Before Simon was born, I spent much time wondering what he (or she, since I didn’t know) might look like. Matt and I are physical opposites, so the possibilities were endless.
Would his hair be reddish and straight or dark and curly? Would he get Matt’s large but distinguished nose, or my family’s equally large but rather bulbous one? Tall or short? Brown eyes or blue? My prominent chin or Matt’s slightly weak one? Would he have Matt’s warm coloring or my cool complexion?
Well, it’s too early to know about almost all of these questions. All we can see now is that his hair is dark to start with and that he seems to have gotten Matt’s chin.
And alas, for the last week or so he’s also had my blotchy skin. Matt and I both had lousy skin as teens, but Matt’s cleared up in his late twenties, while mine kept being crappy right up until I got pregnant. And now, at only three weeks, Simon has his very own case of newborn acne. Newborn acne is probably caused by Simon processing estrogen from my system, and in Simon’s case it is exacerbated by the amount of spitting up he does. It’s just impossible to keep it off his face and hands at all times, and newborn pores don’t function well.
This requires no treatment and will clear up on its own, but it’s hard not to look at him and feel personally responsible and like I’m getting a preview of what we all have to look forward to once Simon hits the teen years.