The Spitting Image

Everyone knows that Ethan is the spitting image of Steve.  Strangers have stopped us (most recently at a local fair we went to) to tell Steve he'd never be able to deny Ethan is his (not that he would anyway) cause there is no doubt - he looks just like his daddy.  However, he has several of my mannerisms - not all of them good.  He's the worrier - the thinker - the one who wants to make sure everyone is ok with what he's doing.  He'll ask his daddy if he can do something and when Steve answers him, he'll then ask me.  Poor kid this tends to bite him in the butt; half the time I say no to what Steve thought was ok to do so by asking twice, he doesn't get to do it - but he continues to ask anyway to make sure everyone is ok with what he's going to do.  If he's in trouble, he is more worried about apologizing and you not being mad at him anymore than about what his punishment is and how long he'll have to sit there.  He'll sit there as long as necessary as soon as he confirms you won't be mad at him anymore. Yeah, I have several of those traits and they aren't really "bad" - but the one that I hate that he got from me is the stubborn attitude and lack of patience.  I always used to say, "I don't need patients, I'm not going to be a doctor"....yeah, that's biting me in the butt today as apparently Ethan has no plans to be a doctor either. 

Now let's discuss Alex.  I've been told Alex looks like me and Steve says it frequently and I've even seen it sometimes sort of.  This past Sunday on the way home from Eastern KY, Alex's ears started hurting going through the mountains so I ended up getting in the back of the van with him.  In trying to distract him from crying, I started to play keep-away with his ball keeping it just out of his reach.  He then stopped crying and just looked at me - almost a "you're so not funny Mama" look.  I stopped in my tracks - for the first time ever I got it - he looked exactly like me.  See, Alex is almost always smiling - he has huge dimples and I don't so I don't see it.  He was deadpan and I could immediately picture some of the photos of me when I was little and he looked JUST like me.  I was amazed and in being so shocked and telling Steve about it, I managed to get Alex tickled and the dimples came out and blew the image, but having seen it once, I could still see it.  I now understand why people say he looks like me.  But just as Ethan looks like Steve & acts like me; Alex acts just like his daddy.  Alex thinks EVERYTHING is funny.  Nothing in life is serious (ok, except severe diaper rash brought on by Augmentin but who can blame him).  Steve even admits it himself - we are going to be called to the school often for Alex cause he's going to be totally rotten stirring stuff up just to make his classmates laugh.  Steve follows this by saying that I am going to be going to the office, he can't cause he'd just laugh and make it worse.

So there's no denying either of these boys belong to either of us.  Ethan acts like me, Alex looks like me; Ethan looks like Steve; Alex acts like Steve.  Life is definitely interesting in the Waters house. 

I'll close with a glimpse of tonight's dinner.  I finished eating and rather than sit at the table and get extremely irritated with both boys not eating, I let Steve stay with them and I went to clean up the chaos that was the living room.  I heard from the kitchen Steve telling Ethan not to do something.  This was immediately followed by Alex saying "No No" and pointing at Ethan repeatedly.  Steve is laughing telling Alex to eat, too.  Alex (because Steve is laughing) continues the "no no" - obviously, this is getting nowhere.  I took some glasses from the front room into the kitchen and when I did, I hear Alex saying again "NO NO" and turn to see him pointing at Ethan who at this moment was actually taking a bite.  Since Steve had told Alex to stop 3 times now, I said in my very firm "do what I say" voice "Alexander David" - that is quite frequently the only way to get his attention.  He whipped his head around to look at me saying "huh?"  I said "stop it right now and eat."  He looked back Ethan and started to do it again (the boys are sitting across from each other and Steve is sitting at the end of the table and I'm now standing at the corner sort of between Alex & Steve).  I said sternly, "don't you do it." And he said again, "huh?"  I said, "you heard me.  Eat your dinner and leave Ethan alone. ... Ethan [who was now just staring] you eat, too."  Alex looked at his brother again and raised his finger half way up.  I said "ALEX" ... he just stopped.  At this point Steve was sitting there trying not to laugh and starting to shake because he could see Alex looking at Ethan and then turning just his eyes to look at me to see if I was looking and then back to his brother thinking about doing it again and raising that finger little by little and then backing down each time I said "don't do it" or said his name.  Alex was totally testing me here and was looking from me to Ethan without moving his head just his eyes and Steve was so not helping.  I then lightly flicked the back of his head when he pushed a little bit further towards the "no" statement to his brother and said "eat" and he looked at Steve saying "huh?" - Steve busted out laughing.  He was looking at Steve like "do I really have to eat, Daddy" and Steve's response was to laugh.  You guessed it, that had Alex cackling and totally negated my stern directions.  Ethan started to laugh too but when I looked at him he stopped and said "I'm full Mom."  I gave up - everyone was done with dinner.  For those keeping score, that's 1 for the boys and 0 for the parents or possibly a -1 since it wasn't really a united front given the sheer laughter from Steve which created my downfall.  Oh well, we'll try again next time.