Genes wonder

Genetics amaze me. I'm sitting on the couch (always with the sitting lately, nursing this babe. Who will soon be a gorgeous fat buddha baby from all this nursing. But I digress.) So I'm sitting on the couch, looking down the lineup of my kids. Blonde, golden-tanned, blue eyed Seth. Dark haired, dark eyed, porcelain pale Thane, my clone. Little blonde Claire is next, with her fair skin and icy blue eyes. And finally black haired Maxwell in my arms, deep blue eyes so far. Will his eyes stay blue or turn dark like my own and Thane? Will he have our pale skin that burns in the shade, or Seth and Troy's golden surfer complexions? He already has the tiny little nose and long eyelashes characteristic of our kids. I see little bits and pieces of both my husband and I in each of them, little bits and pieces of our own parents, our siblings, our extended families. My husband has the blue eyes and dark hair, although he was blonde as a kid, and big strong german features. My grandmother is Danish, where I attribute my two little blonde Danes to.

But how do all of these characteristics line up? How is it that my kids barely look like siblings at times, but in some ways I can see so many resemblances between them? And some other families have lineups of kids that look more like identical multiples than just siblings. And that's not even taking into account their personalities! I see little versions of Troy and I coming out in them so often, and often in ways that couldn't possibly just be learned from us. My nephew even sits like his father. Then there's the ways they're so purely themselves, like Seth's extremely outgoing personality. I'm quite a chatty person, but this kid outshines me tenfold in the chatter department!

So strange.