There are so many ways that P is like his dad and me, and it's so fun to notice a new similarity - whether it be a physical feature, or a behavior, or an expression - it's just a nice reminder that we are definitely related. :)
Of course, everyone knows that P gets his killer baby blues from his dad, and his chin from yours truly (what, you haven't noticed that!? - Look more carefully next time! ;))
He's an extrovert like his mom but is also very thoughtful and takes everything in like his dad.
And thankfully for him (as we always said we'd give our kid back if this wasn't the case) he
does appear to LOVE music.
As another example, a month or so ago P hurt himself and had a
really good cry, and for the first time, I realized the he cries like I cried when I was little - which is characterized by an inability to catch your breath, which leads to a repeated sniffing sound (not pretty). Of course, my first response was to comfort my hurting kiddo, but quickly after came the exclamation - "He cries just like me!"
And then there's this one...and I'm not necessarily proud of it. It turns out that our child is quite the...ummm...how do you describe it...perfectionist. What?!? I know what you're thinking...the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Well, if you really knew me, you would know that I would NEVER use the word "perfectionist" to describe me - as that would be taking it easy on myself. Okay, I will admit it - I'm a tad bit perfectionistic, and I have been as long as I can remember.
Well, it turns out that P has inherited this trait as well (it truly is remarkable to see this as an inherited trait and not something learned!). This perfectionistic side shows itself often - and in many ways - but as an example...when he was little and was first learning to stack his rings, he would begin, and if he put the first two on correctly but then messed up on the third one, he would take all of the rings off and start over.
He does the same thing now with his puzzle name bench. Now, I'm not one to be super braggy to others about my kiddo (different kids develop at different rates, right?), but I'm pretty sure that most 18 month olds don't do puzzles the way our child does. (Of course, most 18 month olds probably speak more than ONE WORD like our child does, but we recently read that some children are late talkers because they focus all their energy on mastering other tasks - like puzzles and stacking objects and other things that are far more important to one's life than verbal communication.)
He does seem to have a system and begins with either the last "r" or the "P" or the "k," as those are the easiest to identify and put in.
There are 2 "r's" of course, and sometimes he decides that the colors really should be in rainbow order, so he'll dump out the letters and start over, making sure the purple "r" is at the end.
Putting in the final "e," which results in us spelling his name while pointing at the letters and then cheering...
Another round.
He has a hard time with the "a" and will often dump the stool over to start over when he can't figure out how to get it in correctly the first time.
A completed masterpiece.
This sometimes ugly trait also rears its head while he's stacking a tower of blocks, and if a block falls off, he will more than likely make a growling/frustrated sound, pick up a block, and chunk it (we're working on this). A phrase we say very often is, "P, you cannot throw something when you get frustrated." And amazingly, I am already saying to my child, "It's okay! It doesn't have to be perfect!" Sigh...I can only imagine what it will be like when he gets to school... but I guess we have a few years to work on it before we have to find out.
