1/17/10

Why She'll Never Need To Tan

YMCA Childcare Worker: Is she a mixed race?

Me: ....um...no.

YCW: I thought maybe she was just jaundiced but then I checked her age and figured she was too old for that.

Me: ...um...yeah. I've got some Choctaw a few generations back. I tan easily.

YCW: Well, she sure is dark.

Me: Thanks...

49 comments:

Jari said...

cute! i love her!!!
when both of my daughters were born, they came out looking suuuper dark, black hair! (totally didn't look like my children at all - pastey white ole me!) but i used to get the strangest looks when we'd be at the store... but now, it's the perfect skin tone for them - and we look like we might be related. they are part sioux... like their daddy... but hey, at one time, i did have a little indian in me too! ha ha! get it? :)
xo.

Elsie Larson said...

no way!

she's lucky though. i hate tanning. <3

Diana said...

she is adorable!! she's also perfect the way she is.

RachelDenbow said...

Jari! You're manners! HAHA!!! Love it.

Your daughters are beautiful.

emilia. said...

aww! i just adore the quizzical faces that babies make.

i'm choctaw too (represent!)... and 50% italian. aaaand yet, i'm super white. hmmph!

she's a lucky one :)

Unknown said...

my boy was super tanned as well ;)
we joked that it was due to my constant
sun tanning while I was pregnant with
him. but, somehow over time (like, a month
or so) he became fairer. and I didn't
notice it until someone else pointed it
out LOL

Riah said...

I'm mixed and I need to tan like crazy.

I'm WAAY to white for a light skinned girl

Amy said...

I'm sorry but that's hilarious!
That's just one of those moments you have to laugh!
You should have ask them, "mixed with what?" Do that have a particular group/country in mind when they say "mixed"? Next time just say "half and half - half formula, half breast milk"
(hopefully no one will ask again!)
I mean really, who gives a crap! As long as she properly dressed (winter time!) and happy (hopefully!)

Courtney Jane said...

Tanning = the devil.

She is blessed.

Allison Drew said...

Haha! What a precious baby.

Cassie xo said...

Aww she's so adorable in that pic!

We Blog Artists said...

She's GORGEOUS, and that dress is beautiful on her.... I get "are they yours?"..."How long have you had them?"....Oh...and "Their Father must be REALLY dark!"...
The cheek of some people!
It makes me love our girls even more though.
Have a great day...
Char

Ashley Morris said...

Um, wow at the lady at the Y... lol

I'm totally the same way - my family has Cherokee (my grandma being the last to have just enough to live on a reservation) so I understand the whole tanning easy (which is good - I hate tanning! lol).

In my baby pictures I totally looked like a Native American baby - dark olive skin and black hair! At some point, though, that all changed, lol. It's totally weird how all of that works!

Michelle B said...

My babies are 1/2 Greek - with nice olive skin. I am a white Irish girl. When they were born the nurses kept checking my tag and theirs to make sure they actually went with me!

Ruby is so very cute!

Jenn Grigoryev (jenn of all trades) said...

i love when people try to come across as really intelligent and observant when they're not.

people have the opposite reaction to my kids--my husband has olive skin and dark hair/eyes, but all my kids are pale, pale, pale like me. i've had people ask me if they had a different dad. it's times like those you wonder why certain people weren't born mute. or at least put into, like, a moron colony or something. :)

Judith said...

I got your link on my blog!

xx
Judith ^Hartje-Bloem^

Rachel said...

Seriously? People are so odd! And what a lucky gal, I wish I was tan in the cold month of January!

Anonymous said...

that's so awkward of her to say. i always feel strange when faced with those super weird parenting moments. well, at least she's gorgeous and adorable! :) you lucked out in the "darling girl" category. :)

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

~sigh~ Some people have no common sense. Funny - my sister's two kids are adopted and people tell her all the time that my niece looks JUST like her. :o)

tamara said...

I have a 10 month old neice and she looks dark too. I agree with Elsie though..tanning sucks!

Meg said...

My little girl is the same way, she doesn't get it from me, but her great-grandma on my husbands side has Spanish in her, so that is where it comes from! I had a lady ask me if I was mixed race once when she was cutting my hair, because it is so curly, so if Izzy gets my hair then I am sure that she will be asked the same! Your daughter is beautiful and so are you!
xoxo~Meg

emily anderson said...

this post made me spit out my cereal that i was eating...it's so funny!
i get something similar all the time...i married an asian, and i'm as white as can be. so my kids, of course, tend to look like their daddy. i'm always asked if they are adopted (or some people have the galls to ask if i'm their babysitter cause i tend to look young as well...nice) when it's just me with them. *sigh* i birthed those babies and am proud of it :)

margot said...

she's perfect!

Alexandra Rae said...

Haha! Rachel, Ruby will love it though! I have been blessed with super tan skin, and it's amazing! She'll always look healthy, because it's a "natural" glow :-)

I always get lectures about the dangers of tanning beds... even though I've never, ever used one!!!

Anonymous said...

Hee hee! When my daughter was born I thought for sure someone had switched her... even though she never left my sight... she had almost black hair and tan skin. I have blonde hair and white skin. She definitely gets her coloring from her dad, lol. Her hair is lighter now but I took a picture the other day where you could still see the drastic difference in our skin tones!

xx

Lane said...

Lol...My kids are 1/2 Mexican, when I had my daughter, I thought she was so light and I kept telling everyone "I can not believe how light her skin is"...until one day I was breastfeeding her and she was 4 shades darker than my skin...lol. Ruby is so cute blue is her color.

Our Green Nest said...

She's so adorable...the things people say though! :) Wow.

I am olive skinned too (French background) and I love it but sometimes it's annoying when I'm outside for 15 mins and already have a tan line! Still got to put on that sunscreen...

the whyte house said...

whaaaaat?? tell them she's half angel, half doll. she's so stinkin' cute!!

Alizabeth Reinhart said...

ha, wow ppl say the dumbest things sometimes.

shes so cute and perfect. =)

Sara said...

Amazing the fuss people make over skin tone!

She's lovely!

Melody said...

Your daughter is so cute. But honestly that kind of comment would have made me a little mad. I just think that was rude of her to ask that. You handled it well though.

I've always thought Ruby had a beautiful and clear complexion. I'm excited to watch how she changes as she grows up. So far her little facials expressions are my favorite.

Big Yellow Dog said...

Too funny! There is something about YMCA workers...once a girl at the Y told me she thought my 15 month old had a speech delay. I just gave her an awkward smile and said goodbye. I LOVE the look on her face. She is thinking about something really puzzling!
~Margaret

Amy said...

My oldest son Connor was very dark when he was born - and every month he got a little lighter and lighter until he became as pale as me ;( His dark hair fell out and blonde grew back in it's place. Now at 4 his hair is light brown.
You just never know! Babies change so much the first few years!

Valentina Harper said...

This is really funny!
Your baby is *SUPER CUTE* :)

lexylou said...

Ha! The stuff that comes out of people's mouth.... Some people, like this lady, do not have an inner voice that tells them to probably not say what pop's into her head.
I am part native, Metis, and I have blonde hair and blue eyes. People don't believe me when I say I am half native. But I do tan pretty dark, thank the gods...

Jaimie said...

what an odd question for that lady to ask!

Unknown said...

So cute! I'm sure that'll happen to us when we have kids, although, mine will be mixed! ;) I'm a white, white girl with a dark, handsome, hispanic husband. ;) I tell him I married him for his dark curly hair so that our kids will always have great hair! ;)

Anonymous said...

aww she is too cute!! :)

http://candidnoir.blogspot.com

amy is the party said...

People can be so nosy and weird! She's adorable and has beautiful skin!

frecklewonder said...

some folks really need to reset their edit button, jeez! what an awkward moment. i find that strangers really ask the most invasive questions when it comes to pregnancy and babies and stuff- like, why is it ever ok to ask if a baby was vaginally delivered? and make comparisons between a perfect, round head of a c-section baby and a pointy funny head of those not. i mean, really?! who comes up with this stuff!!! in what other context is it ok for a complete stranger to say the word v-a-g-i-n-a (or some form of it) to you in casual convo? or "Are YA BREAST FEEEEEDING???" i mean... who's business is that but yours and your baby's???
my maternal grandmother is panamanian, and my biological father (who is different from my DAD/bio father of my sister) is irish. so of course, i look way more irish than hispanic. and people always get so thrown off by the fact that i have red hair + freckles and my sister has olive skin and brown hair... and yet, we have similar facial features and if you stick my mom in between us, you can totally tell we're related... but not sure why people really need the explanation??

xoxo ruby!

Stace and Joey said...

I remember when my 17 yr old was a baby. We went out to dinner and an older couple asked us if she was "ours" We both have dark hair and she is a true red head. I was so insulted and this started me dyeing my hair more red afor a lot of years.

Ruby is gorgeous and shame on the worker for the uncomfortable questions.

M.M.E. said...

She's gorgeous! I'm so pale my mother calls me 'see-through'. I can't even tan when I go to a tanning bed. I just get hives.

Leigh-Ann said...

somebody said that!?
LOl @ jari! ;) and better yet, Rachel's reaction! ;)

Suzanne said...

wow! it never ceases to amaze me how people think it's OK to just say/ask stuff like that. my sister is half-inuit (also never needs to tan :) and she works at a bank, and she gets asked at LEAST once a week what she 'is'... like, people actually say "what ARE you?".

Samantha said...

my daugther is the same color and it's the perfect shade. she's light enough to look gorgeous in the winter (without looking too pale) and in the summer when she tans she'll have a hint of gold...perfect!

Anne said...

Kind of an odd conversation to have with a nursery worker, but Ruby is beautiful. Bonus for her that she won't have to tan!!

ricebabies said...

She is adorbale. Some people just have diarrhea of the brain, they cant keep things in their head.

katie hanson said...

hahahaha so awesome!

Unknown said...

people are funny! they feel free to say anything, right?
she is SO cute.