Boys versus Girls

Emersyn- 11 months

 Everett- 11 months

As much as it pains me to admit, I'll never forget that sinking feeling I had in my stomach when I saw the unmistakable boy part on the ultrasound while I was pregnant with Everett. I was totally shocked....what?? How could this be?? I had everything already for an August baby girl. And boys are gross (mainly teenage ones)....certainly I was not cut out to be a boy mom. I couldn't really wrap my mind around having a baby boy until he was placed in my arms after an agonizing labor. I loved him instantly and was so thankful.

Now that I've been a mama to a little boy for almost a year, I can honestly say that my little boy is the sweetest, happiest, silliest little man I've ever met and I am SO glad that God didn't let me pick the gender of my second child. Everett is the perfect addition to our family and I am having SO much fun parenting him. He has been very different then Ems in some ways, similar in others.

Differences between Emersyn and Everett:

*Everett is very curious. Emersyn was a sit tight kind of girl....never got into anything, wasn't too big on exploring. Everett loves to be everywhere. We have to corral him in the living room, something we didn't have to do with Ems. I don't believe in hard core baby proofing if it's avoidable and so far we've been able to keep him off our stairs by saying "no no" but we'll see if that still works as he gets more mobile. I feel like I say "Everett David!" multiple times a day. :)

*Everett is constantly making noise. He loves shrieking, *talking*, and yelling. He is also always banging something. His three favorite things right now are a toothbrush, a plastic red fry pan (from the dollar bin at Target), and a wooden spoon. He loves banging the fry pan on anything he can find, walls, toys, the floor, etc. I don't remember Emersyn doing this, it's totally a boy thing and it's totally cute.

*Everett is STILL swaddled. I can't even believe it. Emersyn stopped being swaddled around 5 months or so? This was due to the fact that she could bust out of her swaddle so we just stopped using it. However, we found this wonderful swaddle (actually a friend let us borrow it) when Everett was tiny and we've just been using it ever since. He took one nap unswaddled once (we laid him down when he was already asleep) and he only slept for 20 minutes. When he's swaddled he will sleep for well over an hour. Therefore, I pick swaddling! I suppose he can't be swaddled forever but I'm not sure when I'll be willing to deal with the painful weaning of the swaddle. Ha.

*Emersyn was a binky addict and Everett only likes the binky when he's going to sleep. Otherwise, he's not interested in it at all! This is a good thing though, weaning Ems off her binky wasn't fun when she was 2.5. 

*Everett is like giddy happy nearly all the time. Emersyn was a little more serious, definitely more of a thinker baby. We joke that every day is the best day of Everett's life because of how excited he gets. Emersyn was a happy baby but I wouldn't have described her as overly joyful. I don't have a LOT of big smiley pictures of her as a baby and it's hard to get a picture of Everett where he's NOT smiling! :)

*Everett will totally interact with strangers, where Emersyn would just stare at them skeptically. Everett will smile and wave and flirt. So fun.

*Everett is a LOT bigger then Ems was. At this age she was wearing some 9 months stuff still but mostly 12 months stuff, possibly some 18 months stuff. Everett is mostly wearing 12-24 months stuff. Today he's wearing 24 months jammies and they don't even look big on him! I'll be curious what their stats will be at his one year appt. 

Similarities between Emersyn and Everett:

*Both of my babies are pretty chill. They will let anyone hold them and do fine in new situations with new people.

*They don't mind being in the car and are pretty adaptable. They don't have strict schedules and do fine with later bedtimes occasionally. They even sleep in the next day. Missing naptimes is also not a big deal for them. Emersyn definitely can get cranky and naughty as a preschooler when she's over tired but as a baby, she rolled with it. Both my kids slept through the night starting around 6-8 weeks.

*They are both insanely cute. :)

*They both look the same when they cry. I don't think that they look that alike anymore but when they cry, they could be twins. At this point Emersyn cries way more then Everett (Lord help me some days!!). :) 

I composed this list mainly as a record for myself to remember. If any friends have noticed differences between Ems and Everett, I'd be interested if I left anything off this list. :)

One thing is for sure with both kids.... I am lucky to be their mama!