This is a photo from my 1st birthday party
Most people will tell you immediately whether they think your kids look like you. Babies tend to look like their fathers at first, and then the other traits come out that link them to their moms. I always looked more like my father's side of the family, and my brother leaned towards the traits on my mother's side. Eve, well, she looks cooler than all of us!! (Adopted, get it?) So, I've always gone with the theory that in some families - it's a match-up between mother/son and father/daughter.
I've personally never been able to see it in my own kids. I can see the resemblance between my baby photographs and theirs... but I've never said to myself, "Oh wow, I really see myself in them." They look like, well, Ayla and Jackson. Two new people in the world. A lot of Gregory's family sees a resemblance between Rachel (his older sister) and Ayla, and well, it's back to comparing pictures for me. I can see it sometimes and other times, not at all. Ayla makes the same faces as me - and that's when people say she looks like me. Is that just imitation or really a trait being carried through? Jackson is of course, compared to Gregory - but we have a picture in our house of Gregory's father that REALLY is Jackson. I think only a few people would be able to spot the differences.
But this is how I know Jackson is mine. The size of his head. The enormity of it. I come from a long line of large craniums. And bald, to really put an emphasis on it. :) When the nurses measured Jackson after he was born, they were shocked that I was able to have a natural delivery. Something along the lines of 14 1/2 cm around. His poor little skull had been so squeezed during delivery (luckily it was only about 30 minutes), he had broken blood vessels in his eyes and was quite the conehead. And every doctor's visit thereafter, Jackson has measured off the charts in head size. So his head is bigger than 100% of all babies out there? Poor guy.
When I've asked around in my family, this is a recurring trait. All of the boys have always been off the growth charts. My cousins' children, my uncles, my brother, my cousins themselves. The pediatrician measured me after her inquiry into whether the trait came from my family or Gregory's - I measure in the 98th percentile! I didn't think I'd ever be described as having a big head!
But I'll take it. I don't mind the extra space for my brain to grow. Jackson may be a little top-heavy sometimes, but the look is working for him. Most strangers will comment on his "distinguished" look, saying that he is handsome and one time a man actually stopped me to say that "Your little boy looks like he is going to be a genius." Ok! Awesome!
All of the physical, emotional and deeply psychological traits that we pass on with our genetics are fascinating. What's even more interesting is when they skip a generation and we see our parents in our children. Oooh, I just gave myself goosebumps.
I'll let you be the judge though, and compare one of my baby photos to Jackson and Ayla. It's always interesting what different people can see!
Ayla at just over a year And more recently with her Dada
And this is our man Jackson at his own first birthday party.
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