Thursday, March 1, 2012

Gene Pool

My entire life I thought I looked just like my mother.  I could see her eyes on my face.  I recognized the point of her nose, the shape of her chin.  I was told, constantly, You look just like your mother.  I had pieces of my Dad too - his hands, his mole adorned skin, his thick hair.  And then my wedding day came and I was followed around by a photographer.  When we got the pictures back I was shocked to discover I actually look like my Dad.  How had I missed it?  I have his chin, his nose.  How had I never seen the resemblence?



I find myself looking at the girls and trying to figure out who they look like. Are they me or are they Andy? Anyone who knew me as a child says Addie is my stunt double - anyone who knew Andy say she's the spitting image of him. She has more of my eye color, but the shape of her eyes belong to him. She has his feet, his height, and my facial expressions. People say that she looks just like her Aunt Nikki, but there are days I swear I am looking at a female version of my older brother - and on occasion I see a glimpse of my grandmother in her sweet little mouth and rounded out cheeks.

Brenna, I've been told, looks just like me. Yet, her skin coloring is more Andy. As it stands now her eyes are dark - like her dad's. She might be following my lead in height, but she for sure inherited the lungs of his family.  When I look at her I see an overwhelming amount of her older sister - bright, big eyes; sweet, sunny smile;  perfect, little nose.

I have joked more than once that I can see the progression of what I will look like by looking at my Mom and Aunt Ruthie.  I think I can get a glimpse of my not-so-distant past self in my cousins, Amanda and Jill, all of us being  partial clones of each other. 

I guess we see who and what we want to see when looking at our children or in the mirror.  I see alot of Andy's genetics in my babies, but last week, with my Mom and Aunt in town, I saw some of my family genes shining through. 

1 comment:

Mich said...

Your girls sure are lucky to have such great gene pools to pull from.