I always knew that my two daughters were persons in their own right, not just an extension of me. I never expected either of them to follow my path or to emulate me. I tried to guide them, but they had to find their own path, their own way of interacting with the world.

I honestly think my daughter, Lorrae, showed her personality almost from her first breath.
She was a very long baby at birth and every time they put her into one those cribs for new-borns her head would touch the top end and feet would touch the bottom, being wrapped tight as 'little' bundle, like hospitals do,did NOT suit her at all, she'd cry, squirm, wriggle and not settle down until they realised that she needed 'space to move,' as soon as they moved her into a crib for babies over 6 months of age, she settled down and went to sleep.
From then on her strong willed personality just kept on exerting itself and getting strong, by 12 months she had by-passed trying to crawl and decided that rolling across floors was much easier and probably more fun, once she discovered her legs and feet were for standing up on all she needed was our pet Whippet to act as a support so she could pull herself up, use him as a walking frame and start walking where ever it suited her.
By the time Lorrae was about 2 &1/2 years old her grasp of language and spelling was almost unbelievable as was her ability to count, in order, up to 15, open doors on cupboards and even to turn the television on or off, that is when her 'person' truly showed itself to everyone, I'd getting swamped with hugs and kisses, demands to be where ever I was and inundated with question after question as to what I was doing,etc.
From there onwards she became a truly curious person wanting to know about everything and anything, watching children's television programmes was not in her interests at all, she preferred to watch anything that was well beyond her age group and do things with me that would involve anything that meant getting covered in dirt, grease, oil or anything else just so long as she was doing alongside me.
Yes, she would wear dresses BUT only on special and certain occasions, the rest of the time it was cut down overalls, shorts and either t-shirts or singlets with boots made for boys and not girly shoes as she called them.

Claire sounds like me.

My daughter was precocious and has most of my intelligence but lacks my non ability to see that I may not be able to do something. I can always figure it out and get it done no matter what. But she read at age two to the point you could show her the word in any book and she knew what it said.

My son, however, has my mechanical ability but he tends to be lazy. He didn't do much with words for a long time because of repeated ear infections and hearing loss due to fluid.

They're fun people though to be around!

I think you always see them as a person but it takes awhile to figure out who and what that person is.

I don't have children, but my sister has two daughters and we shared a house for a while when they were young and we'd both split with boyfriends at about the same time. Now, my sister is not academic at all, whereas I am and had only recently graduated at that point and was still good at all the mathematics and stuff I've since forgotten; so, every evening, I would help my nieces with their homework.

In addition to the homework, I took an interest in what else they'd learned that day and would ask them about that. One day, the oldest niece (who was then eight), told me as we did her multiplication sums that she had also been learning about Jesus but, in her own words, "it was really boring and I prefer learning about real stuff."

I knew that day that she was going to turn out OK.

You never see who anyone is as a person as we all play different roles as we go through life, playing to different agenda with different masks.

The most honest position is the new born. After that layers of expectation are grafted on.

Too bad you didn't decide to have more kids. The world would be smarter and better.

As infants. My very young, non-talking, non-crawling son watched me from his bouncy seat as I was dressing to leave the house. Unlike my elder daughter, he showed no interest in speech, and did not do cute baby giggles. On a whim, I grabbed one article of clothing, like a sock or something, and without a blink, put it on wrong, like on my head or an ear, without any indication that anything was amiss. He totally lost it! Very loud guffaws of boyish laughter. So, not only did he already understand simple order (what clothes go where), but found the mix up hilarious. I knew from then on, he was going to be fine. Now, he’s 20 YO and very intelligent, still with a wicked sense of humor. (:

From early infancy I knew that my son Neil was self sufficient and confident. He neither needed a comforter (dummy), a comfort blanket or a thumb to suck when he was put down to sleep. He did have a teddy and an assortment of other animals, but no special attachment to any. This was quite different from my other son Graeme who was three years older, and who was distraught when his special satin bound blanket was either being washed, or ultimately when it disintegrated and was reduced to a few scraps of satin edges, and then they got lost completely. By the time Neil went to primary school I tended to forget that he was three years younger than Graeme because he seemed to be almost the same age in size and maturity.

When we went on holiday driving around Europe on our summer vacations, Neil was the one who would step forward and introduce himself to the Italian or French children and ask to play with them on the beaches. He was the one whom all the boys at school wanted to be best friends with, and later at Grammar school, whom all the girls rang and asked if they could come round to compare homework notes with. He was always generous and caring, and very loyal to his friends, even now his gang from school still keep in touch and meet up periodically, even though they live scattered around different parts of the UK. He was captain of the school rugby XV, and by age 16 was 6’4”with athletic build, which I could also have predicted, because my husband was two inches taller with the same build. He is now 40 and a father of two boys of his own, a supremely confident, capable, and caring father, husband and son. I knew at age one or two that he would be a man of character, strength and self confidence and I wasn’t wrong. Most of all he is kind and generous of spirit, and it’s that character trait that I’m most proud of.

My oldest returned from school complaining that her stomach hurt, eventually describing a girl in kindergarten trapping her against a fence and punching her. F - I shown my daughter a defense tactic move, and suggested she use it. And, wrote her teacher ‘a note.’

The next day, “That worked!” ‘The note, or the move,’ I asked? “The move!” “She left me alone…” Her teacher and I talked, soon. I knew she was like her dad, a ‘counter-puncher,’ though ready to take em on..

The Second; as the older continued to dominate while they vied for my attention, my youngest (by 2 years) kept her composure ..if on the edge of tears. As an adult, she continues to understand the bigger picture, and masterfully navigates it. With impressive discipline and maturity, I call/ed her ‘my solid citizen’ ..may have got that from her mother ~

When, as a toddler between the age of 2 and 3, she admitted to doing something she shouldn't have done knowing full well she would be in time out. If memory serves, it was digging in the dirt of a houseplant and making a mess on the carpet. Honesty and integrity must always overcome the impulse to cover up or lie, and our daughter was rewarded for telling the truth by avoiding time out--but she got to help pick up the mess!

I think kids have their moments. Does she still possess introvert-ness up to now? ... or is it the case you have not yet seen the extroverted side...yet? My kids and I possess both traits when it suits us