Beat of Her Own Drum

This girl is crazy. I find myself saying that a lot about her. It's usually more like, "She's crazy!" 

I say it to her. About her. In front of her. 

But really. She is. 

It seems to me that she's got her daddy's blood running through those veins. I say that for two reasons.

1. Alexia is exactly like me in personality. Quite scary, actually. Very emotional. Zero to sixty. Tears come pretty easily. A sensitive and self-conscious one. Empathetic. Zones in on babies crying and pats them on the back and says, "It's okay." Hates loud noises (she's actually getting better at this). This is all me, to the T. So it's amazing to me how different the girls are.

2. I love all of Naiya's "crazy" qualities, because they're everything I'm not. And everything Ryan is. So many reasons why I love and respect my husband for. 

Adventurous spirit (she's always climbing into and onto things, Alexia never did):

Assertive:

She's been pretty opinionated as far back as I can remember. Swatting my hand if she was done eating what I was giving her. Much more picky with food. Squaks loudly if she wants my attention. 

But pretty unemotional. She really only cries when she's hungry or tired. Which has been such a gift of grace from God, when we've had to deal with this:

Or this:

And please, let's not forget about this car ride home:

(I'll save this story for a Flashback Friday. Stay tuned.)

Naiya sees something once and she wants to do it herself. And usually can, without my help. Naiya completely skipped over the pureed food stage. She was all about feeding herself with finger foods. (Another one I'll chalk up as a gift of grace, since we had two babies back to back.) That girl's got some determination. Just like her daddy. Not so much like her mama. 

Here are some latest and greatest of our baby, baby girl: