Another trip around the Sun

Since I started blogging last year, I've introduced all the members of our family and paid tribute to them on their birthdays.  Except for the patriarch of the clan. 

While Doc Leo has the earliest calendar date birthday each year, he's ended up having the last birthday on my blog.  Today we shall rectify that!

Obviously, I've been aware of who I am since my earliest memories.  Being the oldest sibling in my family by a fair number of years, I have a lot of memories of who they were, too.  While I wasn't around when the older generations in my family started life, I've always been connected to them, shared the same genetic roots, heard a lot about their childhoods, and just knew that we were all of the same basic make-up, whether by nurture or by nature.

Around when we met

Then I met the Doc.  As our relationship developed, it became more interesting to understand just where he came from.  For the first time, there was somebody important to me who didn't look like my family, have any of the same mannerisms, think like us, or even understand the world I'd grown up in, as he came from as far away as possible yet still be in the same country.

So it was really interesting to check out the baby pictures his family gave me, listen to the stories they told about him, compare his childhood experiences with mine (with very little having anything in common), and just generally try to figure out exactly who this person was who was going to become a permanent fixture in my life. 

Playing in fall leaves at age 2

When I produced my own children, it was fascinating to watch them become us.  In general, I never saw much of myself; perhaps I was just too close to the subject matter.  But in watching my firstborn learning how to walk, I discovered that she held herself just like her father, something I'd never noticed before. 

I watched my second one pick up on his style of humor, something she had always detested until she turned into him. 

Summer at the lake at age 9

I listened to my very young son complain about the same situations in life that he complained about, while I had just taken them in stride and never paid attention. 

I had a picture of the Doc on the beach when he was nine.  Meeting him at about double that age, I saw the exact same body frame on the adult as the child had had. 

When my own son was the same age, it was really interesting to see that same frame.  It seemed like my whole family were clones of this strange individual, so different from the genetic characteristics I'd grown up with. 

There could never be any doubt who their father was.

Surprise 24th birthday

Life today

But do you know what?  That's just fine.  My kids could have done much worse.  (They could have become me!) 

So, in celebration of the 68th anniversary of when the Doc first graced this planet, I say

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABE!!!! 

It's been a great ride sharing all your adult birthdays with you even if I missed all of your childhood ones.