We all do it, right? Personally, I love to compare any number of related things and then spend hours pondering what it all means.
Do you compare your kids though? If you don’t have kids, do you compare yourself to your siblings? I don’t mean in the sense of “Why can’t you be more like your sister?!”, but rather, traits—how they got them, and again, what does it mean?? I found myself doing it even with one child. Here was Bud, looking exactly like his daddy, but with my temperament. Similarly, there is Lucy, who resembles my family (but not me), but has the exact stubborn mentality of her father.
I love trying to make sense of it all; and think about what kind of people these kids will grow up to be.
Here are some of my favorite comparisons of my children:
• Bud’s hair is thick and dirty blonde. Lucy’s is super-fine and dark, dark brown.
• Bud’s eyebrows are so blonde they are almost white. Lucy’s are as dark as her hair, and she actually has a borderline uni-brow.
• Bud’s eyes are steely blue, except for when he is mischievous, at which point they are a bright, twinkly green. Lucy’s are hazel, gravitating toward brown when she is upset, green with yellow flecks when happy, and blue/green when she wears those types of colors.
• Bud eats nothing that is good for him. If you asked him his favorite foods, you would hear items along the lines of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, sugar cereal, pop tarts and goldfish crackers. Lucy is the best eating child I have ever met. Her favorite foods? Broccoli, apples, salad (with green olives, cheese, croutons and ranch—and she will tell you if something is missing), cheerios and bananas in milk, and of course, fruit snacks.
• As he did in the womb, Bud sleeps stretched out on his back, hands above his head and toes pointed out. Lucy remained curled up for my entire pregnancy and sleeps the same today.
• Lucy can crack a t-ball like you would not believe. Bud would prefer to dance.
There are aspects in which the children are similar as well:
• Both are extremely well spoken and verbal for their ages. Both spoke full sentences before their first birthday.
• Both have the same speech sound delays in that “r” sounds like “w” and they have a slight lisp.
• They have the exact same (my) nose.
• They have the exact same (Hub’s) sticking out ears.
• They both have supreme antagonistic abilities and know exactly how to push our and the other’s buttons.
I think it’s going to be fun when Olivia comes, to see whether or not she will be a completely different person. Will she resemble one child over the other? Will Bud and Lucy’s similarities carry through to her? What traits will she have that are 100% different from each of the children?
I can’t wait to find out!
10 comments:
Well, I only have one child but I DO think about this in relation to my sister. We are alike in many ways, our voices are nearly identical and we share a lot of mannerisms. Also, a lot of times I'll go home and find out that we have bought the same clothes, from the same stores.
But physically, we are different. She favors my dads side and has blond hair and blue eyes, which is the complete opposite of me.
So weird how two parents can produce TOTALLY DIFFERENT people with the same two sets of DNA.
Tessie- my middle brother and I have the exact same mannerisms as well. It is scary. My youngest brother though, not so much. BUT physically, I do not resemble my middle brother at all--my youngest and I, in baby photos, could have been twins.
Ooh, I can't wait to "meet" Olivia!!
I compare all the time... I find it all so fascinating. The personality traits are interesting, because it could be partly genetic, partly birth order (maybe Maggie is so feisty because she has to be as the youngest of 3).
The physical characteristics leave me baffled. You would think that Homer's dark hair and brown eyes would "win" the genetics game, but none of the three have is dark features. All five of us have a unique eye colour (Homer: brown, me: light green, Lisa: dark blue/gray, Bart: light blue, Maggie: dark green).
My sister and I are almost indistinguishable on the phone and we are physically very similar. but we are not like our brother in any way.
Lori- I thought the same on the eyes--mine are brown--my entire family's are. Neither kid has brown eyes. Weird!
My sister compares herself to me a lot more than I compare myself to her. Although I do know the similarities and differences between us and can tell anyone who asks, I don't talk about it as much as she does.
Well, I compare our 1 daughter to each of her parents to see what she got from who: my chin, Husband's hair, etc.
I used to compare myself with my sister. We live too far away to do that now.
It's one of the reasons I think I'm so hooked on having kids: it's so fun to see the genes get shuffled and redistributed!
When I was younger I compared myself to my older sister a lot. We look different, she has brown hair/eyes, I'm blonde with blue eyes. I'm taller, she's always been skinnier.
But, now that I'm older I realize that for about 99% of things we are totally different people. And really, I am glad. She got a lot of traits from our family that I am glad I didn't get! (That sounds terrible, doesn't it?)
The really funny thing is that one of my sister's daughters looks a LOT like me. So much so that my grandma is always calling her by my name.
This is so cool. I may need to "borrow" this idea. I have 3 brown eyed, brown haired girls. And one blonde hair blue eyed boy. I have green eyes and brown hair. My husband has brown eyes and dark brown hair.
Oh and temperments.
Yes, I must do this.
Do you mind?
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