It has become a common phrase in our home - Apple...Tree. My sister coined the phrase while referring to my T Bear and myself. Yes she is like her mommy, and it is becoming more and more evident every day. I relish in the idea, but also shudder. Sometimes it is like looking in a mirror - and I do not always like what I see.
Of course I want my children to resemble me - I was just hoping that they would inherit only the good parts. The phrase first caught on with our similar eating habits: we are both extremely picky. After T Bear turned one we thought her eating would be so much fun. Wow were we wrong. She started out okay - trying green beans, macaroni noodles, bread - the usual. Then she decided against all that. From about fifteen months until three and a half she ate pretty much the same thing every day: cereal, pop tarts, waffles, pretzels, yogurt, strawberries, rice, crackers, ice cream, and Gold Fish. Occasionally she would eat pizza crust. That was about it. Granted I am not counting cookies, candy, gummy fruit snacks, or popsicles. Hubby loves to point out the similarities when I refuse to eat steak or venison, and I hate to admit it but I am a bit dramatic about it! Okay, so we know where T gets that from.
This brings me to T Bear's flair for the dramatics. T likes to be the center of attention; who can blame her? After all she is adorable, funny, smart, and quite accustomed to being adored, since she was an only child for three years and the only grandchild on one side and the youngest grandchild on the other side. I can see her making her future friends watch her dance or sing or play (perhaps that is deja vu on my part). Poor Mad Man he is in for a long road of being his sister's main audience. Luckily right now he thinks she is the greatest thing around. Now I suppose some would say that I like attention. True I was the captain of my safety patrol in sixth grade, a new student ambassador in eighth grade, captain of my cheerleading squad, and a dancer who loved performing on stage. But does that make one an attention seeker? As for the dramatics T Bear can throw the most elaborate fits. She says things like "You are ruining me!" if I try to stop her from playing to get dressed. If she doesn't want to do something believe me everyone around is made aware of it. I presume that some would say I throw my own version of a fit on occasion.
T Bear has an unbelievable vocabulary and has since she started talking. When she wakes up her mouth doesn't stop until she falls asleep thirteen hours later! Some of the things that come out of her mouth are truly amazing. She will say things like, "Now, come on honey" in the most condescending tone imaginable. Most of the time I cannot help but giggle at some of the outrageous things she says. Now when she plays with her princess dolls or her Disney figurines I hear myself coming out of her mouth. She will say "You are going to time out. You are not listening. You need to be a good listener." or "That's enough." or "You need to sit down right now." She repeatedly says "This is ridiculous." - just like Mommy. She is hilarious. Some of the cutest things she says are when she is telling stories and I can hear her try to mimic the way in which I tell her stories - so adorable. Aah, out of the mouths of babes...you hear yourself in all your glory and at your worst.
Perhaps the funniest things she says are when she is pretending to be a mommy to her dolls. This is when I first cringed at hearing myself come out of her mouth! Truthfully I have found having a second child to be more challenging than the first, and clearly T Bear has picked up on that. She will be walking her baby saying "Ah, my baby won't go to sleep. I can't keep wrestling her." Yup this has come out of my mouth numerous times while trying to get the Mad Man to sleep. She also tells her baby it is "booby time" and proceeds to lift up her shirt and feed her baby. She will look at me and say "What are we going to do with these babies?" Now she has taken to telling me to be quiet because she has "finally" gotten her baby to sleep. "Mommy, you need to be quiet. WHISPER." What a little mommy she is turning out to be.
Then there are all of the little things. The similarities are endless especially in the realm of girly things - Disney princesses, dancing, the color pink, not liking to get our hands dirty (especially finger painting!), matching clothes, and the list goes on and on. The poor little girl has even inherited my self diagnosed OCD. Starting at an early age I would count all of her toys when putting them away - now she helps me! She likes to line everything up and her toys always have to go back in the right place. She gets very upset when Daddy picks up because he has no clue where anything goes and puts it wherever he wants; she notices believe me. She even complains about it (gee, I wonder where she gets that from?). Those around us say Apple...Tree constantly. For a while T Bear was saying it too. So funny.
The truth is I wouldn't have it any other way. I am proud of my little apple. In fact watching her makes me want to do better and be a better tree for her to emulate. I wonder what the little Mad Man will be like...time will tell.
High: The pride I feel in looking at my mini-me.
Low: The dismay of viewing my worst attributes in my mini-me.
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