Whose Kid?

The other day I walked into the living room to find the two-year-old, Eli, ramming one of his toy cars into the bottom of the wall. I was not happy. Aside from being upset that he had dented the wall, I was upset that I couldn't blame this on his mom.

If you have kids you've probably pulled this before. You know, when your kid is acting up you refer to him as, "your son..." when talking to your wife. But when he demonstrates excellent form when throwing a whiffle ball then, "that's MY boy!"

But seeing as he had damaged the wall, all I could think was, this is definitely my son.

See, when I was a kid I put a pair of holes in the wall of my parent's house. One was a rough housing accident that I still blame on my older brother, but the other one was, er, less of an accident. Anyway, seeing him slam his toys into the wall and scratch the paint, I could see this wall-smashing thing was hereditary.

I guess it's true that if you're a pain when you're a kid it'll bite you in the behind later when there's a mini-you running around. Not in a cosmic come-uppance sort of way, but in a your kids can absolutely channel your worst traits sort of way.

I can remember adults telling me, "oh just you wait until you have a son..." I think this was in response to the whole head butting thing. Man, even when you're four, people really get bent out of shape if you charge into them with your head...

Eli has already gone through that stage (and completed it I hope) but now even John is demonstrating head butting tendencies. It's like just when I think one of mini-me's flaws hasn't made the genetic leap to the next generation, I find myself face to face with it. Much like John's forehead seconds before impact.

But not all the boys' actions are indictments of my past behavior. Some just make me beam with pride.

The other night I was in Eli's room putting him to bed. As I was getting up to leave I said, "I love you." The moonlight coming through the window made his face just visible and I could see his sparkly, little eyes looking up at me. And I'll never forget what he said back to me. He said, "I need a sandwich."

Stifling my laughter, I came out of his room and turned to my wife and said, "You won't believe what my son just said to me."