My son is truly mine. Of that there is no doubt. Even if I had a wife who was dubiously faithful (and I assure you this is certainly not the case) there would still be no doubt. Besides their color (which is disappointing), he has my eyes. He has my hair. He has my mouth, my chin, and body structure. The only part of his body that he seems to have inherited solely from his mother is his nose. But I notice his physical similarities all the time and have since Day One. But there are other interesting things I've been noticing lately.

It has recently occurred to me that physical characteristics are not the only things I have passed on. We have joked that he has gotten his mother's temper, but we weren't serious. But there are things that he does, mannerisms and gestures, that seem to have come directly from me. It's strange to think about it, at least to me.

I noticed yesterday that my son scratches his head exactly as I do. My mother noticed last month that he rubs his eyes the same way I do, or at least how I did it when I was a child, by using my whole fist instead of just one finger. Another thing he seems to have gotten from me is how fidgety he is; he has a distinct inability to sit still for very long. I was terribly fidgety as a child and to this day sometimes while working at my computer my legs will start thumping up and down almost completely involuntarily.

Are mannerisms and idiosyncrasies passed on via DNA and genes as well as physical traits? I am not a geneticist so I don't know. All I do know is what I see, what I observe. Even if it's not possible, he got them somehow. Is there a third, possibly metaphysical way, a child acquires traits, as opposed to genetics and environment? If you believe that we all do indeed have souls, is your child's soul created from parts of his parents' souls, like his body comes from parts of his parents' DNA?

p.s. My son's development is coming along. Yesterday for the first time he began sitting up on his own. The books say the little tykes are supposed to do that by six months of age and wouldn't you know? he turned six months old yesterday. Heh. I had told him that he had a deadline of January 31 to begin sitting up. He listened!:)