The difference between children

Today I was realizing how parenthood is different from one child to the next. Samantha was pretty sheltered as a baby and toddler. She didn't get to go to Chuck E Cheese until she was 2 or 3. She was 6 1/2 when we went to Disney World for the first time. She was allowed much less TV and didn't really get out much.

Tevin was 1 1/2 when we went to Disney World. At a month and a half old, he went to a movie in the movie theater (Sam wanted to go see Shark Tale for her birthday and I was nursing Tevin, so he came with). I'm sure he went to Chuck E Cheese while he was still in his infant carrier. Even on the way home from the hospital, we stopped at Toys R Us to quick pick something up.

And then there's Cadence. She's been to Wal-Mart about 6 times in her 9 day life so far. She's eaten approximately 10 of her meals in the car, been fed in 2 changing rooms, slept through 2 meals at restaurants, and made the full loop around the outlet mall. Today we went to the zoo and rode on the little train. And a little girl walked up and asked to touch her on the arm. I didn't even blink an eye, just said yes, but to please not touch her with the stick that was in the little girl's hand. I hardly think twice about where we need to go. It's just a given that at this point, she'll come along. If she needs to eat, I'll sit in the car or find somewhere to feed her. I'm more comfortable nursing where people can't see me. Perhaps that will get better as time goes on. With Samantha, there's no way I would have fed her in a changing room or the car, and Tevin ate exactly once in a secluded booth at a Perkins restaurant. I was paranoid that people were watching the entire time. Now I just make sure that I'm covered to my comfort level and smile when people stare. I do draw the line when Tevin tries to take pictures of Cadence while she's nursing. I never thought I'd have to say "don't take a picture of my boob", but I say it probably 5-10 times a day.

I think the trade-off for dragging the poor second and third children around is that I appreciate them more. The times when I can just sit and snuggle or feed Cadence are so precious, whereas with Sam I just sat and thought about what other things I could be doing. With Tevin, I tried to get him to sleep in his bassinette so he didn't get used to sleeping in my arms. The only reason Cadence gets put down is because I get so darn warm holding her. I realize that I may never be blessed with another baby, so I have to cherish the moments I get with the ones I have. But I wouldn't limit my increased appreciation to just the baby. I'm also learning that stages are so short. I'm learning and trying to get Matt to learn that we need to lighten up. So the ice cream is going to make them sticky and get everything messy...it will clean. They got shaving cream all over the bathroom while doing their shaving cream pictures...it will wipe up. The used 5 sheets of paper to make a card just to tell us how much they love us...a bit wasteful, but I'd rather have them express that love than to make them think we don't care. We're getting better. Last night Matt was going to get ice cream from the ice cream truck. That's something I have never done because it's so expensive. But why not? What's a couple bucks to see the joy on the kids' faces? (we didn't get any because the truck never came down our block...booo) Samantha stayed up until midnight the other night watching a movie with us.

It's okay to treat our children differently, because they are different. Hopefully they'll realize someday that we weren't playing favorites, just doing what we thought was best at the time.