I get a kick out of my kids.

Alex is so serious, just like his dad, when he’s not being silly, just like his dad. I think he’s doing a better job of things than I was at his age, though he can be stubborn about the darnedest things as well. Gee, I have no idea where he gets that. Recently he’s been working on mastering Sonic Adventure 2 and unlocking characters in Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast, churning through The Elenium by David Eddings, and sussing out the secrets of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I’m hoping to start him on Raymond Feist’s Riftwar books once he’s done with the last of the Elenium trilogy. He just started The Hidden City this evening so there’s a few days yet. Alexander is a perceptive and surprisingly empathic young man who, if we can train him up right, will probably find himself more popular with the girls than he’ll know what to do about. Hey, it has to beat how I stumbled through that aspect of life for so many years.

Erica is such a normal little girl in so many ways, and yet surprisingly deep and mature in several others. Mind you, she’s far and away the more devious of the two. Nothing escapes her notice, and she learns very well just by watching. Case in point: Alex was playing one of the 3D platform-style games a while back, and Erica just sat and watched. She didn’t ask to play until at least a week had gone by. Then, when she did decide to play, she was off and finding things in the game that Alex didn’t even know about! Her current responsibility is that of General Bunny Wrangler (to her mom’s Bunny Wrangler In Charge, of course) and she takes great delight in handling the bunnies and making sure they have clean water and fresh food. She’s our little nature-lover and adventurer, no doubt about it. Not to mention her role as Social Butterfly, which is what makes her parents wonder what set of genes she picked that up from. Erica is a complete natural at social networking, though she has some hard lessons yet to learn about trust and about fairness.

Yeah, I have great kids. No doubt in my mind.