My two precious girls

My two precious girls are both Scorpios. Maita was born in late October and Erika in early November. Like Scorpios, they both exhibit strong emotions and wills. Maita has a mercurial temperament and could easily go from happy to sad in the blink of an eye. Erika is not as mercurial but she also shows strong emotions when happy or sad.

Maita
Maita was born about six years ago on the year of the big earthquake, 9-21, as it's called here in Taiwan. My wife, L, gave birth to Maita on her 36th week of pregnancy, a little early for a firstborn but within the normal timeframe. My firstborn was not a big baby, only 2580 gms, 49cm. Maita was a difficult baby to take care of. She had extremely sensitive skin and we had to take extra precautions to keep her from scratching herself sore. She's a lot better now but we still need to be extra careful with her skin. When she was still a baby, I remember that she needed a good wipe after every bottle of milk. In the summers, 3 or 4 baths a day were normal. The area around her lips would be red and itchy from the saliva that comes out when she's sucking her pacifier. We had to be very selective with whatever will touch her skin. We found that using only water (no soap) for her baths helped a great deal. We had to use more expensive, allergy tested lotions (no J&J products!) - we settled on the German branded oils and lotions. Her clothes has to be from the finest of cottons - no synthetics or blends.

Erika
Erika was born about three years ago, a slightly premature birth. L broke water on her 33rd week of pregnancy and we had to go to the hospital. The doctor would not let us leave and L had to lie in bed till Erika could be born. The doctor decided to monitor my wife and postpone the delivery as long as possible. The purpose of this was to give Erika some more time to develop before coming out to this world. About a week later, the doctor decided it was time. Erika was born in a room full of doctors and nurses. She had a team delivering her and another team on standby to check her (after she comes out) since she's considered a premature baby. Erika had to spend a week in the incubator before she was strong enough to breathe on her own. Her development progress was quick and she was eventually strong enough to leave the hospital almost a month later. I've often told L that Erika was a fighter and she was going to quickly catch up to the norm. And a fighter and adventurer she is! Erika has Maita as a role model since we haven't sent her to pre-school. She always wants to do what Maita does. Whatever the big sister does, the little sister will try to follow. As a result of having a role model, Erika is a lot more adventurous than Maita was at her age. She's not afraid to try new things and is always climbing things or grabbing things from her bigger sister.