10 Things Thursday

10 ways Julianna is different from the boys when they were her age...

1. She wears pink. The boys pretty much wore jeans and tee shirts everyday. Blue or green tee shirts. Jules has a closet full of dresses and skirts and sweaters and cute little blouses and leggings and ponchos and colorful socks. And lots and lots of pink.

2. She is a dancer. She loves to dance and does it often. It is so much fun to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" with her. She has different moves for each style of music and will stop whatever she's doing to watch the dancing and join in. The boys hated it when I grabbed them and danced with them. They would fight to get down. Sometimes I let them. Sometimes I didn't. Maybe that's why they still won't dance with me. They have also been known to tell me to stop when I'm dancing on my own.

3. She just this morning climbed into her high chair. I took the tray off to clean it, and while my back was turned, she somehow climbed in all by herself. I have no idea how she did it. Neither of the boys ever did that. They never really climbed on anything they weren't supposed to. They also never climbed out of their cribs. I think I better keep an eye on their little sister, though.

4. Her hair is longer now than I've ever let the boys' hair get. For as long as they would let me, I used electric trimmers to cut their hair really short. Even though I've trimmed Jules' hair, I'm letting it grow for a while until I decide on a style for her.

5. She interacts with kids more. The boys mostly grew up with other boys. They all tended to play on their own without much interaction. Girls, though, are way more aware of other kids. Julianna and her friend Lily, from the time they were six months old and in Bible class together, have interacted. I have even wondered what they would say to each other if they could hold a real conversation.

6. She loves dolls. She holds them and hugs them and sings to them. One of her first words was "baby." The boys only used dolls as weapons or to throw...or weapons to throw. And still they do not like to even touch Julianna's babies lying around the house.

7. She only slows down if she's asleep. If she's awake, she's moving. Playing, touching everything, opening drawers and pulling things out. Taking the remote and turning the channel. Trying to get to the keyboard and mouse on the computer desk. Wait...now that I think about it, the boys were like that, too.

8. She is way more dramatic. When she doesn't get her way, she will look at me with puppy dog eyes and cover her mouth and cry. Yes, she covers her mouth. Like those women in old black and white movies. She's also been known to lay in her crib and cover her eyes and cry, then stop to peek at the door to see if I'm there, and then start again.

9. She seems to be more affectionate. She hugs and kisses without being prompted. She hugs us if we get hurt. She jumps off my lap in the mornings to run down the hall to hug her brothers and daddy when they get up. She pats and pets and loves on everything from toys to the cats to her family.

10. She's a girl. Obvious, I know. But raising a girl is just different than raising boys. There are different concerns and issues and joys. There is this spot in my heart that I didn't know existed before Julianna was here. A piece of the mommy part of my heart that was only meant to belong to a daughter. All mommies' hearts are different, I think. Some are meant for boys. Some for girls. Some for both. Some for only one child. Some for a dozen. Some for biological children. Some for adopted children. Some for a mixture of both. My mommy heart, well, mine was made for two boys and a girl. And not only that, it was designed, created, meant to love Josh and Adam and Julianna.