Monday, July 28, 2008

Look Into My Eyes

Once, at a restaurant, someone asked us a question indicating that she assumed we must have adopted Ellie. After all, she has blond hair, while both Paul and I have brown hair.

More humorously, after gymnastics one day a boy asked Paul if Ellie was Japanese.

A writer friend saw me out with both girls recently and asked about Ada, "Does she look a lot like your husband, then?"

Well, Ada used to look a lot like me, but she does look quite a bit more like Paul, now.

The eyes, though, the eyes are unique.

Paul has aquatic blue eyes, though the flash washes them out a little here:

He is now concerned about his unequal pupils. I tried to tell him that it had to do with their proximity and reaction to the flash, but he's now convinced that he has a brain tumor. (It was the flash. Though he did use 600 minutes on his cell phone last month . . .)

I have brown eyes. My eyes were . . . not brown until I was nearly three. They've been brown ever since, but a rather unusual shade of brown if I do say so myself. They're sort of redish brown around the pupil and greenish brown closer to the outside of the iris:


My dad has blue/green eyes, so Paul's and my kids have (roughly) a 50% chance of having light eyes.

Ellie's eyes are nothing short of stunning, even when over-exposed:

In person, they're even brighter.

Ada's eyes are the most mysterious of all. They're dark, and people often assume that they're brown, but they're not. At least, not yet.

They can be gray:

Or more hazel


And here, for no good reason, is a gratiutous shot of my hair:

As it looks a year after this nonsense:

5 comments:

Jessica said...

You have gorgeous kids AND hair, Sarahlynn (per my comment at our recent coffee get together). It's really grown a lot in a year's time!

Re: Ellie's eyes, I agree they are even brighter than the posted pic but I have to say...the over-exposure produces a really cool effect in that pic.

carrhop said...

The genetic soup surely makes things interesting, huh? With our eight, three have green like mine--but all of the green vary in tone and depth. The rest of the crew have blue like their daddy--but no one has his exact shade of shocking sky blue--

Love the hair confessional pics--we've all had those seasons( mine was unfortunately at the time of my wedding, so I have thousands of dollars of pictures of my husband and this bride who pretty much does.not.look.like.me....
Blessings!

Maddy said...

We're got two with brown eyes and two with blue eyes. Someone insists that they're called hazel for some unaccountable reason.
Cheers

Sarahlynn said...

Jessica, I've been feeling like it's taking forever for my hair to grow out, but seeing the pictures is impressive! By next summer, I think I'll have reached my goal. I might die of heatstroke first, though. (It's a LOT of hair.)

(Also, thanks very much! In return: my mom said about you tonight, "She's so pretty. And still looks so young!)

Octamom, I absolutely love watching genetics play out in families. Fascinating, much moreso than in, say, fruit flies. Ah, college. Bummer about your wedding hair!

They call the blues hazel or the browns hazel? Either way: odd!

Beachcomber said...

I love the family photos. That picture of Ellie is absolutely stunning.