One of the great things about watching them grow is seeing what traits they have of you, and what traits they have of their mother. Reagan is almost entirely her mother, and therefore her Mimi. All things biological are Brooke dominated, the characteristics that are environmental are a little more split. That is to say, traits that she is wired for are from her mother. Interests, and things that can be learned, she is more of a 50/50 split.
Caroline is wired just like me. Everything that is a biological trait of hers, she got from me. Because Brooke has had to live with me for 14 years, Brooke has learned how to work me. This has helped her with Caroline, because Caroline has many of the same buttons to be pushed. As far as environmental traits go, Caroline has picked up a lot of my traits, too. She loves many of the same things I love. Super heroes, history, science, movies, etc. she and I are like two peas in a pod. She reads like I do, not to just fly through a book (cough cough Brooke), she reads and retains everything. She sat and watched (almost) the entire Roosevelt documentary on PBS along side of me. While she struggles with many of the same things I struggled with as a kid, she is caring, loving, emotional, just like me.
Baylor Grace is a difficult one to figure out. She is driven to do the right thing (like Reagan and Brooke), hates to get into trouble (like me), but is still developing who she is. Her likes and dislikes are also all over the map. However, I have noticed two traits lately that I know exactly where she got. It isn't from Brooke, and while I passed it to her, it isn't fully from me.
Baylor Grace is a hoarder. Seriously, she throws nothing away. I am not as bad about throwing stuff away, but we both place emotional ties to objects that have little to no value. We have to purge her room every so often, or it will just be overrun with junk. This is entirely her MaMaw. We love MaMaw, but she is a bit of hoarder herself. Not enough to need an intervention (or a TV show), but she keeps almost everything and attaches emotional value to things. I remember Mom used to keep every ticket stub from the movies in her glasses case. This is something Baylor Grace would totally do. Baylor Grace is very much like her MaMaw in that sense. I think its cute. My father has said that as long as I am alive, Granny (Tim's mother) will never be dead. Our personalities are too similar. I think Granny would just absolutely love Caroline. From what I am told, they are so much a like. I'm starting to think as long as Baylor Grace is alive, MaMaw will be too.
Tonight, I noticed something was bothering Baylor Grace. I had to asks few times to pull it out of her, but then she began to tell me what was wrong. 25 minutes later she was still going. I have no idea what she said, she made very little sense, but she told a very, very, very, long story. Just like her MaMaw. It had something to do with two of her friends and a car, but that was about all of the sense I could make of it. Much like a MaMaw story. Are you every driving down the road and you sort of zone out only to come through minutes later? You have no idea how you got to where you are, or what happened getting there, you just refocus on paying attention to whats ahead. That is sort of what happens when MaMaw and Baylor Grace tell a story.
It is one of those qualities we love about my mother, and I love seeing it in Baylor Grace. It is sort of like life. You don't always know the point, you sometimes question if there is one at all, you don't remember how you got there, but you are very appreciative at the end of it. Im glad my mother was teaching me those lessons, even when I didn't realize it. I am even more thankful that I have BG to pick up her slack when I don't talk to MaMaw as often. I think MaMaw would be proud to know that part of her lives on in Baylor Grace.
Now we just have to see which one is the amazing cook like their MaMaw.
