and afton, too

today is afton's half-birthday!

and for those of you might not know her very well, i thought i'd log a few bullet points about our soon-to-be middle child.

first off, afton is sensitive.

about everything. noises. smells. tastes. touch. her hair. her fingernails. her diaper. if she's hot. if she's cold. if she's sticky. if she's messy. no hats. no coats. and NO NO NO touching her ears. ever.

afton loves her dolls.

specifically, her strawberry shortcake dolls and barbies. as in pry them from her cold dead fingers, carries them with her wherever she goes, barricades them from other kids in the nursery, sleeps with them every night, fatal attraction type loves them.

afton is terrified of bugs.

all bugs. and black spots on carpets that look like bugs. and black spots on carpets that don't really look like bugs at all.

afton hates machines.

she wants nothing to do with anything that moves "by itself."  and she has special disdain for robots (aka machines masquerading as people).

afton is asocial.

i guess robots get a double hit because afton doesn't care too much for people, either. she's not shy, she just doesn't care. most of the time, i'm not even sure she notices other people are around.  i guess she could be classified as very slow to warm up.  and when she does warm up, the most folks will get out of her is eye contact. grandmas have long given up on many hugs and kisses from afton.  a handshake will do.

afton is smart.

obviously. but she's actually smarter than she should be. she is capable of much that most kids her age generally aren't capable of. besides all the typical "smart" stuff that she excels in (i.e., afton is a puzzle prodigy), perhaps her greatest gift is in sound mimicry. afton could say her name practically straight out of the womb, and her pronunciation of words is impeccable. she can recreate almost any sound she hears, and one of the coolest sounds she makes is an impression of a whale. which she does from way back in her throat, complete with all the complex inflection, and it's pretty spot on. i sense music in her future.

afton is quirky. she's otherworldly. she's an enigma wrapped in a riddle and tied in a bow. she runs and screams and dances and plays like all the other little toddlers, but there's something in her eyes that makes you think she knows much more than she's letting on.

perhaps, she is still keeping her secret.