He is his father's son.

Jonah Robert. My middle child. That right there should be enough explaination. He is like his father in every. single. way. He is his carbon copy in looks and temperment. He has passion flowing through his veins. It comes out in everything he does...sports, playing, even his temper. And OH! does he have a temper! (That particular trait may or may not have been passed down through my stubborn Dutch genes.) The boy can play baseball or hockey or basketball from the moment he wakes up until the time the sun sets and the mosquitos eat him up. It's always go, go go with him. He hates to sit still. He also has a plethora of one-liners that he zings at you when you're least expecting it. Anyone who knows my husband knows that this is all true for him as well. We definitely passed down the family name of Robert to the right child.

Another way that Jonah is like his daddy is when it comes to telling tall tales. My husband can't lie to save his life. He always gets this silly, crooked grin on his face and he bites his lip when he's trying to pull the wool over my eyes. And thank goodness, that little nuance has passed down to his children.

Today Jonah was trying to convince me that he had indeed read his book for 15 minutes for his homework like he was instructed by his teacher. Now, I have been in the same room with him all afternoon and he has in fact NOT read the book. But I decided to play along, and I asked him what his book was about. After getting mad at me for realizing that he was grinning while lying through his teeth (yes, it's MY fault he's fibbing!), he glanced at picture on the book cover...another thing he didn't think I'd notice...and saw that there was an American flag, Confederate flag and uniforms on the cover. So he looked at me and said "It's about the Civil War." I probed a bit more and asked "Well, what happened in the book about the Civil War?"

Without missing a beat, he replied, "Someone got shot."

It was one of those moments were I didn't know whether to scold or laugh. I decided on laughing and waved my white flag of surrender on this battle and save my energy for the next one. Lord knows it's coming.