First Impressions

Just today my sister-in-law told me that she heard from someone with teen aged kids that they have found that whatever your first impression of you kids is when they are little rings true as they get older.  I think I can attest to that.  My first impressions of Bethany are as follows:

1)  She is a busy body.  She moved constantly inside of me.  Like, all. the. time.  And now, at 16 months old, the girl is still a busy body.  We call her the meanderer.  Unless she is sleeping, Bethany does not stop moving.

2)  This girl is going to do things in her own time and her own way.  She proved this when she decided to cook for a full 40 weeks and I had to be induced to get her out!  Josh and Hannah were good little babies and came at 37 and 36 weeks after a spontaneous labor.  Also, you may remember that she didn't crawl, she scooted around on her bum for her first mode of transportation.  And she didn't start that until she was 10  months old.

3)  Finally, and most importantly, she is a goof ball.  This is evidenced by the fact that she likes to go in my room and pull dirty laundry underwear out of the laundry basket and wear it around her neck or completely over her face. Sometimes she finds things in there that are A LOT less gross, like Hannah's dress.  And wears that upside down and inside out. 

Goof ball, indeed.

The other day we had some friends over and Bethany walked around with Emma's soggy bathing suit around her neck, inside out, for about 3 hours.  If we tried to remove it, she would get really mad.  Then, the next morning, she found it again and put it right back on.

And then there was the day I could hear her up in her crib happily playing.  Suddenly, she started to scream and cry.  I rushed up to her room to see if she had gotten her leg caught in the rails of her crib or if she was hanging upside down after trying to climb out of her crib (these are the things that go through a mom's mind, right?).  Turns out she had gotten her dress over her head and her arms were stuck in it.

As soon as I saw that she was not going to fall to her death, I sent Josh downstairs to get the camera.  Since we were all laughing at her, Bethany thought she was pretty funny.

If you look closely, you can still see her tears of frustration on her face.

There.  That's better.

Oh, Bethany, you have brought so much joy and puzzlement to our family.  We love you and all of your quirks!  I can see that we will be enjoying them for years to come.