And Now, a Cliched But True Discovery

I realized with biting finality today that, despite being barely 14 months old, Lena is most certainly DIFFERENT from Ella, or I for that matter.

I say "Ella, or I" since I feel a kinship for the Bean's ways. This could be because we have spent so much of her 4.5 years together, or it could be genetics: I also see my sister in her, and my mother. Traits of calmness, quiet, empathy, fancy.

Lena, though, seems cut from a different cloth: startlingly energetic, assertive, often inappropriately loud, limber, brave, quick to temper, intensely curious, insistently playful, often demanding, aware of her ability to charm, independent but vocal in her still-strong needs for attachment.

This makes Lena seem intimidating, but also like an alluring stranger to me, in the way that her dark hair seemed strange in that first moment of birth. Of course, this is a seductive strangeness for a mother: a strangeness that makes you eager to observe how this life will progress.