My son finds the simplest things so indescribably impressive. A freshly picked summer tomato, a big truck, a dog, a new book. His eyes widen, his mouth drops open, he yells and claps his hands as if he just won the lottery.

I shared a picture of him in this state and my best friend commented that finding joy in the “mundane” was a trait he clearly inherited from me. I laughed, then paused to think. It’s seldom the big things that I find mind blowing. Traveling, skydiving, Stonehenge… these are all things that have failed to excite me. The things that truly bring me happiness are seeing a rabbit in the backyard, watching the sunset through the trees, fresh snow, a hot cup of coffee, big hugs, a homemade meal, making birthday cards… But emotions aren’t transferred in our DNA, so how did he end up just like me? I thought back to the moments that preceded his excitement.

“Okay, help me put the dirt around this little tomato plant…be gentle! One day, it will give us so many yummy tomatoes! Let’s go out and water our tomato plant, we want to keep it healthy! Do you see those little yellow blooms?! Those will be tomatoes soon! Oh my goodness, Linus, do you see those green balls? Those are our tomatoes! We can’t eat them yet, we have to let them grow a little more. It’s time!!! See how they’re orange and red?! That means they are ready to eat! Let’s pick them and eat some!!”

“Oh my gosh-Linus! Do you know what I see?! A BIG TRUCK! Can you hear its loud engine?! Wow! It’s taller than our car! Do you think we can catch up to him?! WE DID IT! Can you wave at the driver?”

“There’s a dog! Do you think he’ll bark? Would you like to pet him? I’ll bet he is so soft! AH! He licked you!! He gave you a big kiss! He likes you!”

I’d never noticed how much I was shaping my child’s personality by the way that I reacted to the things around us. Every day seems so routine at times and it was never something I thought about. I worried about the food he was eating, his sleep habits, milestones…but I never once really thought about the way that he saw me. I thought he was still too young to think of me as a role model. I guess I’m doing alright, but wow, I could be better. It makes me feel so ashamed of the times I’ve yelled at other drivers, cursed after spilling a drink, or rolled my eyes on a phone call. There’s always room for improvement, I guess!

Oh, and if you need more proof, the new book was delivered to Linus from my parents in the following manner:

“Hey Linus!!! We’re back from Seattle and we brought you something SO NEAT! You’re never going to guess what it is!! It’s a….. BOOK! We brought you a brand new BOOK all the way from SEATTLE! It’s about BEARS! Do you want to read it now? WOW! Look at the big BEAR! Turn the page and look!! Another bear!!!”

Like parents, like child.