pt 6 - my children

(small reminder that Bj is my birthson that was placed for adoption, I
include him in the comparisons because it feels appropriate)

Serafina was quite surprising to me on my first inspection of her. Bj
and Juliet came out looking a bit similar with dark brown hair and my
olive rose complexion. I think Bj morphed a bit more like dh with
lighter skin and the blonder hair, but when he was born he was almost
identical to my newborn baby pictures. Juliet has and had a pointy
chin, but still loaded with lots of dark brown hair and the olive rose
skin complexion. She's kept the skin tone, but her hair lighten up to
what my childhood hair was, a light brown with lots of blond
highlights. I miss that color hair by the way. Serafina has the
olive rose skin complexion, but her hair was and is different. I
think it's a bit thinner than Bj's and Juliet, and the coloring is
much lighter. It's starting from where Juliet's hair is currently,
that light brown color. And it was curly that first day. It isn't
curly now, but it was a shock that first day. (Especially since I
never really got a look at her facial structure during that one and
only u/s mid pregnancy.)

Personality wise, Bj was a bit distant to me. It was as if he already
knew I wasn't going to be mommy. The reason I say that is because I
watched him with his new parents a little bit later and he settled
down contently for them. In utero, Bj was very calm, a bit reserved
and shy. From the notes I get from his family, it still holds true.
Juliet was circus folk in utero moving around in every direction like
crazy. She also hatched plans on trying to escape all the time, she
even convinced my cat to try and dig her out. After Juliet was born,
while she nursed she looked around like she was trying figure
everything out and hatch more plans like Wild E. Coyote. Juliet also
was very attached to me; there was no putting her down for naps. She
even had a particular arm she preferred to be carried in upright from
the day she was born. Today, Juliet is very much the same on the go
girl she was in utero. She also takes time to look at things to
figure out how they work before moving on to something else. The
invisible bungee cord tethered to me has gotten longer, but there is
still a certain amount of time that will pass before she has to come
back to my side.

Serafina is a mild mystery to me after being used to Juliet for so
long. Serafina doesn't mind being passed to someone else and she also
doesn't mind being put down while she sleeps. Very very odd. Normal
to all my long term mommy friends, but after the extremism of Juliet
holding (I think Wyckhurst can understand what I was used to now that
she's going through similar behavior with Hazel) the novelty of
putting a child down and having a free moment or two just hasn't
become real to me yet. Serafina is slightly different than Juliet
when it comes to thinking. Serafina likes to look at people and
things too, but it isn't in the same figure it out kind of way Juliet
does. Serafina's thinking is more of a "what is that? Well that's
weird," kind of way. Everything is weird in Serafina's eyes. "Dada,
you have a fuzzy face… that's weird." "The sky is blue and then it's
black. That's weird." Don't laugh, this is really the look that
Serafina gives while awake and exploring her environment.

What does Juliet think about her new sister? Overall, she's pretty
content about it. For some reason personality quirks balance out
between children as defense tactics. Juliet is a very sensitive girl
to sounds, too loud too soon bugs the heck out of her. So why not
have the next child be a bit squeaky loud immediately instead of a
slow to annoy kid? There were a couple days where Juliet was
completely freaked out at every cry with her ears plugged in
desperation. It doesn't quite bother her as dramatically now, but it
still bugs Juliet a bit and she'll even admit that her sister drives
her a bit nuts. But for the most part, Juliet is pretty impressed
with her sister and things that need to be done like diaper changes
and feedings.

Also, I can't take pictures of Serafina. Juliet jumps in front of the
camera and her head takes up almost the entire frame. =oP

What else? Oh! If I haven't mentioned before, I do want to add that
these are my some of my favorite times. I love watching my children
for who they are fundamentally and how they approach the world around
them.

Laurel
--
birthmom to Bj 4-12-96
mommy to Juliet 4-13-02
and Serafina 8-9-05

That was so beautiful to read! How exciting seeing your children
interact with eachoer !

Congrats, again.

Jo (Mum to Will, 3 months old)