Jaylie

Toady I'll tell you about my baby girl, Jaylie. If Ethan was a surprise to my heart, Jaylie was a surprise to my schedule. Ethan was just 7 months old when we found out I was pregnant again. Eric didn't have a job. I had to go to the health department to get on Medicaid...talk about a humbling experience. By the time I was 4 months along, or so, Eric had gone permanent with a real company and we had real insurance. You know, you do what you have to do.
I remember telling Eric I had had a positive pregnancy test. He sat down and said,"I think I should get back in the military." This all happened in the months following his separation from the Air force, our moving back home to San Antonio and living off of our savings. You know how it's recommended to have 6 months of reserves set aside...well we needed almost 8. It was a rough patch and right towards the end of it, we found out I was pregnant. I was thrilled when we found out that at last, Jaylie would be joining us. She is wonderful.
After having 2 boys, the differences in Jaylie are staggering. Since she could sit up by herself, she has been loving on babies. She would hold them so carefully and talk in a high (higher than her real voice) voice to them. Now that she's bigger she is still a girly girl. She likes to dress up. She likes all things that are pink and purple. Jaylie is my shadow. She follows me around everywhere, mimicking me. She loves to help me with the dishes, laundry and when I'm fixing meals, she is sitting on the counter watching me. The boys never wanted earrings (hopefully they won't) or wanted to have some of my lipstick or wear my shoes around. It is just amazing. Jaylie's pictures look like me when I was a little girl except for the mass of super curly hair. Just as I never considered that I might have a red headed child, I also never thought I'd have a curly top. Whenever she sees other people (or pictures or dolls) with curls she says,"Look, she has curlies like me!" Jaylie started swimming without floats about a week after Ethan did. She is fearless in the water which makes me nervous. She has a cute little voice. Some of the cute things she says are cute because of the way she mispronounces them. Like instead of saying panties, she says peenies. The other things she does that makes me laugh is never to use the pronoun 'him'. So if she wants to sit by Eric in church she'll say,"I want to sit by he because I love he." Or if she's mad with Ethan she'll yell,"He won't let me play with he!" Jaylie and Ethan are very close. (I often get asked in the stores when we're out if they are twins) I think she will miss Ethan when he's at school 3 days a week t his year. I think she and I will have fun though, just us girls.