“Just like Daddy, Mommy,” says Cragbaby with a beaming smile, as he carefully pre-loads his plastic power drill with a toy screw and prepares to drill into the wall.  My heart melts, as I glance up from my gardening to see my two favorite boys hard at work on the side of the house, one the spitting image of the other.  With every passing day, it becomes more and more apparent that C watches our every move, absorbing each word, action, and deed like a sponge.  On the one hand, it’s charming and sweet.  On the other hand, there’s a lot of responsibility that goes along with raising someone that (for right now, anyway) thinks you hung the moon and wants to be just like you in EVERY way.  It’s definitely a cause for self-reflection to make sure I’m constantly living a life worth imitating.  Some days I do a halfway decent job, and other days, I fail miserably.  But the great thing about raising a child is that teaching love, forgiveness and grace is more important than memorizing a rote list of do’s and dont’s.  (Lucky for us!)  

If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then my little boy’s Daddy is probably the most celebrated person on earth right now (until that little boy scrapes his knee, and then only Mommy’s kisses will do 🙂 ).  It makes me so very thankful that C has such a wonderful role model to look up to – he could do far worse than to follow in his Daddy’s footsteps!  

This picture reminds me of a country song that was popular a few years back, about another boy who wanted to be just like his Daddy.  In fact, I quoted the song in a Father’s Day post this past summer, but it seemed relevant to post again, so here goes…

“He said I’ve been watching you dad, ain’t that cool
I’m your buckaroo, I wanna be like you
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are
We like fixing things and holding mama’s hand
Yeah we’re just alike, hey ain’t we dad
I wanna do everything you do
So I’ve been watching you”
– Rodney Atkins 

So for all you parents out there, you know who’s watching you, so enjoy life fully and teach your children to do the same.  And for those of you that aren’t parents (or are past the stage of toddler obsession!), you never know who might be taking notes on your life and trying to emulate you – so make it a life worth living without regrets!