* The grossness of boys is more apparent to the tired mother. I think the gross things my boys do wasn't usually an annoyance to me..... now I find when a little boy asks to smell my breath or eats his brother's booger extremely offensive!
*This also holds true for the loudness of boys.... I seem to notice the volume more if I'm sleep deprived!
*Little girls are different! Eliza totally freaks out if she is scratched accidentally by my finger or if I attempt to get something out of her nose or ear - a different level than the boys did!
*That the postpartum visit is partially there to make the new mother stop eating cookies - hence the reason they put you on a scale 3.5 weeks after giving birth.....
*That Sam has some incredibly funny and defiant moments. As he was attempting to put crayons up his nose I explained that the doctor would have to cut his nose open to get it out.... this was my attempt to stop him (which my husband later revealed to me as a boy this might make it more appealing). He then started putting it in his eye and told me it was his i-phone.
*Sam also told me as I threatened him with discipline upon his repeated defiance that if I punished him God would come down and take him to heaven..... at this point I break down in tears (as two other children are crying in the background) and say I'd like to go to heaven too. At that moment I realized my hormones were still not quite back to normal. But on the up side.... it was the first time Sam felt sorry for me and choose to obey (while saying, "don't cry mama.")!
*I also see how very much the boys love their sister. They are always nuzzling, kissing, touching, patting, or generally loving on her. Everyone we meet is told about our new baby whose name is Eliza (or wiza from sam). Sam often tells them she is his baby and that she came out of his belly.... or while doing some form of belly dance that there is a baby in his belly that is moving.
For those of you who don't know me extensively as a mother.... that statement is a big deal. It took me about 9 months to say that about Sam. Knowing what I know now about my diet and how it affects her and knowing that it must have affected Sam in the same way, I wonder if I could have sped that process along by eliminating more foods while I nursed Sam. But nonetheless, it took quite a long time to pass from "I love my child" into the "I actually like my child." Babies are like puppies, in that they break the world down into two categories of people.... those who get the puppy in order to have a dog, and those who want a puppy but don't actually want the dog. I fall into the first category. I suffer through the pains of infancy in order to have another toddler. Go figure. Either way, the probability that this may be our last makes me pay more attention and try to take greater notice of Eliza and her phases. Either way, I have really been enjoying her lately. She has gone through some difficult and trying phases (and has even been called birth control by people who will remain unnamed), but has emerged into a smiley, opinionated little girl whom everyone in the family loves. I thought I would post some pictures of her smiley-ness. 
