Sitting at a stop light today I rested my head back and happened to look in the rearview mirror. I saw my son who was also leaning against his headrest with the same relaxed expression that was mirrored on my face and I realized with a jolt how much he looks like me.
He was a elfish little baby: big blue eyes, dark hair, fair skin and sticky-outy ears like his dad. We called him Paul’s Mini Me until Birdie came along and we realized she was his clone. The resemblance is so striking that she has interrupted people since she was 6, when they begin, “You look…”
“I know. I know, just like my dad.” She knew the meaning of the word clone by the age of 4 or 5. Beanie is cut from the same cloth.
I remember when C. Riley was a baby and he flashed me a look that I knew was my own. It took my breath away, to recognize myself in him. At times he has smiled or made a face and I’ve seen one of my brothers. But until today I hadn’t been able to see how our very bone structure is similar, our cheekbones and the shapes of our eyes.
He saw me looking at him and immediately smiled. My lips unfurled the identical smile.
And then love began to leak out through my eyes.
That is so sweet. I can’t see myself in my kids. I know it’s gotta be there since others see it. But what exactly do others see that we ourselves miss?
I think that we fail to see ourselves in 3-D like others can. What a blessing though, to see your son and yourself in a new way. Love those little epiphanies!
It scares me how much my daughter is like me–in every way, physical or other. What is she in for? What am I in for?