Cave children

I don't remember if it's shaky science or just a disregard for the probable balance of "nature versus nurture" in human development (and I don't feel like doing the research right now), but there's a theory that children seem to look like their fathers at birth more often than they look like their mothers...AND that the reason is because Cave Fathers were more likely to protect and care for their children if there was a physical resemblance. Darwin and his (more scientifically sound) Theory of Natural Selection would indicate that children resembling their mothers would be more vulnerable and less likely to survive, ensuring that the next generation would also tend to look like their dads.

Of course, the genetics of our physical attributes aren't as mathematically simple as all that...but I have a point here, people!!! Don't distract yourselves with minute details!

So I have been raising the epitome of these dad-dominant-genetic kids. My daughters, in birth order, have always been my husband's Mini Me and her Mini Me. (There's two-and-a-half years difference in their ages.) They share a room and I checked on them a few minutes ago, using only the hallway light so as not to wake them. Looking down at my older daughter's bed, I honestly could not tell whether it was her or her sister. Looking over at my youngest daughter's bed, it was equally impossible to discriminate between the two. In the dim light of the hall light, and looking at them several seconds longer, only the moderate difference in their size gave it away.

And, although my son has no brother to whom I could compare him, he's always been a white-blond-haired version of his dark-brown-haired father (my husband from a previous marriage). At 10 years old, I always figure his hair will turn darker sometime soon. Then in the winters it's blond, and in the summers it's white. Aside from his childhood hair color the only physical resemblance to that I can see to me...the woman who carried him for almost nine months and endured nearly three hours of epidural-dulled labor...is his teeth. He's even got his father's smaller mouth, from which several of his big, mom-sized teeth have to be pulled before the remainder can be straightened the rest of the way out. Here's an interesting fact about this young man, too...he's "double-jointed" (a misnomer) wherever a person can be. For instance, he can wrap his left arm around his head so tight that he can reach around and place his left hand flat on the left side of his face. He very much enjoys showing off that and his other tricks (like flipping both his legs behind his head) to surprise other kids.