Madeline and Her Mama

We've always thought our girls look like Jim. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that when Kathleen was born, she looked a lot like Jim. (So much so that Nan had a hard time cooing at her -- "How am I supposed to baby talk to a mini-Jim?" Nan would say.) And when Madeline was born, we thought she looked a lot like Kathleen -- just with dark hair. By the time our girls were walking, talking people, we didn't spend much time thinking of them as anything but themselves.

But you can imagine our surprise when we stumbled across this photo of Mama, circa 1970-something, at Nan's a few weeks ago. "Wow!" we said, "Mama looks so much like Maddie Beth!

And then we compared it to a couple photos of Madeline, circa-2009.

They're not the perfect photos for comparison. We're still plotting how to get the one that will show the similarities in features and expression we already see. Still, though, we thought it was worth sharing.

A friend came to stay recently and when he walked and saw Madeline he exclaimed, "Oh, Kristen! She's you."

You know, we just figured that out.