Personality

The other day Lonnie and I had a conversation about Blakely's personality.  We are seeing more and more of it these days and it is so interesting to us to see how she is like one of us and how she is different.  

Lonnie and I were both very shy growing up.  Lonnie would say he was painfully shy at times.  I was shy but not around my core group of friends that I played sports with (the girls I am still friends with to this day).  But put me in front of strangers or kids that I thought were cooler than me and I was a ball of nerves and just wanted to get the heck away.  Looking back I see how ridiculous that was and it used to drive my family crazy.  I remember them always encouraging me to go talk to a group of girls at a basketball game or something and it sounded like the worst thing in the world to just walk up and start a conversation with people I barely knew.

Lonnie was very shy in high school and college and then in medical school he started to come out of his shell.  He is the farthest thing from shy now and it is hard for me to imagine him as being a timid guy.  I am going by what he has always told me and what his mom has said to me.  I think, for him, once he gained confidence in himself then he started to be more social.  For most, that comes with age and maturity.  I think that is why I find it so ridiculous how shy I was.  I can remember many times people thought that I was rude or mean but really I was just too nervous and self conscious.  

Anyway, back to Blakely.  I can see some of our shyness coming out in Blakely.  I would not say that she is super shy because she definitely enters in and plays with other kids.  She even talks to random adults at the store if they ask her a question.  But she is cautious.  She checks everything out first.  She is not scared but she wants to know all about the situation before diving in head first.  For example, I took her to the library for the first time yesterday.  There were a ton of kids there reading books and playing with the toys and train tables.  She told me she wanted to go play with them.  I told her to go ahead.  She wanted me to come with her.  I told her I was going to be looking for a book to check out and she could come with me or play with the kids.  She wanted to play.  She would walk over to them and watch them for a few minutes and then run back to me.  She did this about 4 times, each time watching them longer, before finally just jumping in and playing right alongside them.  Then she was totally in her comfort zone.  She played and jumped and laughed and hugged and chased.  It was so cute to watch her little mind work this out.  She wanted to play really bad but she was just a little nervous.  But each time she gained confidence until she just went for it.  

I started thinking about this because I see some other kids at school with her that are totally opposite.  There is one sweet little girl who has never met a stranger in her life.  She gives everyone a hug even if it is the first time meeting them and she just runs right in to play with the big kids like it is no big deal.  Then I see other kids that cling to their mother's leg and refuse to even look at anyone.  I would say Blakely is in the middle of that spectrum.  If she knows you then she is in no way shy at all.  But if she doesn't then it takes her a minute to warm up.  

It is really fun to see both Lonnie and I coming out in our daughter's personality.  We have never really seen any shyness in her before but I just think that she is getting older and becoming more aware.  We've definitely seen the stubbornness she gets from her father!  And he would say we've seen the drama queen attitude she gets from me!  Ha!  I wouldn't have her any other way!