It's Just Basic Biology...

I think maybe it's part of the drive to reproduce. 

Just basic animal biology.

That drive to spread our DNA, keep our genetic lines going. 

No, I'm not talking about having sex. I think that has as much to do with it's just fun than anything else. I'm talking about that thing we do where we look for "ourselves" in the faces of our relatives. 

I posted a picture of my mother this morning with a funny thing about how Facebook was actually the first to see the resemblance between her and my niece. My niece strongly favors her mother so nobody really noticed how much she actually looks like my mother as well. But she really does. 

And the other weird part of that is that I've never had anyone tell me that my niece looks like me when I've posted pictures of her even though I look just like my mother. Hmmm...

ANYWAY...

It's not all that surprising. When Brian had his surgery and the weight loss started one of the first places you could really see it was his face. And one of the things that really started to show was that we have the same chin. I have a really prominent chin. A little pointy. A little like it's an addition to my face that was made when everything else was complete. The better to cosplay Maleficent with than a boring old stubby chin would be. But there it was. My chin on Brian's face. It suits him. And it made me happy. Because there I was!

The thing with Ashley looking so much like her mother and at the same time looking like mine duplicated itself with Katie. Growing up people would always say she looked just like her dad. Even though I have a picture of the two of us as toddlers where we look like carbon copies. Same hairstyle and everything. But the only thing people could see of me in her was my eye color. (Coincidentally, the only thing I have that resembles my father is I am the only one of the kids that got his brown eyes) But now that she's wearing her hair longer more people are noticing our resemblance. Give her long hair and a blocked bang and suddenly there I am!

And of course, as I mentioned, I look like my mother. I have her face shape, including the line between our nose and lips that pulls tight horizontally when we smile. I am shaped like her side of the family. Not a bit of Clifton to me. Except for those brown eyes. And except for when I look like a Clifton. It happens to me as well. I don't look at all like my siblings, except sometimes when my hair is longer and I don't have my bangs I can see a little bit of resemblance to my sister. It's like if you look at us direct on you can't see it, but look out of the corner of your eye and it's there. 

And we all do look. When a baby is born one of the first things we start to try and figure out is who do they look like? Do they look like me? 

I don't think it's just straight up vanity, I think it has to be part of that biological drive. That desire to make sure that we somehow keep going in this world. If not ourselves than at least maybe our chins...

My mother as a young girl. You can see not only her resemblance to Ashley here, but also to Kelsey. 

Me, Katie and Brent all around the same age. See? She's got a lot of me there.

Me and Brian showing off those chins!

My mother a couple of years younger than I am now but about the closest in age photo I could find
(Also my dad and Grandma Beulah {my sister-in-law's mother})