Influence

As a teacher, I have always realized how much kids are watching me, observing how I react, and how I behave. However, for some reason I didn't fully grasp how much this would be the same with Doug until the other day. We were driving home from some errands (I'm always hauling Doug somewhere; he loves it, and told me so. One day as we were driving, I told him, "Sorry I keep stuffing you in the car and taking you someplace!" He turned to me with a big grin, and replied, "I LOVE it!"), and were in and out of the shade and then the sun. When we drove into a shady part, I flipped my sunglasses up on my head. I saw Doug give me a sideways look, then carefully flip his sunglasses up on his head. When we drove back into the sun, I flipped my sunglasses back down. Doug looks over, then casually flips his sunglasses down as well. This went on, back and forth, for a few miles, until we reached a part of the road that remained sunny, and our sunglasses could remain firmly on our noses! I got quite a chuckle out of the whole routine, but it really did pound home the fact that I am now always being watched, and my behavior being modeled. (Ok, yes, I did/do have some modeled behaviors that Hoot, crusty old farmer that he was, provided that I would like to extinguish!!!!)

Tonight Doug says to me, in a sort of serious, thoughtful way, "Do you think we should have a bowl of ice cream?" (Not sure how many times I have said that to him, but it's more than several!!!) And now Doug's influence on me: "Good idea!" He says that a lot, and it sure summed up how I felt about a bowl of ice cream after another warm day! So we had ice cream from the Jeff Gordon commemorative tin that "his tousin Ninn" (alias his cousin Lynn) got for him, and that I inherited along with Doug. Yummy ice cream, Ninn!!!