Friday, April 9, 2010

How Big Will He Be?

We give everything we have to our children. I think everyone would agree to that. We give them all our love, all our time, all our attention, and all of our money.

We also give them much more than what we do consciously. Parents can pass on any number of things through their genes whether they want to or not. We may give them patience or a temper. We may give them a cheerful attitude or grumpiness. We can give them a lot of things.

The argument of hereditary versus learned behavior is a very interesting one indeed. I have always found myself wondering about how much of a child's personality is passed on and how much of it is learned. Of course kids learn a lot of their personality from their parents who also pass them their genes so that line is muddled a bit.

You can discuss that topic amongst yourselves or leave your scientific research in the comments section.

We are moving on to the topic of physical traits that we pass on to our children. There is no argument about how this works. We know that these traits are passed on from one generation to the next. There are odds at play here though. There is no guarantee that children will look like either of their parents. They might look like an uncle, a cousin, or no one in particular. How the genes mix according to that xx, xy, yy chart thing that they taught us in biology is a mystery.

As people continue to tell me that Braden looks like me I am beginning to wonder what his physique will be like. Will I pass on my chicken wing shoulder blades? Will he get the bird chest? I would rather he get the good parts of my physique. When I figure out what those parts are I will let you know.

I have always been thin. It is hard for me to put on any weight. Later in life this has served me well. It is much easier to stay skinny. So far the only thing that really packs on the pounds for me is beer. In my young adult life I drank way too much. At that time I had a nice beer belly. I didn't have any accompanying weight to go with it though. I liked to call myself a skinny fat guy. It seemed to fit.

When I was growing up I would have liked to be a bit bigger. I was a sports nut, and size always helps. In baseball I was destined to be a singles hitter. Despite my obvious lack of muscles I did record exactly one home run in my high school career. I still remember it vividly in that glory days section of my brain.  I was never cut out much for football because of my size either. I got playing time in 7th and 8th grade, but eventually quit to pursue basketball and baseball.

I would like for Braden to be built a little bigger than me. I will be happy no matter what size he is, but there are advantages to being bigger. This is not just a pipe dream either. The men in Arica's family are very big and strong. Her cousin could double as the brawny paper towel guy. He looks like a lumberjack. Let's just say that her uncles have never had any fear of a little tussle either.

So what will it be? I have no idea, but as you can see from these pictures Braden is happy to show off his physique already. Maybe that is a good sign.

10 comments:

Gucci Mama said...

He is so cute. Love the muscle man pose - that's my son's new thing to recently. And he growls whenever he flexes, so we all act appropriately frightened.

Brandy@YDK said...

We had the same debates about G. I though FO SHO that G would have Chris's dominant features. but right now he is all me.

cute pics. showing the guns.

Kevin McKeever said...

You are one home run ahead of many of us, my friend.

And the docs kept telling me I'd be a "good six-footer." They got 70 inches right.

Manic Mommy said...

We pick and choose which pieces of ourselves we'd like the boys to inherit - Andy's naturally tall and thin, puberty was kinder to me than him. That type of thing. If we can just figure out a way to put it in action.

Love Braden's muscle stance.

Mike said...

I've got three at home and all three are different sizes. I'm not sure genes make this up. Either that or height skips generations...

Marcus Railton said...

My son Noah turned one last week and already is showing signs of being alarmingly like his father - no sign of a washboard stomach whatsoever!

Anonymous said...

Looks like he punched your ticket to the gun show :)

My wife and I are both vertically challenged, so I'm pretty sure there is no hope for little man.

WeaselMomma said...

love him showing off his muscles!

SurprisedMom said...

You just never know, do you? I don't think my girls look anything like me, but I can see relatives in them. Unfortunately, they are vertically challenged, like their mother. I'm 62 inches tall; the oldest is a couple of inches taller, the youngest is at my height.

When I looked at Braden's current photos, and I love them by the way, I then looked at your header. To tell the truth I couldn't tell who he looked like. I think he looks like himself!

Melisa Wells said...

Our boys are BOTH taller than us by a couple of inches, so you just never know!