Fifth

The long overdue post on my fifth child, Charlotte. She's 14 months old now, and getting to that age where awareness is growing, and tinges of cheekiness are creeping in. In my opinion, this is the period where kids are the cutest, because they're starting to respond to you more purposefully, and just before the terrible twos where they will defy your every command. So I'm going to enjoy her as much as I can right now.

During the first few months of her life, my wife was convinced she, being our youngest child, and a daughter, was our little demure princess, because she seemed to have a mild-mannered behaviour quite different from the rest of her siblings. Even her crying usually came in muted sobs, and my wife would declare to me on many an occasion that we finally had a gentle, lady-like daughter with beautiful polite manners. Furthermore, she is really smiley, more than her other siblings:

That really makes her very endearing.

In recent months, though, she is starting to show some of the feisty character her siblings, in particular Clarissa and Gideon, possess. She shows some signs of defiance, an example being when she does not want to eat what we feed her. She would turn her head firmly away, her mouth pursed shut. She is also turning quite rough when playing, often jumping on Gideon recklessly, not a shred of lady-likeness evident at all. My wife is currently in denial, insisting that this was all because of the bad influence of her siblings, and not through any inherent character of hers.

Whatever it is, she is still extremely adorable, and we are enjoying watching her grow everyday. Chloe particularly loves playing with her, reading to her, talking to her. Chloe has this knack of talking to Charlotte in a way that she responds positively, so that's a great help when we need someone to look after her.

As she grows, and reaches each milestone along the way(she's starting to walk independently), we want to provide an environment of love within the family, so that she does not feel like she's alone in a desert:

but will always experience the support and warmth of a loving family. I guess no matter what, she'll always be our little princess.