"I did it myself"

When I was a little girl, I had this Bert and Ernie book that my parents used to read to me called I Did It Myself. It went through various daily tasks with Ernie performing each one all by himself. On one page there would be a picture of Ernie making his bed, and the text would say "I made my bed before school. I did it myself". The next page: "I brushed my teeth. I did it myself." And so on and so on. There was a time when I was little where I tripped over my tricycle on the front porch and broke my arm. One afternoon, arm in pink cast, Dad was reading me that book and he inserted his own text to make his daughter laugh: "I broke my arm. I did it myself." At the time I can remember being overly sensitive and getting mad, but now I just laugh about it. My dad's sense of humor is so unique to him. There was one afternoon a few years back that I heard my sister, Sarah, make a comment that sounded exactly like something Dad would have said.
My 3 siblings and I were eating ice cream after church one afternoon, and like usual, Mike had finished his before everyone else had. We have the same trait of eating food so fast you don't remember what it taste like. Sarah had been last to be served in the ice cream line, and when she joined us at our little table on the patio, Mike leaned over with his spoon at the ready to take a scoop of ice cream off of the top of sarah's serving. Sarah leans to the side to dodge Mike, and said "You won't like this Mike...it's pastachio flavored." Mike, in his funnly little voice he uses when he is making a joke try to sound serious, says back to Sarah,"oh, thats ok, I like pasticho". Sarah, taking on the same tone in her voice says, "Oh, did I say Pistachio? I meant split pea," and at that,all four of us burst out laughing. It was so much like a comment my dad would have made; it was almost erie in similarity.

Living with Dave has made me stop and examine just where I come up with some of my traits and habbits. I think about the way I have seen certain things done in the past, and I can almost pinpoint exactly with parent genetically passed down a certain trait or tendancy to me. Just like Dave's family, they each had their own unique traits. For example, most people would put a half used brick of cheese, the kind you grate or slice from, in a plastic zip-loc bag back in the fridge. Not my dad....he gets a pice of clear plastic wrap and a rubber band, and wraps the exposed end in plastic wrap, using the rubber band to secure it. I don't think I have ever looked into someone elses refrigerator and seen this type of rubber-band packaging. My mom, however, has "little plate syndrome". I have this too. No matter what we are eating, we try and cram it all on a small plate rather then a large sized dinner plate like normal people would. If it is just us by ourselves, we always reach for the little plate. Even the way I arrange dishes in my cabinets come from a certain parent.
What's my point in all this mumbo jumbo? I just wonder where along the line I decided to do things one way or the other. At any point in my life, I could have decided to use a rubberband and plastic wrap method for storing cheese rather then the plastic bag, or I could have decided to pick the proper sized plate for my food rather then cram it all onto one of the dessert sized plates. What made me pick one way or the other. I don't remember consiously making these decisions...it's almost like they chose me. I look at some of the things I do compared to Dave, and I wonder which of my traits passed on to me from my parents, and their parents before them, and so on and so on, will my kids pick over their fathers, and visa versa. Will my children insist on stacking the sliverware perfectly on top of one another in the dividers in the drawer like Dave, or will they settle for them just being chunked into their specific spot, no stacking needed, like their mother. Will they be addicted to chapstick and flip out everytime one is not in sight distance, or will they instead love fantasy novels and play strategy games. Will they put leftover food in tupperware, or on a plate with clear wrap over it. I have to admit, it will be fun to see.

(NOTE: I apologize for my misspelled words. I can't figure out how to make our spell check on the blog work, but I will at least try to make my misspellings consistent for you!)