The Apple Doesn't Fall Too Far From the Tree

See this child?

She makes me nuts sometimes, absolutely, completely, going up the wall, NUTS!  Some days she wakes up screaming and whining, and when it is time to go to bed, she is still screaming and whining.  She is hard headed, stubborn, and a force to be reckoned with; one minute I want to wring her neck, and the next I want to hug her and kiss her all over her sweet little cheeks.  I wonder how one child can make you want to scream, smile, cry, and laugh all in one day.  I often ask myself, where in the world did this child come from?!!!

That is, I asked myself that until yesterday, when I came across an old letter my mama had written to my granny when I was 18 months old; here is an excerpt:

"...Carrie got a card from Mrs. C and from her great grandmother Clyburn.  She excitedly ripped them apart. In fact, she bathed with MaMa's yesterday morning, and it came apart in a million pieces.
    If I didn't know better, I'd almost believe Carrie just dreams up things to torment me.  She's just gone bananas the past few days.  It's like she's saying, "I'm 18 months old, and you'd better take notice because I'm my own person."  She slaps and pulls hair, and wehn you tell her to stop, she goes into a tizzy.  She screams and gets rigid all over.  It's a temper tantrum, I guess.  She'll come up to me with a book, and if I don't stop what I'm doing immediately, she goes beserk.  We took her out for walks Saturday and Sunday, and she got so mad when we tried to get her to stay with us.  Oh yes, and now she has to have her dolls wrapped in blankets.
...Well, Sunday night Carrie was awake until after 3:00.  Last night she tried the same trick of waking up and screaming.  We let her scream, and it was simply awful, but it worked.  I really had to wrestle with myself not to go in there to her.  What she wants is to have me sleep on the floor beside her bed..."

I guess what they say is true, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

Here is the tree,

and here is the apple (well one of the apples).

Atleast, she is a stinkin' cute apple!