Personality. It’s a strange beast. Every day, a little bit more of Riley’s personality emerges. But it can be hard to tell what is actual personality and what is her being a toddler. It is hard to tell what she was born with and what she has learnt.
She’s extremely gregarious. But not around toddlers. Only around adults. Either way, gregarious is not something she learnt from me, or from Mr Goog. Now her reserve, quiet and tendency to play alone around other toddlers, that’s something that looks familiar. And then, every now and then, her enthusiasm will creep through with other children and she’ll chase somebody with reckless abandon. Sometimes I wonder if it’s my influence that holds her back, and if it wasn’t for the way I was, would she be like that all the time? I wonder if we, as parents, naturally foster those qualities that are similar to our own, and silence or devalue the ones that aren’t.
At the moment, Morgan (the cat) is a real object of determined, one-pointed and persistent affection. Even though she’s still too little to pick Morgan up, she tries. She becomes unbelievably excited when I pick Morgan up. She likes it when I crouch down, holding Morgan next to her chest, so it is as though she is cuddling her. I am lucky that Morgan is an extremely placid cat. Riley also held on to Morgan’s tail the other day with a vice-like grip while Morgan was attempting to escape. Morgan didn’t even make a sound. Apparenlty the affection is mutual.
I know that shyness is hereditary and not really a behavioural trait at all. But reserve? That’s definitely learnt. And more of a burden than anything else.
My name is Zoey. 
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