The two sides of Baby J

There's been this ongoing debate in the family about which child takes after which parent. So far, the consensus is that even though Baby J looks like Packrat and his side of his family, she seems to be all me in terms of personality. High strung, antsy, temperamental, all type A. Of course, I take great offence because every time he says this, he says this in a some what mocking tone aimed at making fun of me and my neurotic ways.

In the last few weeks, we've discovered another aspect of her that reminds me that she is indeed my daughter.

I am the youngest and only girl in the family. My siblings consist of 2 much older brother. Needless to say, as I was growing up, they provided much of my points of reference and were my role models for good and for bad. The problem with having 2 older brothers to copy, I soon thought their behaviour was kosher for a girl too. This meant, climbing trees, catching spiders and basically behaving in ways most unbecoming of a young lady. In fact, that term was used on me quite a bit. I grew out of it though. I learnt to sit with my knees together, I learnt to be shy and much to the chargrin of many, I swung to the other end of the pendulum and became a Little Miss. But I also realised, you could beat the tomboy out of the girl but you really couldn't get the girl out of the tomboy and on occasion when I think no one's watching, I do like to sit in the most un-ladylike of ways and pretend that I have no semblance of grooming whatsoever.

And I've realised the same thing about my daughter. She acts like the most prissy of princesses. When she eats, she doesn't like it when she's got food smeared all over her face even though, half the time, she gets it there and all the darndest places all by her little self. She also seems to enjoy the attention when we dress her up. Most of the time, she's in dresses and skirts with a pretty hair clip to boot and she does look every bit the Pixie Princess in it. Her latest get up included the ugg ugg boots that Aunty Threez got her for Christmas. I love the boots! They're the most impractical thing in our horrendously hot weather but oh so fun to see her in and Mommy being a ditz at heart loves playing with the pom poms which Baby J tries to put in her mouth.



Doesn't she look like just the little girl in this and her little Dora dress? Oh, by the way, I've okayed Dora as something the kids can watch because Dora's part of fraternal twins, her brother's Diego and their adventures revolve around rescuing animals from evil poachers and stuff. Much better than the fashionable but horrendous prostitot characters like Winx Clubs (who are witches dressed in slut wear) and Bratz (self-explanatory I think). But I digress, that's a full post for a later date.

Anyway, so if you see Baby J, she's all girly, feminine and princess-y. But her true colours are shown when she's fast asleep where she sleeps all sprawled out. And on occasion with her foot up on the side rail of the cot. Here, she's all sprawled out. When you try to put her legs together, she kicks out instinctively and her legs go back to being obscenely unladylike.
















The other time her inate sam-seng-ness comes through is when she's eating in her high chair where she will insist on sitting with one leg up on the chair itself and occasionally, she'll prop herself against her leg. Packrat insists it's my deep buried tomboy-ish nature that she's manifesting and he's probably right on that count. But at least, if I'm anything to go by, she'll figure out that she can only be like that at home and when she's sleeping as then, she can feign ignorance. The rest of the time, she'll like pretty clothes, make up and all the beautiful trappings of being a lady. Hee.