With Hayden, we had two people giving examples—me and Ryan. (And, let’s face it, most of the time it was me. That whole earning-money thing. Whatever.)
With Rebecca, she has two people with her pretty much all the time to model behaviors. She’s picking up signing probably about the same as Hayden did, and of course some things she hasn’t learned yet that he knew at this age—but some things she’s practically a prodigy at already.
Like this one:
She also does this whenever she sees me with my arms folded, and randomly throughout the day. I love finding her sitting on the floor, her arms folded and her head deeply bowed. She’s also done this while we were eating lunch or even out to eat, as if to remind us that we forgot to say our prayers.
I know there will be an equal number of disadvantages for her, of course—I just won’t have the same amount time I devoted to Hayden to give my singular attention to her—but I’m pretty proud of this one!
How were your later children easier than your first? What things did you notice them picking up on faster?
6 replies on “Why #2 is easier”
that’s really cool, Jordan. I especially love that she does it unsolicited on her own during the day. What a gal!
I find it a little disturbing that the related videos were about prisoner’s of war in Afghanistan. I miss her!
#2 spoke much earlier, but I think that’s a girl thing. #1 was very much into spacial relations (building things and working the computer) and didn’t speak as early because, I think, he’s just a boy. #3 tried to write with a pencil and paper earlier by watching her siblings be in school and do homework. #4 has been the easiest so far. Not sure if it’s a temperament thing or if it’s because she just picked up on family rules or the older kids just played with her more or what. I’ll have to think about that.
I will say that a bigger age gap between 3 and 4 made a difference–by the time she was born the older 3 were all potty trained, could feed themselves, make their beds, get dressed, buckle themselves up, get their own snacks, etc. Made having a newborn a cinch compared to the other times when I was doing everything for everybody.
Two syllable o-oh! Cute!
That’s not just the normal toddler folding arms; that’s official arm crossing! Go Rebecca!
As for me, my later children have been no easier than my first. They’ve all been hard and I am extremely jealous everytime someone tells me what a doll of a baby they have and how they’re loving the baby stage. I’ve actually been fighting feelings of I’m-a-terrible-mommy lately because Adam and Wes are not picking up anything faster than Jeffrey did. They lag just behind normal development on everything and it’s starting to make me wonder if I’m screwing something up with them. Hopefully it’s just been a bad week:)
I do think that I had an easier time getting up in the middle of the night the second time around. I think I was used to little sleep by then so it wasn’t as hard.
I currently only have one child, but I find this topic very interesting to read about! Thanks!