People often comment about how much my daughters look like me.  For a while there I couldn’t really see it.  Maybe I needed my eyes checked, because now I agree, it is pretty obvious.  But I also think that there is actually quite a bit of their dad in there too.  Their colouring is mine, but the shape of their features takes quite a lot from him as well.  I’ve been looking at our recent passport photos (yes!  we’re about to go on a short overseas family holiday!) and looking at the similarities and differences.

There really is nothing quite like a non-glasses, non-smiling, taken-slightly-from-below-to-emphasis-your-double-chin passport photo to induce a crisis of confidence in your appearance, is there? I’ve rarely seen a worse photo of me. But other than that, I can really see my husband in these photos of my girls. The shape of their faces, especially that little chin. That little nose.  The shape of their lips and the determined line of their mouth. The width of their eyes (mine are very narrow). And check them out when compared to their father’s school photo at the age of five:

I think that they look a lot more like their father than we often realise! Or am I deluding myself on that account as well? People often comment on how much my mother and I are alike. But if you actually stop and take a proper look, our features are completely different. Our colouring is different, and so is the size and shape of our eyes, nose and mouth. I am much more like my Dad’s family in looks (particularly the German heritage from a few generations back). However, Mum and I are a similar height and have similar body types – but even more so, we have similar gestures, expressions, and intonation. And therefore we resemble one another.  My brother, who looks nothing like me, is actually the one with the most physical resemblance to my mother (who also looks like her father, and so it goes on).

“They” also say that we often pick our life partners based on their similarity in looks to ourselves. I suppose that my husband, with his Dutch heritage, and me with my Scottish/English/German heritage, do have some similarities. Which would explain why our daughters look a bit like both of us. Which also makes sense – after all, genetically they are half from each of us! Ah, genetics, it’s interesting stuff! And as for the personality similarities….that’s a whole other thing to think about!