Boys vs Girls

Maybe it's just a difference in personality, but we sure have noticed a difference at Kyle and Claire, even in the early stages of life.

This is how Claire learned to crawl and walk: Claire was almost nine months old by the time she decided to try to crawl. Even once she learned how to it scared her and she literally would cry the whole time she was crawling. It was the same thing with walking. She just hated walking between two people by herself, she cried the whole time. If she was standing and holding onto something she would hold on for dear life and never let go. I still remember how my thumbs and fingers would ache from her holding on. When she was 14 months old she just stood up one day and started walking. That was that. No trial and error; she waited until she could do it. Claire is confident, calculated, and careful.

This is Kyle: At 6 1/2 months I went upstairs to grab some clothes for Kyle. I could hear him squealing with delight and hurried down the stairs to see him up on his hands and feet, rocking and laughing. The next day he learned to dive forward on his chest, get back up, and dive again. Even though he can crawl in the normal way, he still resorts to his dive/scoot. Then before he was even 8 months old he decided he can crawl up onto things (stairs, suitcase, large toys). And even worse he's decided that he can stand up and hold onto the couch, Claire's couch, the stairs, the exersaucer, the TV stand, and anything else he can crawl to. This would be fine except for the fact that once he's up he lets go and crashes. Sometimes he'll even just start to walk and let go. I spend most of my day chasing him and catching him at the last second. Why would a seven-month-old think that walking is the next step? Kyle is daring, dangerous, and determined.

So maybe it's a gender thing or a personality thing, but we sure like how different they are. Kyle certainly is a care-free little guy, where Claire thinks through everything before making a choice. It's fun to see so many great qualities developing in these little people.