It Runs In The Family

It's common to see familiar traits and mannerisms in children from the same family. Younger siblings, in particular, have the tendency to follow what their older brothers and sisters do. They may mimic the way their "heroes" (some kids do hero-worship their big brothers or sisters) talk, walk and interact with others. Or maybe they have the same interests and hobbies.

In my family, such similarities extend to cousins and nephews as well. Tse Hao, my nephew, talks in a very animated way, sometimes a tad dramatic. Joshua does that too. They used to hang around quite a fair bit back in KL. Maybe that's where Joshua picked up the animated style. He's still like this here in Melbourne. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

These 2 boys share another thing - they love drawing and making art crafts. Their drawings often have words - making the drawings look like picture stories. Now, my third sister Hui Yin used to do something like that when she was a kid. In fact, she had her own comic strips - complete with speech bubbles and all (Her husband Rizal was like that too when he was a boy - no wonder they clicked so well!!).

The thing is, Hui Yin is not Tse Hao or Joshua's mother. I certainly never did any picture stories as a kid. Neither did Tse Hao's mother, my second sister Sue Yin, although she was pretty good at sketching.

Another thing - Joshua likes to create his own "songs". He would sing some nonsensical stuff and go on and on for a while. Hui Yin did that too 20 years ago. It is just so weird!

Now, I have another little nephew - JJ. He's my youngest sister Wei Wei's son. He is turning 2 next week and he looks so much like me when I was a toddler. Don't know why. He's not my son but he looks like me. Ha ha. And apparently, his mannerisms are said to be almost identical to Joshua's.

What makes it even more interesting is the fact that JJ and Joshua hardly ever spend time together. So where did JJ get what Joshua has?

Must be the crazy genes in my family. Yes, they run deep.