Little Personalities

I have a two year old with a sparkling personality.  Evie loves to sing, dance, read books, chase bubbles and talk to her toys.  She says the most hilarious things.  I can even hold mini-conversations with her.  Granted, we're not talking about quantum physics or even how to fix this oil spill mess in the Gulf.  But still, it's something.

When I look down at her messy, food crusted shining face, I see both myself and my husband looking back at me.  Everyone tells us that she's a great mix of both our genes.  Weirdly, if she wears her hair up she looks like me.  With her hair down, she looks like her father.  Go figure.

This always makes me wonder what other things she'll inherit from us.  What will she be like when she's my age?  Right now, she's really taking after me.  I have always been attracted to books like a fat kid to a cupcake.  Even before I could read, I would be caught with a stack full of books.  Just flipping through the pages.  That's Evie. 

The singing and the dancing she gets from me, too.  They may not be my calling, but I had a hell of a time being a part of my high school's version of Glee (that show rocks, by the way).  And whenever her attitude shows up, I'm told that's all mine too.

Evie's adventurous nature definitely didn't come from me though.  A turtle and I share about the same level of love for adventure.  That she gets from her father.  I don't climb or jump or chase after bugs. 

She loves cars and airplanes and anything that makes noise.  That would come from Michael, too.  Whenever I'm forced to look at an engine of a car, my eyes cross.  Seriously.  But with a father like Michael, I'm sure Evie will know how to change spark plugs and replace a fuel pump before she's five. 

I love thinking about all the little things that make up who we are.  All the interests we have that make up our hobbies and steer us towards a career.  Think about where those interests came from.  At least some of them stemmed from watching our parents and other role models engaging in the activities they loved.

No way will a child of mine not love books.  With my obsession, it's just not possible.  Just like no child of Michael's could get away with not knowing at least the basic mechanics of a car. 

Thinking about it makes me excited for the future.  What characteristics of mine and Michael's will Evie inherit?  My love for research or reading or the humanities?  Michael's inventive mind that can take complex machines apart and put them back together easily? 

No matter what, we'll always be proud!