I spent a good part of the weekend going through my kids' old school photos. After years of stashing them in a drawer with an intention to do something with them sometime, I finally bought a couple of multi-opening frames for each kid and sorted through the shots to find ones to feature. One thing that struck me was how many more photos I had from their younger days than from recent school years; the delivery system for school photos broke down somewhere around junior high, so while every preschool and elementary year is commemorated, I'm missing a lot after sixth grade. For my daughter, there are at least some high-school marching-band portraits, but my son's camp and baseball photos all are of younger years.
And looking at those younger photos of him has been a revelation. Shortly after we adopted him at age 21 months, he was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Effects, and I've always thought that one thing he didn't have was the distinctive facial features that usually go with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. But seeing these older photos of him ... wow. That's some thin upper lip. Some flat philtrum. Some epicanthal folds. Looking at some of those grinning faces, it's hard to see how we could have overlooked those facial features. Maybe they were most apparent when he flashed a huge cheesy smile for the school photographer. His normal serious face, captured in a photo or two, was less noticeably feature-filled.
Have you ever been surprised by something when looking at old photos of your child? Share in the comments.