The Apple Doesn't Fall Far...

There are many times that I find myself overwhelmed by thinking of my son. Maybe it is because I have often thought about having another child. Or maybe its because we have some friends that recently had their first baby. The ability to bring a child into this world and even the shear opportunity to raise them and help mold them into their own person is the most amazing thing that God ever created. Raising a child is the longest, hardest best thing that I have ever done, and he is not even NINE yet!


Sometimes I get so frustrated by his antics or his not listening (or selective listening), but then there are times when I ponder on him my heart literally aches and how much I love him.

The other day, Jacob saw a picture of him in my bedroom that was in a frame that read: The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree. He wanted to know what the phrase meant. I explained that it means that many times children are a lot like their parents. And I really think that that is true. I love seeing all the ways that Jacob is like me. It’s funny because so often, I see his father in him. In his mannerisms…. when he smiles but is nervous or shy, he looks just like his dad. Sometimes when he dances, he makes me laugh out loud picturing his father dancing. It’s easier for me to see his father in him…probably because I see his father. I don’t see myself from the outside. But every once in awhile he does something…something that he should probably get in trouble for or something that I should correct him for and I just can’t. I can’t be mad, when I know that I did the exact same thing.

On his first day of school this week, I picked him up from the YMCA after school program and asked him about his day.  He gave me little desrciptions, but when I asked him if he got into any trouble, he just looked at me.  I said, "Jake!  You got in trouble on the first day of school?!?!"  He said, "I only got a warning."  I assumed the usual and asked, "Were you talking?"  He said, "No, I was singing a song quietly to myself.  I had a song stuck in my head."  And I just couldn't be mad.  I just couldn't.  First of all, I do this all day every day.  And second of all, he was singing Walking on Sunshine. Now come on!  How could you be mad at a kid singing Walking on Sunshine!

I remember one day, Jake was just moving around like crazy…not like the Tasmanian Devil or anything, just moving around and knocking into everything. And he was making me so frustrated. I wanted to yell at him to watch what he was doing or be careful, but instead I took a deep breath and I just laughed. I sat down, and pulled Jacob over to me and gave him a big hug and I said, “Jacob, did you know that when I was little I used to run into everything? Your grandma used to say all the time that I was a bull in a china shop. Do you know what that means?” He didn’t, and so I explained the expression to him. Ironically enough, Jacob was watching MythBusters months later and saw an episode where they put a bull in a china shop. And wouldn’t you know it? The bull didn’t break anything! :-)

I love it when I see me in my son. It makes me feel even more like I had something to do with making this amazing child. He is so much more than just a part of my genes…of my DNA…even though he doesn’t have my eye color or my hair. Even though he is his own person, with his own personality…he has me in him.

When I was a kid, I used to complain about a pain I would get in my hand or foot. I would tell my parents over and over again that it “felt buzzy”. It’s the only way I knew to describe it. As I got older, I learned that my appendage was asleep, but still I think the best way to describe it is “buzzy”. My son swears that Home Depot smells like sawdust and lawnmowers…and he’s right. That’s exactly what it smells like.

I remember once when I was young and we were watching some awards ceremony. The winner of the award received a crystal bowl and they were so proud of winning this prize. I just couldn’t understand it. I said to my parents, “I don’t understand why these people are so happy about getting a cracker bowl?!” And I just remember my parents laughing and laughing and laughing and declaring that my grandfather (my dad’s dad) would NEVER be dead!

I guess it just goes to show…The apple never does fall from the tree! And I gotta say that I kinda like being the apple tree!