A second helping

needs a wipe, originally uploaded by toyfoto.

Ever notice that flavors seem to meld and mellow the second day you eat anything?

It's not always the case, but sometimes the leftovers just taste better on the second day.

I know a lot of moms who feel that they've shortchanged the second (and not like the short sheeting effect of college pranksters) child by having a first child holding on to the apron strings and poking around in the pots as they're trying to get the food to the table.

For me, it seems the second child has a kind of clarifying effect.

There's a generous serving of "oh, yeah, I remember this" kind of delicacies as well as a smattering of "MMMMM. This is different.

Maybe it's my forgetful mommy brain or just the jogging of a flabby memory that leads me to relive the early days with Annabel through the second round of firsts with Silas.

She was bigger at this age
She didn't like avocados either
I don't remember if she held her own bottle.
She definitely didn't drink from a sippy
I don't think she babbled nearly this much
but she was too busy trying to move
I wonder if she would have liked the sling?

And then you realize what's the problem ... it's not in the ignoring of the first when you have a second, it's all the stuff you learned in the meantime that makes the second seem so second-nature.

And with that comes a stunning amount of regret. A stunning amount of worry that you may feel closer to one than the other, even though you love them both the same. The same. Only different.