I don't know what I was thinking scheduling so many appointments this week when we were out of town the week before. Getting today's A-Z Blog Challenge post in just under the wire. Whew!
G is for Genetics
Anyone with more than one sibling or more than one child will tell you the gene pool, while endlessly studied, is still something of a mystery. The way the same two parents can produce two very different offspring in both appearance and personality is a marvel.
I have three siblings. If you see us all together you know. Growing up my younger sister and I were regularly mistaken for twins, but we could never see it. Until I had daughters of my own that is.
Daughter2 is her mother's daughter, but so often when I look at her I see my younger sister. The first time my sister met her face to face she exclaimed "Wow, she looks exactly like you.' while I exclaimed 'She reminds me of you."
Whatever people saw in us as children finally made sense because Daughter2 has that same je ne sais quoi.
Daughter1 has always physically favored hubs side of the family. When she was small it used to confuse her because people were always telling her she was the spitting image of her Daddy and she finally asked me how that could be since she's a girl and he's a boy.
I always expected my children to look like me because on my dad's side of the family the genes run strong. My dad and his brothers looked so much alike, and our cousins on that side look like they could be our siblings.
Somehow that gene pool mixes though, and my firstborn was all her Dad.
Except sweet like me-ha!
As our littles grow big and their personalities bloom and life happens, they change. Today when I look at my girls I see both hubs and myself in both girls, and which one of us I see varies from day to day, moment to moment. I see too, the traits and characteristics that make them uniquely their own people.
Science is amazing.
When a grandbaby is on the way you wonder (and secretly hope) they will look something like the child you held in your arms not very long ago. It's a running conversation whenever we're with the in-laws about who these two boys favor, but mostly we all agree we see both parents in both boys.
The mancub has grown to be tall and lanky like his dad and when I see them side by side I think he is his father's son. But then he gives me a look, a smile where he tilts his head just so, and it's like I'm looking at his mama when she was almost four and I was 32.
Max I think favors our side of the family. He reminds me so much of his mama, but also his mama's sister (daughter2). It might be the way he runs into a room leading with his head, or the way he backs up into his mother's lap because boy is a snuggler.
It might be because he's loud and funny and loves his paci, or the way he adores his big brother but can also hold his own.
