented preschooler on hand!), and bad, because... well, I don't know. It irritates me! I try to give Skipper little intervention-type lectures, like "Honey, I want you to know that there are many different ways to behave, and you don't have to grow up to be like Dutch. Really. You don't have to wear dresses all the time. You don't have to be a princess. You don't have to be a drama queen! You can be a camo-wearing engineer. Please explore your options!" Of course, Dutch herself may not grow up to be like Dutch-right-now, and I know that siblings can be wildly different from eachother, but somehow I find it impossible to imagine that Skipper won't be just like her sister, and when I watch her tracking Dutch's every move, it seems even more likely.

Also, Skipper has stopped sleeping well. JUST LIKE DUTCH.

*Mostly putting her face right up next to Skipper's and squawking manically at her. Also flailing wildly two inches away from Skipper's face.