Here Comes Peter Cottontail

It is funny how having an older sibling affects development. Yeah, I know that every kid develops at his/her own pace, but I do think that having an older brother or sister does speed some things along. While many would attribute this more rapid development to a desire to "keep up" with the older one, I am not totally on board with that hypothesis. Instead, I firmly believe that reaching certain milestones sooner simply stems from actually having an example to follow. Alice did not do an inordinate amount of climbing, hopping and whatnot at a young age because she did not see too much of it unless we were at a park or she was at school. (I know it is surprising that I typically do not climb on kitchen counters or hop up and down on one foot like a madwoman). Angela has this example in Alice. Consequently, Angela has learned how to climb on things at a much earlier age than her sister. She has learned the fun of dressing up from Alice. She even manipulates toys in a very similar manner to her sister. Still, there are some things that Angela can't do very well simply due to her young age and lack of coordination. One such thing is hopping.


Angela hopping (or rather trying to hop) is the cutest and most hysterical thing to watch. She bends her knees and raises her arms up in the air as if to propel her body for liftoff. She then proceeds to straighten up without her feet breaking contact with solid ground. Upon fully straightening, she grins with pride and says, "Hop". It is like saying the word indicates that the desired action has actually happened. She started doing this during a construction project on our house. While we were having a meeting with our contractor, we had Angela demonstrate her hopping to him. Now, whenever he is around, Angela starts "hopping" around the house. Today I knew Ed was in the house before actually seeing him because Angela kept saying, "Hop, hop, hop."


I wonder what will happen when she finally does achieve liftoff.