I have a question for y’all. Lain does not look overwhelmingly like Clancy or myself yet. She has my eyes, Clancy’s mouth, and we figure it’s all going to come down to the nose. Temperamentally, she appears to be taking a bit more after Clancy. At least so far, to the extent that you can tell such things from an infant.

I take after my mother, both in looks and in temperament. It’s mostly in the facial shape and the nose. My eyes, hair, and lips I got from my father, but the shape overwhelms everything else. Even a woman who had a stroke and was half-oblivious to the world immediately identified me as my mother’s son (long story). And temperamentally, Mom is a writer, has a real internal stubborn streak, an innately hot temper, loves to tell stories, was never big on school (though did well). It’s an odd sort of bond that actually prevents us from bonding because we find ourselves spinning in the same direction and feeding off one another in some not-great ways. (I love Mom, Mom loves me. That’s not the issue. We understand one another better, I think, than anyone else on the planet.)

Clancy takes after her father in a pretty big way. Again, in looks and temperament.

It’s been an interesting thing that I have noticed, actually. If a child takes after one parent in appearance, he or she is more likely to also take after that parent in temperament. It also seems like most people I know are more likely to take after the opposite-sex parent. But obviously this is often not the case. (My brother takes after my father in looks and temperament, one of Clancy’s sister takes more after her mother in looks while in appearance both sisters are more middling than she is.)

So my question, dear readers, is which parent you take after (if one more than the other, “both equally” is an acceptable answer). And have you generally noticed a correlation between which parent someone takes after visually and which one they take after temperamentally?