Stupid Genetics

As parents, there are always traits we pass on to our children. Some we are grateful to pass on, while others we wish would end with us. I appreciate that my mom gave me her low blood pressure, but I'm even more grateful that she kept her mouth of cavities to herself. You know. That kind of thing.

This afternoon, I realized that a trait I'm grateful for in the wee ones is directly passed down through my husband's side of the family.

It was very quiet this afternoon. We had two birthday parties this morning (yes, two -- and I will post a couple of cute pics), and the wee ones were tired, especially after spending the previous night at Grandma and Grandpa's.

On the way home, Little Miss was happily chattering to me and singing away in the back seat. Until all of a sudden, she wasn't. I went from hearing "chim-chiminey chim-chim cheroo" to soft snores in about thirty seconds. She was out. I couldn't do anything to wake her up, not that I really wanted to. On the plus side, it made it easy to take off her shoes and coat and get her into her bed without her waking up.

Mister Man went into his bed and didn't come out until I went to wake him up almost four hours later. And by the way, he went straight to sleep before 7pm. My wee ones are good sleepers. They need a lot of sleep, and they typically fall asleep pretty easily.

I never really thought too much about it, but today I was tired. It was one of those days when I wish I could just lay down and take a nap. The wee ones were quietly sleeping, and I didn't have anything urgent I needed to do. The only problem is that I cannot nap. I'm just physically not capable of doing so.

Then there's my husband. He was sitting in an armchair across the room from me. He announced that he thought he might take a little nap. He closed his eyes, and snoring commenced. It took all my willpower to avoid throwing things at him. He didn't wake up until I was on my way to go wake up the wee ones.

He slept through my turning on the tv and watching something about two feet from his ears. He slept through me getting out the pots and pans and making the chicken noodle soup for dinner. He slept through my phone ringing - twice - and me carrying on (hoarse) conversations.

At least he never needs to worry that the wee ones are his. I'm grateful for their ability to sleep and sleep well, but ... couldn't it have been something that skipped my husband and came directly from the grandparents?