a Legacy

I come from a family of strong-willed women.

We speak our minds.

We're independent.

We're stubborn.

We stand up for what we believe in.

We're not afraid of confrontation.

We sometimes always insist on doing things the hard way.

We like to figure things out for ourselves.

We sometimes get in trouble.

Avery is no different.

So when she insists on holding her own bottle, hits my hand away when I attempt to feed her and gets mad when I try to help her with things, I have to kind of smile inside because she is one of us.  It's frustrating, to be sure, but it's her legacy to be tenacious, persistent, and unrelenting. 

It's amazing to me that she was born such a tiny baby with such a big personality.  I used to think all babies were kind of the same.  They all looked the same to me and I assumed they all behaved similarly.  I see now that I was very wrong.  They come to earth, little pre-packaged assemblies of clever charisma and their own unique charm.  

I can do nothing to change her (and why would I want to?).  My only hope is to stand by her side as she speaks her mind, embraces her independence, learns some compliance, stands up for what she believes in, fights fairly, learns the hard way, figures things out for herself, and yes, even sometimes gets into trouble.  

But hopefully not too much trouble.