AlfieCo sleepingOliveThat's Life
It Would Appear That Weirdness Is Hereditary
Tuesday, 25 February 2014
I can pretty much guarantee that when my mum sees this
photo her eye is going to twitch.
When she reads that after I photographed Alfie’s feet I left the room without covering them she is going to get full on ‘nam style flashbacks to the early 80s.
It was pretty much a nightly battle in my house; my parents would sneak into my room and cover my feet after I had fallen asleep, I would poke them back out again.
Rinse and repeat.
My parents even used to joke that I breathed through my feet which basically means they spent years trying to suffocate me.
Awesome moment of realisation there.
So, my children. My darling quirky little weirdos.
Two of them have followed in my sleepy ways:
Alfie sneaks his flippers out the side of the duvet every night just like I do.
Miss Olive has slightly less flair and hitches her legs right up to her chest, pauses to fart, and then stamps down repeatedly until she has cleared herself some duvet free space.
For her it’s not so much uncovered feet as actively repelling duvet from her entire body.
Since we co sleep, that means that I end up uncovered as the night goes on and since Miss Olive shares her father’s stubborn streak, we basically play Dance of the Duvet all night. It’s one of the times I mutter darkly that she’s lucky she’s cute, likes cuddles and smells of unicorn farts.
But the thing of it is, I wasn't expecting this.
I was expecting my children to inherit looks and personality traits, but weirdisms don’t usually feature in the nature/ nurture debate.
The first time I gave the children a Jaffa Cake, Alfie picked his up, nibbled round the edges before pulling apart the layers, eating the sponge and then the chocolate covered orange. I know it’s not an official technique but it is my technique. My never-seen-by-my-son-but-somehow-passed-down-anyway technique.
When I turned, open mouthed, to point this out to Keith it was to see he and Esme with matching hamster cheeks.
It makes me heart glad to know that somehow these little quirks might live on down the generations.
LMAO! Great post!...and thank goodess I didn't have children.......however I do have cats, and I watch with amazement as over the years they come out with identical mannerisms to the last cat I owned who now watches over us....she whispers in their ears things to do and they Do! e.g. to get my attention she would flick things off the bedside table, now Billy does it, starting with pens, mobile phone, and finally moving to bigger things the telephone! Exactly what she did. Merlin sits neatly, makes a swipe movement with his front paw infront of himself, quick and precise and only for specific situations when he wants to indicate that he is really not pleased, I then ACT! Difficult to get these similarities across you had to know her and I loved her very dearly for 19yrs <3
ReplyDeleteIt's a really interesting thought that it might apply to animals as much as to humans, I haven't had enough of them to see that sort of pattern develop.
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