Brothers

In the two months that I have been a mother of two, I have enjoyed comparing and contrasting my boys. So far, the boys seem to be very alike physically: they both hover around the 75th percentile for weight and the 90% percentile for heighth. Both were exceptionally strong as newborns...they were consistently holding their heads up by 2-weeks-old. Caleb started rolling over at 11 weeks and Ethan started at 7 weeks. Caleb was able to bear weight on his legs at 2 weeks and Ethan at 4 weeks. Of course the biggest physical similarity is that they look alike! Caleb's 2-month-old pictures look exactly like Ethan looks right now. They share many features and have the same head/face shape. Marcus says he can't even tell which one is which in pictures! The only significant physical difference we can see so far is that Ethan has darker coloring. The both have big blue eyes, but Ethan's little tuft of hair on the back if his neck is dark brown, and Ethan's skin is a little darker as well.

In many other non-physical ways, Caleb and Ethan seem to be quite different. Like his dad, Ethan really enjoys touch and physical closeness...he loves to sleep next to a warm body. He sleeps in bed with me and every night he manages to wiggle his way out of his sleep positioner and 12-24 inches across the bed so that he can sleep directly against my body. When Ethan is sleeping and he stirs, many times all it takes is laying a hand on his chest or softly brushing his silky check to resettle him. Caleb was more like me and not much of a cuddler. Caleb preferred to be laid down right after falling asleep because he couldn't get comfortable in arms. Ethan loves being swaddled, but Caleb didn't like the constriction of a swaddling blanket and preferred to have his legs and arms free.

Another difference is that Ethan is more flexible with how he falls asleep than Caleb was. For the first 6+ months, Caleb would ONLY fall asleep by nursing... rocking, bouncing, swinging, carseat...these were not for him (sometimes he would eventually conk out during one of these activities, but it was because Mommy wasn't around and he wore himself out crying). Ethan, on the other hand, enjoys all of those sleep-promoting activities and easily falls asleep in a variety of ways. Sometimes, if I get the timing right, I can just swaddle him, pop in a pacifier, and lay him down in bed fully awake and he falls asleep without fussing.

This could be a nature vs. nurture thing; as a new mom, I was afraid of Caleb crying and so I nursed him every time he made an unhappy peep. Both because Ethan naturally cries more than Caleb did and because Ethan's needs aren't responded to as promptly (because I have Caleb), I have more perseverence to try new things, even if Ethan resists at first.

There are a lot more differences, and I may add to this post later on, but as it is I've been writing it one sentence at a time for five days, so I better just put it online and be done with it. We are moving to Alabama in six days and I have GOT to pack!