People always comment on how much my kids look like me.  Which is ridiculous… Thanny has his daddy’s brown hair and skin tone!  And while Zach and Rissa both have my skin tone and hair color, and all 3 kids have variations of my blue eyes, we each have our own distinctive faces!  The obvious first-glance features may look like mine, but anything further than a one-time glance at them indicates that they don’t actually look like me.  It is the same concept as saying that Zach and Rissa look like twins.  They don’t.  They look like siblings… and yes, they happen to share a birthday. 🙂  But their faces, the sweet faces on each of my children… those little faces are special and different and the people that they represent are individuals!  I do enjoy the many older adults who have said, “Well, no one would believe those kids belong with you!” and then snicker at my 3 little ducklings.  We do have strikingly similar hair, which makes it easy to figure out which adult should be (but isn’t) attending those 3 rambunctious Tinies at a store. 🙂

People especially mention that Rissa looks like me.  I have often guffawed at the very thought of it.  To think of her looking like me – HA!  I wish I looked like her!  She is the most beautiful person I have ever seen in real life, and her appearance is the least impressive thing about her.  Matt tenuously rides the middle when I discuss this with him; he acknowledges that Rissa definitely has her own little face but he can see a resemblance between us.  We already share many temperament and personality features and it is hard enough to be someone’s mini-me — can the girl just have her own face please???

And then one fateful day earlier this week, my mom sent me some pictures from my late Grandma.  And I saw this one for the first time and said (and I quote), “Holy crap, Rissa looks EXACTLY like me!”

Of course, Rissa has the distinct blessing of being born in any decade besides the 1970’s, a dismal time for children when haircuts came in one size fits all – the classic bowl cut.  Actually, I’m pretty sure the classic bowl cut devastated several other decades too, but it certainly exterminated pretty hair in my time.  If only I’d had a cute little sprout on top!  Nevertheless, our resemblance continues as evidenced by my stack of old pictures from Grandma.

There are two conclusions to draw from this new evidence.  First, I must admit that Rissa does indeed look like me.  I finally see it.  Not exactly like me, of course.  She’s still the most beautiful person in the whole world and I’m too reasonable to think that description could apply to me.  I look fine, I’m happy with how I look, it’s fine.  But Rissa.  Amazing Rissa.  Rissa is the apple of my eye!  Nothing ordinary about that girl!  Her brains and smile and charm and brilliance and social skills and many other gifts overshadow her appearance, as lovely as it may be.

Second, if she continues onward with anything resembling my trajectory, she’s going to have to rely on her brains and smile and charm and brilliance and social skills and many other gifts when she turns nine.  And pretty much from then on until sixteen.  Because if my own appearance at age 9 (and following) is any indication, her lovely face will be a bit distorted by giant adult teeth that are too big for a little girl. 🙂

Regarding the hideous giant glasses and the boring school uniform, I solemnly swear to do better by my daughter than my mom did by me!  Oh, she’ll need glasses; there is no question about that given her genetic heritage on both sides.  But they will be cute glasses and she’ll have less boring clothes – I can promise her that!  And the teeth?  Well 4.5 years of tortuous orthodontia did wonders for dealing with mine, but let’s hope she escapes that pitfall.  Either way, she’ll be her same amazing self no matter what!