March 27, 2012

who is he like?

the other day, my prima thais asked me if cruz was more like me or more like tovi, personality-wise. we certainly can't decide who he is resembles looks-wise, so figuring out his inherited personality is the next way to go.

when we found out that we were having a boy, i assumed that he would turn out like tovi. a little snuggly, a little stubborn, detail-oriented, obsessed with sports. and you know, he is some of these things. stubborn, yes. sports-- it's growing. on our walk this afternoon, cruz pointed out every single basketball hoop ("b ball!") in the neighborhood. snuggly? only if you count getting headbutted.

but he's also a little bit like me.

the books, for one. the kid has asked for "the cat in the hat" at least four times today. he sits through the whole book and asks for it again. friends, it is 61 pages long. i don't think that convincing him to read 10,000 pages of harry potter will be any kind of big deal.

and then there was this little glimpse into his personality: while we were babysitting my niece in new york, we borrowed a double stroller from her daycare. the stroller needed to be back at the daycare at the end of the day so that it could be used again for the children, and we would pick it back up in the evening. the daycare is located on the first floor of their residence hall, so it wasn't a huge deal to bring it back, but the first night i forgot. the kids were bathed, jammied, books had been read when i suddenly remembered that i needed to take back the stroller! if you have ever put 17 and 18 month olds to bed simultaneously, you will sympathize with my regret that we hadn't done this earlier.

i needed to psych up the team.

"it's a jammie stroller party! yay!!" my hands were in the air, fake smile on my face. julia, my niece, looked at me like i was a crazy person. smart girl. i felt like a camp counselor, like i was the r.a. at westmont again, trying to get my girls excited for an early morning hike. "let's do this!"

"we're going in the elevator! we're going to see the buttons!" i chattered at them incessantly to prevent a meltdown. they were so cute, sitting in the stroller in a line, like my own personal ducklings. we were in the elevator when cruz stuck his hands in the air. "stroller! yaaaaaay!" then the rest of the walk: "stroller! yaaaaay!" when things got quiet, sure enough, "stroller! yaaaaaay!"

my gosh, i thought. he's the r.a.


and you know what? that's just perfect! someone who loves sports, books, was an r.a. at westmont... dear college friends, does this remind you anyone you know? do you know cruz's middle name? it's justin! yes, after justin hjelm, our brother from another mother. seriously, if i raise cruz to have half the smarts, wit, loyalty, sense of humor (and fine, love of sports) as justin, we will part ourselves on the back with a parenting job well done.

(apparently the moral of the story is to name your kid after one of the coolest people you know. we better never have a girl because her name will be like ten names long!)

5 comments:

  1. Loooooooooved it!!! It was such a delight to have you two here with us! And prima, when I saw Cruz cheering up the troup when we went to NYC I thought to myself, 'huh, he is just like his mama right now':] love you!

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  2. I love the idea of naming for people. We did the same with Kate's middle name (back when there was one. Once there were two, we just needed any ol' name.) :) And who could argue with wanting a kiddo to resemble a bit of Justin?

    P.S. I think a jammie stroller party sounds very fun.

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  3. no way! you were an RA at Westmont??? i'm a westmont alum (yay, class of 94!) i've been following your blog for a while now and imagine my surprise...incredibly small world.

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    1. Oh, that's so awesome!! Next we'll probably figure out that we're neighbors or go to the same MOPS group. :) Love. It.

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    2. HA! i see from your latest post you are still local. so am i...kinda. i work here but live down in the ventura area. i go to Calvary Chapel...where do you go? who knows - maybe i'll see you and Cruz on the street some day. :)

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