Planned or not, parents know a lot more about what to expect when their second child is born. After all, you did alright with the first one, right? So you know you'll eventually sleep again, someday they'll stop crying and that either breast or bottle will nourish them. You may not believe it, but you are capable of loving another being as much as you love your first - it's amazing.
What's not amazing are some of the surprises.
Every parent has some script surrounding the close, lifelong relationships that they'd like their children to have. Maybe you have one - my sister has two friends that she's known since she was three and they are still close more than 30 years later. I have one friend I've known from birth.
There's a familiarity and comfort in long term friendships.
This week our sons are in the mountains with their grandparents and our au pair. Our daughter is home with us – her first time having mom and dad all to herself. And our first time just having a daughter in the house.
Every time I interact with her – I’m amazed at the hard-wired, inherent differences between girls and boys. For example:
The terrible twos don’t come close to comparing with an enraged almost 8 year old. Every Thursday, my boys have a swim class. They’re at the same level but Taylor, the younger, is about to achieve his next “ribbon” and Benjamin is not. Benjamin learned this fact last week. Now showing: "Rage at Swim Lessons".
When I arrived – Benjamin was arguing with the instructor at the front desk about how he hates swimming