"Mom! She moves!!!"

That's what I heard from the living room as Evelynn frantically rushed into the kitchen. "You mean McKenna moves?" I asked. "Yes," Evelynn said emphatically," she's moving all over the place." So a new phase of life is looming on the Brannon horizon. We now have another mobile child. And yes, my response was similar to Evelynn's. She moves. Oh, dear. I knew this day was coming. As I watched the 'baby' of the family crawl all over the place today, I found myself thinking about how different my three children are from one another and how they interact.

Evelynn has always taken an interest in McKenna. She's very motherly and wants to help most of the time.  She hugs, kisses, tickles and plays with McKenna many times throughout the day and loves to make her laugh. Of my three children, Evelynn and McKenna are very alike in personality. They are very contented, laid back children. They can sit in a place and be still for a long time, happily playing. I appreciated this fact as McKenna crawled to the foot of the stairs and gazed up at them for a while. She didn't feel the need to climb up them. She eventually crawled on to her basket of toys where she sat for nearly 20 minutes quietly playing. Then she moved into the kitchen where I showed her the 'little kitchen' and its contents. She played here for another 10 minutes or so. So far her mobility is not rocking my world and I pray this trend continues.

Caelan, on the other hand, prefers to have as little contact with McKenna as she possibly can. I'm thinking this is a middle child attribute or the mere fact that she is two and having a hard time dealing with anything right now. There are only a few times a day that she's interested in McKenna. Mostly when she tells her good morning and when she prays for her at night. Otherwise, Caelan keeps her distance. There are rare occasions when they play together for a few minutes, but interaction generally involves Caelan upset that McKenna touched her or is playing with one of her toys. My world would certainly become strained (to say the least) if McKenna were like Caelan in character. Caelan was crawling early on and had branched into the world of climbing well before she was ten months old. She climbed the stairs by nine months and has never needed to be shown what was in the 'little kitchen' or any other receptacle/cabinet.

I'm resting a little easier about having three mobile children based on what I have observed of my children's personalities. And who knows? Maybe I've spoken too soon. I sure hope not.