During a Thanksgiving family gathering, I spotted a picture of my husband on the wall of my in-laws house. It was the spitting image of our five year old middle son. Upon asking details of the picture, I discovered that my husband was the same age in the picture as our son is now. It was also said that our middle acts the same way as my husband when he was younger (I informed Hubs that if that's the case, he needed to apologize to his mother for being whiny and clingy because it tends to drive mom's up the wall).
As our kids get older, we're constantly making notes of little actions or mannerisms our kids display. There's been many times that I've rolled my eyes and said "he gets that from you" or my husband has said "you must have been the same way as a little girl." However I've never once thought that any one of our children is exactly like one of us. There's been many moments when I'm arguing with my children and I think to myself "it's like arguing with a mini me!" It's frustrating to say the least because as soon as they argue a point, my first thought is 'damn! That's a good one, I'd say that!'
This past weekend we celebrated my sister's birthday and watched home movies at the end of the party. First, I loved seeing and hearing my grandparents voices. They were just as I remember them. Secondly, as we were watching, both my husband and I were left speechless. An 8 year old me "graced" (we all know I'm not graceful in the least) the screen and instead of seeing me, I saw my seven year old son. The tones in his voice, his smart ass remarks, his attitude, his demeanor, his personality.
For the first time I saw that my seven year old IS me.
Sometimes it's unsettling to realize how much is carried in our genes and what we pass on to our children. My husband and I are sometimes floored at all of the mannerisms and personality traits we've seen come to life in our kids that we see in our family members as well.
While I wasn't expecting the home movies to take on a new meaning for me, I'm looking forward to watching more in the future. If we could answer the questions of where our daughter gets her extreme and girly attitude, that may help us out!