Resemblance

When someone meets Olivia, he/she tends to notice her big, blue eyes, and then look at me with a puzzled look because mine are brown. This happens a lot, so now I offer, "She's got Daddy's eyes." And I'm so glad because they're beautiful on both of them.

And then he/she'll say something like, "Well otherwise she looks just like you."

Really?

I couldn't see it for the longest time, and then Mom brought out the ol' photo album.

Wow. I could see Olivia in the shape of my head, my chubby thighs, and my cute little nose (which I got teased about in elementary school. Thank you very much, Matt Stanfield, I am finally over the comparison of my nose to a ski jump).

And then Dad *scanned and emailed* pictures to me -- another wow. He's 74, folks!

This is Tom and me back when he was roughly Travis' age and I was roughly Olivia's age (and diameter).


And here we are a few months later.


And this is Travis and his sister Lyla this summer.
Travis and Tom have the same build, same hands, same blonde hair, and Lyla even looks like Travis did at that age. Jen jokingly says they're Little Tom and Tom in a Dress.

And I finally dragged out my baby book and realized that Olivia and I have other similarities.

• We were born a week and a half apart (Dec 29/Jan 8), 81 minutes apart (6:03/7:25pm), an ounce different (9 lbs 3 ounces/9 lbs 2 ounces), and the same length (21 inches). The first thing I said to my mother when she visited me after Olivia was born was to apologize for being so big. She went natural, folks. What a woman.
• Mom got me to sleep through the night at 5 weeks, Olivia did it at 6 weeks. And for you non-parental types, that is pretty early to be sleeping 8 straight hours... 70% of babies sleep through the night (defined as 5 hours) at 9 months old.
• We both started rolling over at 3 months and sitting at 6 months, and got our first teeth the first week of August.

I started crawling when I was 6 1/2 months old and walking by my first birthday. Olivia is 7 1/2 months old and starting to balance on her hands and knees, but if you put a toy in front of her she'll go down on her tummy and reeeeeeach for it. Or she'll roll and pivot, roll and pivot to get somewhere. When she starts crawling I'm going to keep her in dresses because I am in no hurry for this kid to be mobile!