two questions for which i have no answer

happy mlk day!

i was going to call this post "¿dónde es la madre de ellos?" as that would fit as well.

two questions: one question alarming--because it has been asked several times--and one not so much, but both are questions that i have no good answer for, and they always seem to pop up (regarding sophie) from younger female native new mexicans. the first one is, why aren't her ears pierced yet? my answer for this, which sounds completely lame, is that it isn't part of my culture (whatever the hell that may be) to pierce an infant's ears. i was nine when i got my first set of piercings and i think if she asks for it anytime after the age of five she can have it.

that isn't the alarming one--the alarming one, which i heard again today, is how old is your granddaughter? once, at kohl's, i even got the two together: "why aren't your granddaughter's ears pierced yet?" in many places, having a child at 38 isn't terribly uncommon--even my mother was a happy surprise to my grandmother at 40. but i live in a place where i am almost twice the age of the average first-time mother. the most incredible story i have ever heard about having children came from one of the movers who moved us in here--he saw sophie (who was then about 9 weeks old) and told me that he just had a son who was about her age. he was a young guy so i asked if it was his first and he and the other movers (his cousin and his uncle) started laughing and said no...it was his seventh. he was 24 years old; he had his first child when he was 13 and his wife was 11. wow. and, as a really weird coincidence, his brother is one of rich's patients at UNM because he lost his eye in a car accident and his orbit can't hold a prosthetic eye properly.

anyway, while that is an extreme example, i really am closer to grandmother age here than not. so, today i thought i'd concentrate my pictures on just how cute my kiddos are and how little they look like their aged mother...(boo-hoo). it's those damned swedish genes--no wonder the vikings were so tenacious.

me smothering gus at school: some, but not too much resemblance.


me and gus in houston whilst enormously pregnant: not much resemblance.


little sophie and me: no resemblance.


side view: nope.


other side view: still nope.


two side profiles: nothing.


maybe when blurry there are some similarities...