Family Resemblance
Henry looks like Kristen, Kristen’s father, Kristen’s brother, Kristen’s grandmother… everyone related to Kristen. He looks (at the moment, at least) nothing like me. (Except when he’s sleeping; then he’s a spitting image of ol’ dad.)
I’m not so worried about this because he changes his looks more often than Bela Lugosi. But it has given us a funny moment or two.
(An aside: we have two sets of friends with young babies right around Henry’s age. In both cases, the parents are of different backgrounds [I refuse to say "race"; black or Hispanic or Asian is not a race. But I digress], and each has had situations where complete strangers have complimented the mothers on how cute their babies were and then asked where they were adopted from. First off, mind your own business, nosy strangers. Second… MIND YOUR MANNERS!)
Back to my story. Anyway, so a few weeks ago, we were at the grocery store, and I had Henry strapped to my chest in his baby carrier. He and I wandered (well, I wandered; he had no choice) over to the deli to get some lunch meat. I grabbed a number and waited for it to be called. It shortly was by a short middle-aged Asian woman. But before I could ask for 3/4 lb of the Sara Lee honey turkey sliced thin, she looked at me and pointed at Henry.
“Where the mother?” she asked. (Now I don’t want to sound racist or anything, but she had a really thick accent and spoke in semi-broken English — missing verbs and articles — and I’m trying to be as accurate as possible.)
“What’s that?”
“The baby. Where the mother?” She was a little angry now.
“Uh, over there,” I say, pointing to where Kristen was manhandling a cantaloupe.
The deli woman looks over at Kristen, then at Henry, then back at Kristen. She smiled.
“Ah, the mother.” She nodded. Then she got very serious. “Now what you want?”
June 8th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Ha! I think the worst I’ve gotten is when a woman in Target asked if he was mixed and then said “Because he doesn’t look like you” and then she followed up by asking how much I paid for my stroller.
June 9th, 2009 at 6:44 am
I like that Kristen was manhandling melons while this absurd exchange was going on. Clearly, Raphe, you kidnapped the baby and stuck him in the Baby Bjorn you wear at all times just in case you come across an unattended child. Now, what freaks ME out is when I see parents wandering around with a stroller full of shopping bags and no baby in sight. Where is the baby??
June 13th, 2009 at 7:55 am
That’s weird. Yes, Henry does look a lot like Kristen, but it’s not as if you look that different from either of them, you know?
My brother’s girlfriend gets some strange looks when she’s out with my nephew. She’s very dark (half Filipina, half Italian), and my nephew is very pale, like our side of the family. Maria often jokes that people probably think she’s Tony’s Mexican nanny…and she’s probably right.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:35 am
That is really odd. I would’ve been like “huh? why do you ask?” People haven’t come out and asked either of us anything, but they may be thinking it. I don’t think Talia looks much like me (although very much so me as a baby), except her coloring. She looks so much like Tarik except his coloring. It’ll be interesting to see what she looks like in the next few years. With some hair.