365 Project – Day 234 – Beau in a Dress

Okay, so I know I’ve already devoted several blogs to the fact that my sister, Lindy, and I have apparently given birth to our very own clones, and I hate to keep rehashing it, but I just can’t help myself. Every time I see Odin and Cadence together or look through pictures of the two of them together, I get a little dizzy and start feeling like maybe I’m on a bad acid trip. Okay, so I’ve never done acid, but I was given a pretty hefty mixture of demorol and codeine when I was hospitalized for mono my sophomore year of high school, and sometimes I get that same sort of dreamy, rollercoaster, can’t quite remember my own name feeling when I look at our children. Seeing our kids together is a bit like stepping into the Twilight Zone, or taking a ride in the Delorean with dear old Doc Brown. It takes me back to the future…or the past…or…you know what I mean.

So tonight I was scrolling through some photos on my phone, and I ran across a couple that I snapped earlier this month when Odin came over to celebrate his birthday. Seeing them sent me on a mission through some of the old childhood photos of Lindy and I that I’d scanned onto the computer, and I couldn’t help but post a few that I found that illustrate my point. Please indulge me as I share.

I hope Brenda and Kathy will forgive me for posting so many old photos of them, but I can’t help it. Blame our parents for hanging out so often and taking so many photos! If memory serves, this is a birthday photo circa 1983…

And here are Odin and Cadence, circa 2011…

And again, Lindy and Lori, I believe this is 1982 or 1983…

And Odin and Cadence, 2011. I apologize for the fuzziness, but the little buggers wouldn’t stop moving and, well, camera phones stink.

Now, if you really want to have some mind-boggling fun, you’ll take a look back through some of the photo albums on my birthmother, Momma Dawn’s side. I have  a seriously eerie lookalike photo of her when she was around 7, but it’s still packed in a box somewhere, so we’ll have to do make do with these. Here is Momma Dawn, circa 19??. (No way am I filling in the year! I’m going to visit her in a few weeks and I don’t want to her to strangle me for blasting her age all over the internet).

And here I am in 1996. Mmmm…cake!

The best though is when my husband starts looking through the photos from my childhood. Inevitably, he always hits a few that make him stop and do a doubletake and yell loudly, “Damn, look at this one! It’s Beau in a dress!”

That would be my little brother Beau. In fact, the first thing Steven said to me when our daughter was born was, “Oh my God! She looks just like Beau!” And boy was he right! Not only is Cadence my little Mini-Me, I also see so much of my brother when I look at her, especially when she’s making her cheesy smile faces or sticking out her pouty lip. Here’s a photo of Beau and me, taken in 2003…

And one of me, Lindy, Tonya and Shelly at Grandma and Grandpa’s cabin around 1984-85. (Please take a moment to take a good look at the face Shelly is making in the background. It cracks me up every time). Now, this photo isn’t exactly Beau-in-a-dress, but I am sporting a Strawberry Shortcake outfit, so you get the idea.

So, there is no real point to tonight’s blog post, other than me just having fun going through some old photos and sharing a few that blew my mind. Thank you for indulging me!