Genetics

It's fun to look at my kids and try to find the things they may have inherited from Jeremy and I and from our extended families (the grandmas are usually the experts at pointing out the similarities). My kids must love to swim because my sister and I did......and the boys are great on their bikes like their dad. Someone said that Sam looks like me from the front and Jeremy in his profile, (though I can't get past how he looks a little bit like Mater with his big teeth growing in)...
...and an old friend of my sister's just commented on how much Annie looks like her Aunt Kendra. Evan talks like a Lundgren and all our kids sadly inherited moles from both sides of the family (a trait that my sister and I grew up wishing hadn't been so dominate, sorry mom and dad!).

I mean, you can't deny that there's some family resemblance here:

(the Georgia cousins)

(Evan and Camden)

And here Sam looks a lot like Jeremy and his cousin in the center, while Evan looks more like Jack and Stacey and Jeremy's grandma:

And in case you were wondering about where my family fits into the genetic heritage, how about this?
I took Sam snowboarding this past season, with high hopes of teaching him everything Jeremy has taught me over the years.

The conditions were bad, so I signed him up for a class, which he loved. He was the class encourager and even named the class "The Blue Panthers" or something like that.
I on the other hand, spent the time while he was in class feeling lonely and unmotivated on the slopes because I had no one to ride the lift with or laugh about falling with. Like mother, like son, I guess...the social aspect outweighs the sport for us (though I was happy he took after his father and didn't freak out about getting off of the lift and didn't cry when he fell down).
Evan loves to figure out how things work, which reminds me of the grandpas, and Annie, well, Annie is just Annie.
But then there are the things they do that seem to be completely original...the things that come from no one but "mine own self," as Evan likes to say. Like how they make "Deeble houses" out of Legos and make up songs I've never heard of and do naughty things that they never could have gotten the ideas for from their dad and I.

I mean, I say Evan is like his quiet, mechanically minded engineer grandpas, but then he loves to dance. That's definitely original!

And Annie seems so spunky in her own style that she goes out of the house in the strangest get-ups sometimes. And I let her because it's so...Annie.

(and Evan, too)
I think it's a sign of God's creation, that he could design individual human beings using the genetic code from their parents and grandparents, but put in them the ability to think and act on their own. Steve Jobs (Apple creator) was revered and mourned because of his genius--how he created computers and devices that no one knew they even wanted or "needed" but those devices, as far as I know, will never be able to have their own independent thoughts or actions, They are strictly limited by their "genetics", i.e. only what they were programmed to do. I love watching my kids grow and blossom as unique humans...and I love to watch them freely love each other which is something that a strictly programmed mind can't do.
Jeremy's mom says that Sam and Annie's sweet relationship reminds her of Jeremy and his sister, Stacey who is 6 years younger than him. I agree.

(But they also remind me of one of my favorite kids' shows, Charlie and Lola.)(Come to think of it, so do these two...when Samuel's not around)

Goodnight.