Smashing Stereotypes is Heady Work

Before there was a Dipity, her uncle had already anointed her the brains of the family. Shortly after my wife and I were married, he began joking that our kids would be the smart ones and his the not so smart ones. In most families, the children are given generic labels: brainy, jock, artist, animal empath, etc. My wife was the hard working student and her brother was the popular jock. My brother-in-law was just bequeathing his and his sister's roles to the next generation when he declared that our children would be smart. He painted a picture of family events where our children would be asking his children to run into walls, and his children would be obliging.

Visions are a funny thing. Now, I think Dipity is amazingly smart. There's a shocker. But, I'm right. Of course, smart won't be all she is. This morning she was going through one of her favorite routines. She steps on a book and she, along with at least one parent, yell ta-da. She was performing this ritual just a tad too close to the wall, so I moved the book away from the wall and warned her of the danger of hitting her head on the wall. She looked at me, and then rammed her head into the wall. My wife and I, as loving and concerned parents, broke into fits of laughter. Seeing this reaction, she proceeded to slam her head into the wall about half a dozen more times. A brain she might become. A brain she might already be. But my Dipity will earn herself a couple of other labels along the way. And, just as was true of her mom and her uncle, none of those labels will ever tell the whole story.