You Look Just Like Your Mother

Being told I look like my mother is something I've heard my entire life, mostly from my grandmother. I look at my mother's pictures and never in my childhood or teen years have I resembled her. TODAY I look like my mom, quite a bit actually.

When I brought my daughter into the world, the first thing my mother whispered was how much she looked like me. REALLY? I didn't see it. A few days later, rocking her in the middle of the night the tiny baby looked up at me and all I could see was her father. There was no way this child looked like me. None.

And yet, every time I turned around some one was telling me how much this little girl looked like me. My mother was constant in that assessment, but total strangers would echo it. As she grew people had the audacity to tell her to her face how much she looked like me.

Amanda and I have discussed this point repeatedly and we agree, we can't deny we're related (poor child) but we do NOT look alike. At all. The rest of you are high as a freaking kite.

You cannot hold a picture of skinny, teenaged me next to my daughter and say "wow, you two look alike." We don't. So don't say it.
Aw crap! Now I see it. It's the forehead and nose. Dammit.
At least she doesn't have me and my mother's thin lipped smile. Hopefully she'll escape the double chin, but she's doomed to have the old age jowls, she had them as a baby.
But really, we do not look alike. So many of her features are very different from mine - eyes, chin, overall build. So much of that does come from her father's side. She is also much more put-together than I ever was or ever will be. The picture of her in the green dress? She was running for Miss Missouri USA. OMG, something that I could never pull off, but she did it beautifully.

My husband has pointed out that more than looking like me that she and I have many of the same mannerisms. We move the same, twist our faces in similar ways and frequently react to the same things. That makes a lot of sense as I surely have a lot of my mother's mannerisms. I certainly have my mother's voice, which is eerie as hell, that's for sure. I found it funny as I watched Keith exhibit identical facial expressions as his father.

So okay, we're "similar" but really, she does NOT look like me. Got it?