Mini Me

Recently Cat has been doing some things that remind me of me and it makes me laugh a little.

The first two have to do with my inner-OCD-record-keeper.  This is a trait I've learned to minimize over the last several years, so hopefully you don't know about it, but it's still there, buried deep in my brain.

Cat loves to write things down in the same manner, and has even arranged an office space where she contentedly plays by herself, doing all kinds of administrative tasks.  The other day I noticed this taped to the bookshelf she uses as her desk:

Then a couple of weeks ago I taught her how to make friendship bracelets the way I did when I was a kid.  We used three colors of embroidery floss and I told her we'd make 10 knots of each color.  I showed her a few knots, then let her try.  We were trying to count the knots and she was frustrated with having to remember.  So what did she do?  She got out a piece of paper and started making tally marks for each knot under its designated color column.  After a few minutes of that, I gave her the tip that if she counted out loud she was more likely to remember the number she was on.  So she began doing that instead, and the bracelet-making went much faster!  The tally marks cracked me up, though.  That's something I can easily see my 7-year-old self doing.

On Saturday evening, I had just finished up a big sewing project when the girls came down to the basement to hang out with me.  Cat saw my bucket-o-trash and immediately wanted to use the tiny scraps in there to make something.  I agreed, and before I knew it she'd made a headband for Eliza gluing (and stapling!) together the selvage edges of some fabric.

Cat's been wanting to do more sewing with me lately and I need to come up with another good project we can work on together.  A friend pinned this blog post with printable sewing activity sheets for kids, and I'm thinking we might start with that.  If I can help Cat gain more accuracy, I'm thinking we can make teacher gifts together. Friday afternoons are the perfect time to work on these things with her because Jack is at school and Eliza is either napping or having quiet time.  So.  We'll see.

But do you know what the most surprising discovery about my Mini Me is?  She kinda looks like me!  Yesterday the kids found a VHS of a couple of my elementary school drama performances, where I'm in 4th and 5th grade.  I could hardly believe how much Cat looks like me when I was 9 and 10.  Don't get me wrong, I still think she favors Ben more than me, but I like that she resembles me somewhat.