Inheritance

I've taken inspiration from Josie's latest Writing Workshop for this post - better late than never...

I always secretly hoped that one of my children would inherit my eyes. I come from a light-eyed family - mostly blue, though my sister's are grey and mine are more green. My mum says she still finds it slightly startling to look at her grandchildrens' golden-brown eyes, inherited from their father. Her other two grandchildren, from my brother, are both blue-eyed boys.

I hope my children are slim like I am. But I also hope my daughter doesn't grow quite as tall as me. Though I will still encourage her to wear high heels if she does.

I'd rather they get their father's nose. But either of our legs will be fine.

One thing I can already see they have inherited from us is a terrible case of undereye circles. Adrian and I are both horribly afflicted by these - I always have been, even as a child. And Freyja in particular has the same shadowy eyes, despite a 7pm bedtime and sleeping for 12 hours most nights. I will introduce her to YSL Touche Eclat when the time comes.

I pray that they get their father's teeth - it will save us a fortune in dentist bills.

And his brain would be good too - mine is fine, but he has this photographic memory thing going on which comes in handy.

His musical genes - though they could come from me too, it's in my family, just passed me by.

Freyja retreats into herself at times, like her father did when he was a boy. Though I see flashes of my sister in her too. Theo is more gregarious - apparently like his Uncle Seb. And then they suddenly swap roles, Freyja laughing and clamouring for attention and Theo shaking his head quietly at anyone who tries to engage with him.

Different people see different things, both in looks and personality. Me, Adrian, my father, Adrian's mother, my brother, my sister, Adrian's brother....the truth is that they are a wonderful mish-mash of all of us, with a large dose of no one but themselves.