Personality Traits

Even kids have their own personalities. And sometimes you see them do something that just solidifies what you have pegged as their personality. Like adults, they can not help it. It's just who they are.

Take Shane for example. He's very analytical. Very scientific minded and very fact based. It's just the way he is. Sure he likes a good dry joke (he is related to Ken's grandpa after all) but for the most part he's all about the facts. It helps him solve things...particularly with math and games.

If he's playing you in a game, his empathetic side will want to let you win the game because he feels bad for you. But if you give him the rules of the game, you will never win because he will hold you to the rules and will call you out when you don't play by them. And you only have to tell him the rules once.

It's just his fact-based way of looking at things. So when we were in the pool last night, he was playing water polo with some older boys. And one of the boys made a comment that he didn't like to swim in deep water and wouldn't go into the 9 feet part because it was "like two of him."

Shane looked at him (as serious as he could be) and said "oh...you must be 4 1/2 feet tall then."

Dead pan silence from the boy.

He looked at Shane like he had two heads and asked Shane to repeat himself. So Shane did.

Again as serious as he could be.

I then had to explain to Shane that the kid was just making a joke because he didn't like the deep water and he was in fact about 5'7". (I didn't bother explaining to the kid that Shane was right and 4 1/2 + 4 1/2 = 9.)

In Shane's defense, he never saw the kid out of the water and didn't really know how tall he was. Okay. Lame defense I know.

It was that moment that I realized that:

1) Shane really is geeky (and I mean that in the nicest way possible) and a little different than most kids; and

2) that he did get some of my personality traits because that sounds exactly like something I would say.

Can't you see it, Ken? :p