icing on the cake...

the little is on spring break from school this week, and so i arranged to take a couple days off work to hang out with her. unfortunately, she's got a wet cough at the moment which has me hesitating to drag her around town for activities and instead has us hanging out at home watching movies, playing board and card games, and later i'll watch her awe as she plays shooter games on xbox, and then even later we'll do some cooking and possibly break out the easybake oven for some kidmade homemade sweets.

i know growing up as a kid i thought for sure there were definitely characteristics of my parents that i didn't want to absorb, mostly that they're very overprotective and conservative (and not just fiscally conservative like i am). they grew up in the middle east and life was very different for them as compared to this california native. but i distinctly remember as a small kid (under 8 years old) when i was home sick from school that my mom always made me softboiled eggs for breakfast, and she would even feed me because i was sick, despite the fact that i was clearly old enough to eat on my own. it was the one time i didn't fight mom taking care of me in this way, because it just made me feel so much better to have that overabundance of nurturing and love in a time when my defenses were down.

now without really thinking about it, as if it was not a learned gesture but rather an innate and inherent characteristic passed on genetically to me from my mom, i realized that for the past two days i have done this exact same thing for the little - made her softboiled eggs and even fed them to her for breakfast while she's been feeling poopy. and so i realize just how much like my mom and dad i am in so many ways, especially those wonderful nurturing ways... and i'm thankful for not being so strong and stubborn to successfully turn my back on absorbing those great characteristics i learned (or inherited) from my folks.