Similarities and Differences

As you can see from Melissa's last post, it was recently Mr. Happy Pants' first birthday and I have been thinking a lot about how much more and more each day he is looking like his sister.  Now, he may be looking more and more like Ethne, but he certainly has his own personality.  So in this post I am going to talk about some of the ways that our boy reminds me of Ethne (like how they both have red hair) and some of the ways that they are completely different (like how Little Man's red head personality hasn't come out yet like Ethne's did).


















Similarities -

As I mentioned before, they are looking more similar all of the time.  Mr. Pants is just taller and skinnier.  They both have the same full smile and they pose the same way with their tongues sticking out, but Mr. Pants has yet to master the sneaky half smile.  They both love electronics - like Wiimotes, iPods, turning on and off our bluray player, and playing with basically any remote within their reach.  They both especially loved the blu-ray player because it made a fun noise every time you turned it off or on, even in the middle of the movie mommy or daddy are watching.  Of course, when ever they would turn it off and someone would shout out to them (in a gentle shout) Ethne would turn around and give you her famous smile, while Mr. Happy just looks at the TV and excitedly jumps up and down.  They both love going through our DVDs and pulling them off of the shelf and recently Little Man has also joined his sister in pushing things around.  The only difference is that he is not yet walking by himself while pushing things around.

Differences -

While they do have similarities, they really are very unique individuals.  Ethne had a lot of living to do in the short amount of time she was here (Melissa says that a lot and I really like it).  She learned to walk very fast and was getting good at picking up on songs.  She showed a natural tendency for rhythm and music.  With Mr. Happy Pants we haven't seen as much music inclination yet, other then the fact that he loves to dance whenever music is playing.  That may be our fault though - since the accident a lot of the music and videos we played for Ethne aren't being played anymore.  Ethne loved to play run away games; Little Mr. loves to play games, but he prefers to run towards me when we play.  Ethne was the most cuddly little girl ever-- and Little Man, while he is cuddly with his mother, is more interested in playing if I'm ever holding him. If you look at my previous post when I talk about Ethne's birthday cake, it was completely different from Mr.'s-- instead of trying to eat the whole piece at once, he dipped his fingers into the frosting and then licked them off.

I could go on and on about the differences, but the point I am trying to make with this post is how grateful I am for the few similarities with them that help me remember Ethne every day, and equally grateful for the differences that allow us to make special memories with Mr. Happy Pants, just as we did with Ethne.  And if, one day, we are blessed to have any other children in our lives I know that we will be able to have special memories with them as well.  I am grateful for having these special children in our lives to help form us into better people and grow closer as a family all of the time. 

 - Lawrence