Its In His Blood

Just thought I'd share some interesting things we've noticed about Asher over the last few months. Are habits/interests heriditary? In our little boy's case, maybe!

For the longest time, we've noticed that Asher likes to keep things away nicely. He quite early on was able to put balls into containers and stack rings. Later on, we heard from the teachers that after a paper-tearing activity in school he likes to pick up all the stray bits of paper and put them into a container. In church too, I notice that he enjoys holding a plastic container and walking around the playroom picking up all the crayons that have been strewn across the floor. He'd even walk all the way across the room (by passing many attractive toys) just to pick up a small crayon! More recently he started pulling up tissue and then wiping the floor/wall/table! He also understands when you ask him to help you put something back on the table, or to help put a piece of laundry into the basket.

Jon blames me for all these :) If you know me, I like to have things in their proper places. I don't like mess. I can be a clean freak as well. But I must confess that since becoming a Mum my standards have dropped - it is quite impossible to be mess free with a baby in the house! So maybe, just maybe, while my standards have dropped, Asher has made up for it!

Then, there is Asher's love of soccer and rugby. I'm not kidding. The first time he sat on Jon's lap to watch a soccer match, he sat there quietly, riveted, for one half of the match! The first time he saw a rugby match, he seemed to instinctively know when the action was getting good! He would stand up and lean forward with a huge smile on his face. And when something exciting happened, like a ruck or a tackle, he'd start pointing and saying random things (like how we go 'hey!', 'oh!', or 'ah!' during a match). It's consistent. If the TV is on, he usually ignores it. But somehow when a soccer or rugby match is on, he becomes totally engrossed in the play. He has to watch it.

There was once he woke up from his sleep and as I was carrying him and settling him, he caught sight of a soccer match on TV and kept pointing to it and insisting I take him out to the living room. Thank goodness there was just about 5 minutes left of game time, so we let him watch the rest of the match before going back to bed :)

After such instances, I always tell Jon, "He's really your son!"

What do you think? Nature or nurture? :)