All about Little Sister

It's high time we all got to know Baby #2 a little better. So, let's begin. We'll start with what we can surmise based on the world around her.

Perhaps most intriguing is the comment made to me by an acquaintance recently. He told me that whatever the first one is like, the next one will be the opposite. His theory was that God does it that way to maintain a happy balance in the home.

Don't get me wrong--I don't want to base my personality prediction of #2 solely on #1, but the man has a point. In this case, Little Sister will be:
-Outgoing
-Independent
-Strong-willed
-A good sleeper (*cheers*)
-A bad eater
-Whatever the opposite of sensitive is
-A Daddy's girl
-Destructive and disorderly

Hmm. I may have my work cut out for me, but at least I'll be relatively well rested.

As far as family dynamics are concerned, my family has been discussing lately how Little Sister will be very well managed--and also very well taken care of--by Big Sis. And yet, I'm also expecting that Little Sister, with her outgoing, extroverted personality (because we desperately, desperately need an extrovert in this family!), will draw Kalina out of her shell a bit.

"Don't be silly," she'll say. "8-month-olds aren't scary, even if they can crawl. You could totally take 'em. Let's go say hi." And Kalina will get dragged into all kinds of terrifying social situations by her tiny sister, and will be better off for it.

But maybe, with Little Sister's strong will, she won't want to be "managed" by her older sister? After all, most kids don't like to be told "You can use the green shovel and the red shovel. Now, dig. I want to see that bucket getting filled." Or will she put up with it because she'll be social and will want to play with her bigger sister? Maybe she'll happily humor Kalina because anything to an extrovert is better than playing alone? Only time will tell.

Judging by Little Sister's kicks and rolls and bounces, she'll walk a bit later and therefore, I assume, talk earlier. But I betcha when she does start walking, we'll finally have to put away our fireplace tools and potentially our cats (if we haven't already done so). And I bet when she starts talking, she won't ever stop (not that her big sister won't give her a run for her money!).

Based on the baby's relative lack of hiccups, she won't cry as much as Kalina did. I don't know if the two are related, but Kalina sure did hiccup a lot and then she sure did cry a lot. And both require lots of lung action, I believe. Little Sister has gotten the hiccups only maybe 14-ish times, as far as I can tell, so maybe she'll be a bit quieter (read: happier) in the early months, anyway.

And from my relatively normal pregnancy (i.e., the morning sickness actually ended), I bet Little Sister will be developmentally right on track. Which will have her eating far more sand than Kalina ever did, but probably also occasionally allowing me to leave the room without an entourage. I'm guardedly, guardedly optimistic that we may even be able to leave her in the church nursery at some point. A mommy can dream, right?

A future career path? Well, Kalina seems to be the straight-and-narrow type so it's likely that Little Sister, as a second child, will be a bit more out there. Which for our family, would probably mean something like law or social work, or possibly politics (heaven forbid).

And how will she manage life as an Odegaard? I bet she'll think we're all a bit boring, and will go through a phase in which she thinks she's adopted. Extroverts never understand introverts, after all.

Whatever form Little Sister's personality takes, we'll be so excited to meet her!