Children - Driving Me to Drink or Crazy?

I love Daisy's post today. Head to Compost Happens for a glimpse. I love it so much I'm stealing her idea. It's absolutely perfect for Mother's Day! She compared herself with her children, the ten traits she has in common with each of them. I may not find ten with each child, so I'm limiting it to five.


Maybelline:

1. We both play musical instruments! Granted, hers are piano and guitar and she plays beautifully. Mine is the harmonica and it's been YEARS ...

2. We both have big feet. Boy, am I glad she never reads my blog. I wear a ladies' size eleven and Maybelline wears a ten. She hates hearing that my feet were a ten until I was pregnant with her. Heh.

3. We're both pack rats. I've gotten a lot better about this. Or maybe I've just figured out how better to store tiny things where no one can see them. Maybelline's room is a disaster in progress, bursting at the seams with her own and other people's stuff.

4. We're both social introverts. Yes, you read that right. Social creatures who crave the attention and company of others, but are truly charged by our time alone with our thoughts.

5. We both have delicate sensibilities. You may notice that I rarely cuss. Here and in real life. There are a few words which have wormed their way into my lexicon, for better or for worse, like piss and hell. But that's about as bad as it gets. Maybelline doesn't care for cussing. When she first started public school (two years ago) I thought it was an act, but it seems to be very real. She gets ugly when someone cusses. Even when I say we're going to Taco Hell. Good girl!


Oatmeal Head

1. This child is more like me that the others. We're both so ADD it's not even funny. Absent-minded professors. Short attention span theater. That's us. Don't give either of us an oral list of things to do. After the first one, stop. That's all we retain.

2. Our taste in books and movies is very similar. Two summers ago I read Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes aloud to the boys and OH just ate it up. He especially loves the way Sherlock Holmes thinks. My Mom loaned us a Sherlock video - one of the new BBC productions - and OH is madly in love. We also both adore Princess Bride and Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail.

3. Our humor is very similar. We both are drawn to dry wit, subtle inferences. We differ in that I'm a robust LOLer with stupid humor as well. Most of our humor, though, is about the same. He loves the Chuck Norris jokes - what's not to love?

4. We're both autumns! Yes! Our color palettes are about the same. Meaning that when he stole my zip up hoodie last year and wore it to school nearly all year, no one even imagined it was purchased in the women's department. It's a drab olive with some random graphics appliqued on - not too flashy. I want my hoodie back.

5. That last led here. Neither of us really care what other people think. Really. I know he's 15, and he cares what his peers think, but ultimately, he's going to be who he's going to be. Others can bend to who he is or leave well enough alone. I love that about my boy. He's an original.


Red Rocks, formerly known as Little Guy

1. Talk about an original. Red Rocks has a heart as big as all outdoors. Much of that heart is consumed by animals. His Lou cat, bane of our existence, is his passion. He wants to run animal shelters when he grows up. I, for years, was very passionate about animals. Still am, to a degree. When we gave our first bunny to a third grade classroom, I stayed home from work all day to cry. The stupid rabbit wasn't dead or anything. I just couldn't stand sending it away.

2. Red Rocks would give you the shirt off his back, then take off his pants if you asked for them. He'd head to his room and strip it bare if you wanted his stuff. Come to think of it, that may be the only way I can get him to clean it. Email if you want my address and I'll give you directions. :) I'm similar in that I'll give you just about anything I have. As an adult I've learned to temper it and be reasonable, but I give things away left and right. Drives the Hunny nuts.

3. He loves a quirky t-shirt. His favorites are People Know Me, The Monkey Made Me Do It (evil monkey picture) and one about taking his sister. I love an off-beat t-shirt. My current fave is my Fred Rogers t-shirt asking random strangers to be my neighbor. Quirky tees in my size are a little more difficult to come by.

4. Leads me to saving cash. Red Rocks and I both love Goodwill shopping for our off-beat tees. Neither of us really like to spend money, but we do love new and unusual tees, so we'll hit the Goodwill about once a month. For twenty bucks we get a bag full o'tees!

5. Vocabulary. Both boys share the love of vocabulary, but Red Rocks has the vocab of a 25 year old grad student. I read aloud to the kids a lot when I home schooled them. Mostly because Red Rocks didn't read till he was nearly nine. But he has an auditory memory like nobody's business and has absorbed a huge list of words. Which he regularly uses.

I love my kids. Thanks for reading along. Let me know if you post your own list? I'd love to pop over and read it!

Until I write again ...

Flea