Not as easy as 1-2-3

I'd been walking around with a couple dozen little slips of paper, in my purse, for months. These little slips of paper contained measurements from all the girls' doctor appointments over the last year. I decided it was time to get on with it and ended up spending an hour updating their baby books yesterday.

I started with our middle daughter, Gala's, book since I had more slips on her. I was pretty impressed with how much info I had already jotted down, but also felt a twinge of sadness at how little I'd put in hers compared to RD's, our oldest. I didn't even have her due date jotted down and for the life of me I cannot remember it. I guess this was nothing new. Gala's photo album is no where near full, yet, RD has two full albums. I figured there was no time like the present and spent some time writing little notes to her. Things I love about her. Like, how her eyes sparkle when she smiles, how spunky her personality is, and how soft hearted she is.

Once I wrote down what I could in Gala's book, I moved on to our baby, HC. I quickly took note of the book's bareness. I'd felt saddened by the state of Gala's book, but now I felt down right horrible. I have neglected my youngest. I might have filled in two of her milestones, but the major ones like when she first crawled.........blank and no amount of running it through my head brought back a date or rough estimate. Then the sound of my husband's voice came to me. "Poor HC. She doesn't even have a photo album."

Is this normal? To have so many pictures and firsts saved for your oldest and next to nothing, zilch, nada for your youngest? I felt feel like a huge failure. I spent the next few minutes jotting notes to her. Again, just like Gala's, I wrote things I love about her. Like her four tooth grin and ornery behavior.

And then I moved on to our oldest, RD, even though I didn't have any measurements to jot down. I wanted to see just how much more time I'd taken with her. And maybe I'd add a few things. I had all her milestones saved, first words, and the cute way she said things. Like soda was soy-da, ketchup was kep-edge. Instead of saying Christmas tree, she'd say Santa tree or Santa lights and if she didn't want something, it was food either or book either. Reading this made me tear up and feel all the worse for neglecting my younger ones.

But it got worse. I felt like a truck hit me when I read my entry at her 19 month milestone. She knew all her colors and ABC's......at 19 months!!! Gala is 2 and a half years and I think she knows one color, but I'm not even positive about that, she may just get lucky. HC is almost 16 months and barely says a word. I can't even imagine her talking full sentences, like RD was, in 3 more months.

Is this a mere difference in children, learning styles, and personalities? OR is this a huge fail on my part as parent, not working with them enough?