Three

When I had the golden child, it was just her and I.  Our relationship is still very much her and I against the world.  We're super close as a mother and daughter, and I'm still blessed enough that she considers me her friend at 16.  I couldn't imagine where another child would fit in when I had A2.  How could I possibly love someone as much as I loved her?  And then I had him ...and found that although the love was different, it was equally as overwhelming and fierce.  The children themselves were polar opposites ...she was overwhelmingly shy and dependent ...he is outgoing and fiercely independent.  I had always imagined that they would be very similar - I was raising them both, right?  And yet ...they were born with these personalities. 

During this last pregnancy, I always imagined that this baby would fit somewhere in the middle of them.  And maybe he will.  Right now, he looks so much like his older brother did at the same age that I sometimes find myself thinking of him as his older brother.  And yet, already, his personality is so different from either of them.  He's so easily soothed - he literally needs to just hear my voice to stop crying ..so blindly trusting that I'll be able to fix what ails him.  He laughs and giggles easily ...and still has a lot of the seriousness that I remember from the golden child's infancy. 

This afternoon, Monk took two pictures of the baby ...

The seriousness of his sister:

The silliness of his brother:

And yet ..somehow ...both of them are all him.

Who knew you could possibly love three this much.