Love you, Noelle.

I am pretty sure that I gave birth to my sister Noelle in male form. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think Noelle is one of the most intelligent people I know. She is about two months away from graduating from MSU School of Law and has an undergrad degree from U 0f M. She is also one of the most thoughtful and generous people I know. However, there were some moments from her childhood that I am seeing repeated in my own child. For example, Noelle was always very particular about her clothing. Her socks had to be rolled down instead of cuffed and she went through a phase where she would only wear one dress. My mom finally took it apart and made several of them so that she wouldn't wear the same one every single day.
Here are some Noelle-ish things that my son does:
1. His sleeves and pants must be pulled down at ALL times. If they start to ride up, he gets mad. He will not even let me push up his sleeves at meal times.
2. He cannot stand to have dirty hands and insists that every crumb be wiped off immediately.
3. This morning he got upset with me because he didn't like the outfit I picked out for him. He fought me the whole time I put it on him while yelling "NO." And then he spent a good 20 minutes in his rooming crying about "Bad mommy." And let me say, I kept my cool through the whole incident, set him on the floor as soon as he was dressed, left the room and went about my day. I got a load of laundry done, loaded the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and was able to sit and read for a little while before he was ready to join me. I am getting better about ignoring Sam's behavior and not letting it get to me, but there are still days when I think it was easier teaching high school choir then raising a 21 month old.
Levi is "due" in less than 7 weeks now! What an adventure this is going to be!

P.S. Sam really LOVES his Aunt Noelle or Ah Weh as he calls her. When he was a newborn she was the only person besides me who could hold him and calm him down.