They may not look like me...

Well, my kids may not look like me. Thats for sure. They are all too cute and perfect. None of my little ones are rough and rugged like their father. Even our eldest with his long hair can be mistaken for a girl to the untrained eye... The all have light hair... blue or green eyes... while I wander around with dark hair and dark brown eyes.

Thankfully though there are other things which help me identify them as my own...

• Our eldest son has my mannerism - he walks like me, talks like me, jokes like me, even likes to stay up as late as he can... like me.
• Our middle son - well, hold on, I'll come back to him...
• Our eldest daughter looks nothing like me, but thankfully a spitting image of her mother (although her mother denies that) and even acts like her mother... while we were all putting the lights on the Christmas Tree, she was sitting in the "cuddle chair" drinking hot chocolate telling us "That looks really nice, you're doing a good job. But you missed a spot there". Even the wife had to stop and laugh...
• Our currently youngest daughter FINALLY has my eyes, and my hair... so thankfully at least ONE of my children look like me... granted, shes a tiny Chinese girl and I'm a rough and rugged Flin Flonian... so the similar appearances end at the hair and eye colours. But even she is starting to act like a Berzenji. Yes sir, she is starting to track me down for kisses before I goto work in the morning, curl up in bed and then ask me to get her a glass of water... just like her Mom...

K, Ping, G + D

Okay, but getting back to my middle child - our 'D'. He is a bit of the odd ball for me. He looks like his mother. He acts like his mother. He gets mad quick like his mother (he once had a knock down drag 'em out fist fight with a door which kept closing on him... he wouldn't move, or prop the door open, nope... just kept punching it open, only to have it close on him again). Now he IS very inclined technically... so there's maybe a little hope that there is some of me insid'a'him... but maybe there is more of me in him than I realize sometimes...

Our 'D'

D: Hey Dad, is it true what K said about herbivores?
Me: I donno, what did he say?
D: He said that a herbivore eats like 500,000 plants in its life time!
Me: Well, that is what the sign said on the nature walk we took.
D: Wow. Thats a lot of plants.
Me: Yup.
D: Don't plants help our oxygen?
Me: Yup. The help filter out pollution and make the air cleaner to breath.
D: Hmmmm... OH! I know how we can help the environment then!
Me: Yea? Plant more trees?
D: Nope! Kill all the herbivores!
Me: Yes. Well, that is an option.
D: Cuz they eat all the plants which help the air. So if we kill them all, then the air will be better.
Me: Well, I'm having a hard time to argue with that.
D: Yea. I need a sniper rifle then! (he's 10... does it show?)
Me: A sniper rifle?
D: Yea! Then I can start shooting bunnies! In the head!
Me: Lets maybe continue this discussion later... not while we're eating.
D: And we can make a video game out of it! And you can see the bunny brains sliding down your screen when you shoot them in the head!

*siiiiiiigh* Yea. There are somethings, which make you a family... and it isn't the way you look. It might be the way you think alike... act alike... or want to shoot bunnies with sniper rifles.

I guess the point that I'm trying to avoid is... families are made by the love we share and the lives we live together. So even if your child doesn't look like you... you might be surprised to find out just HOW much they really are like you.

... now, if you don't mind excusing me, I have a very excited 10 year old in the garage looking for my shot gun.