Peas and Carrots

Being a parent of two kids has been drastically different from being a parent of one kid. When we found out we were expecting #2 we thought, "Well this should be such a smooth and easy transition. We know all about being parents now, so it wont be as hard as when we brought Zachary home." Of course, when we brought Lucy home our house looked like a toy store exploded on it and once again Zach and I looked like zombies. The fairy tale impression of having two sweet angelic children in a spotlessly clean house had quickly slipped away within Lucy's first 24 hours. Having two children moving in opposite directions at all hours of the day and night was exhausting. Duh. What a surprise. I look back and see how dumb we were for thinking the whole thing would be blatantly easier. Parenting is complicated....after all we are raising people! As it turns out parenting two children is no easier than parenting one, and parenting one is pretty darn complicated.
Whats funny is the drastically different way in which we parent our first and our second. For example-
Your baby starts to cry:
With baby #1: you run to him immediately and frantically start to check for a wet diaper, potential hunger(even though you just fed him 10 mins ago), or gas and then dispense Mylicon drops just to be sure and rock him back to sleep while singing sweet lullabies.
With baby #2: you finish getting the gum out of kid #1's hair, kick a path through the toys to baby #2 and THEN rock the baby back to sleep while humming the theme song to "Dora the Explorer" so you can finish washing the crayon marks off your wall.
Whether this difference in parenting is due to a dramatic difference in the personalities of 1st and 2nd children or due to the fact things have to be changed when there are 2 little beings that need love, I don't know- its probably a little of both.
My babies are like night and day or peas and carrots (which ever you prefer). Zachary is my collected "Little Dude" who is a ham at heart and usually very little trouble- his aim is to please and he rarely questions authority. He can find the humor in just about anything and thinks that everyone is his best friend. He tries hard not to complain even in the most difficult of situations, like, for example when he caught a nasty stomach bug (seriously the stomach bug from hell)a year or so back. He was throwing up for hours over and over and over again. He laid underneath a blanket watching movies, sitting up to puke in his bucket and then laying back down again without so much as a whimper. I was amazed because when I caught the same thing the next day I felt so bad that even I was moaning all day as my stomach lurched back and forth like the tides of the sea.
Lucy is my wild child. Shes willful and dramatic, but a loving mommy to everyone and everything. She's determined to fight to the death on just about anything and ALWAYS questions authority. Her personality is so huge it usually precedes her through the front door and I am pretty sure a stranger can sense this child is a warrior. Its never been uncommon to see Lucy up all night with stomach pain and then get up at the crack of dawn to "attack" the next day with full steam. Its also never been uncommon to see her fall down, scrape her knee and then behave as though shes been stabbed through the heart until the moment someone offers her a lollipop.
I guess it was just the luck of the draw that I would get TWO polar opposite children with unique parenting needs. They both crack me up to no end. They pull me in different directions so hard that just when I think I cant do it, they swoop back in and pick me up with a huge hug and a kiss. I am lucky like that I guess.