Look-Alikes

A couple of ladies at church on Sunday were commenting about how much Courtland looks like Isaac. Since Isaac had curly hair and wasn’t much older than Courtland when we moved here last year, they said that Courtland looks so much like Isaac did then. I think that Courtland doesn’t look much like Isaac at all (except, of course, for the fact that all my kids definitely have that ‘Bradshaw boy’ look and you can tell they’re all brothers). If anything, I think Courtland looks like Camden. And I always thought that Camden looked like Kolby’s baby pictures. Isaac, I think, has the most unique look of any of my boys, but he probably looks the most like Eli – just because as babies both of them had a little bit longer faces, and the other three had more round faces.

When he was a newborn Kolby had light brown hair, but soon it lightened up and as a baby and toddler Kolby had very blonde hair. Since Michael and I both have brown hair, people would always ask us where Kolby got his blonde hair, and we would tell them that we were both blonde when we were little. Kolby’s hair has started to get a little darker already (earlier than both Michael’s and mine did, I think). Plus Michael and I each had some blonde siblings, and some who have remained blonde into adulthood.  Although lots of people who knew Michael when he was young thought that Kolby looked like him (they had a similar haircut too), he also had a strong resemblance to pictures of my youngest brother Aaron as a little boy, so I guess he is a good mix of both sides of our family. Kolby had a cute little round face, brown eyes, and very straight hair.  I just assumed that all my babies would look like that – blonde, straight hair, and either brown or blue eyes.  (In my family growing up, my dad had brown eyes and my mom had blue/green/grey eyes.

     

I was the oldest, and my youngest brother and I got my mom’s eyes, and my two sisters and other brother all got brown eyes). I remember when I was pregnant with Eli thinking that since Kolby and Eli were going to be so close in age and assuming that they would look quite similar, that people would probably always ask me if they were twins.




Kolby, age 2

    

Stephanie                                                         2004                                                      Michael           

Then I had Eli. He was my only baby that wasn’t born with much hair. And his hair was a light brown – almost a strawberry blonde color, and strangers would comment about my little red head (which wouldn’t have been too much of a surprise if he’d really turned out to be a red head, since my dad had bright red hair until after he was married and it turned brown when he was an adult). But Eli’s hair didn’t keep the red tint, although he did inherit my light skin and freckled complexion – like my dad and grandma too. So far, he’s my only child with freckles (but we’ll see, because Eli’s freckles only started to show up in the last year or two). Eli just had short fuzzy baby hair when he was born, and it seemed to grow very slowly. When it did grow in it was light brown and had a little bit of a wave in it. And Eli’s eyes were interesting too.  For a while there it looked like he was going to have real green eyes as a baby, but then they kind of changed to a lighter brown color – so we call them hazel, like Michael’s eyes. And Eli’s face was more of an oval shape than round like Kolby’s. And people all the time would tell me how very different Kolby and Eli looked – many people even said they didn’t even look like brothers.

Elijah and Kolby

Camden was born with blonde silky hair. He has adorable dimples, which he inherited from my Grandma Bev. And he had the same little round face as Kolby, but his eyes were blue. Actually, his eyes were the same clear, light blue as Isaac’s until he turned 1 ½ years old and then his eyes changed to a more grey blue like mine (I knew many babies’ eye color changed when they were about 8 or 10 months old, but had never heard of them changing at that age). My eyes, like my mom’s, are kind of different – they change colors. They change between blue, green, and grey depending on things like what color of shirt I’m wearing, if I’ve been swimming in a chlorinated pool, or if I’ve been crying. I haven’t noticed that in Camden’s eyes yet, but that’d be kind of cool if he inherited that from me too. When Camden was about 8 or 9 months old, we were very surprised that his hair got curly when it grew out. Who would have guessed that we would have a curly-haired child? Michael’s hair is straight, and although mine is more wavy than it usually looks (I usually blow-dry it straight), the only time my hair looked curly was when we lived in Nashville when I was little and it was very humid in the summertime.

But Camden’s hair was very curly, with ringlets all over his head, all year round and in all kinds of weather. I have an uncle who has curly hair, but that’s about as close as it gets. So, I thought Camden looked a lot like Kolby as a baby, but once he had his curly hair no one seemed to be able to see a resemblance. Camden’s hair is still curly, but has gotten a lot thicker now that he’s not a baby anymore, so it takes more maintenance to keep it looking nice, and he looks really cute now too with the shorter spiked hair. But it was funny, because when I had Kolby and Eli everyone talked about how different they looked. Then when I had Camden, everyone (including the same people who had commented about Kolby and Eli looking so different) said that Kolby and Eli looked so alike and Camden looked so different. I think it was mostly just that his hair looked different.

Camden, Kolby, and Eli, 2008

When we had Isaac, he had his own look too. As our friend put it, he looked like a Bradshaw boy. They all have a resemblance, and you can tell they’re all brothers. But beyond that I think Isaac doesn’t look much like his brothers. Although, I have to admit that there were moments when I came across baby pictures of Camden that made me recant that statement. But I thought that Isaac had a longer face – kind of like Eli (actually, I don’t think Eli’s and Isaac’s baby pictures look much alike, but I think when Isaac was a baby he looked kind of like Eli did at that time). And Isaac inherited the Bradshaw nose from Michael’s side. He has really beautiful blonde hair (maybe he’ll stay blonde – who knows?) And he has really light, bright blue eyes. Like crystal blue, I guess is a good way to describe the color.

When he was born, he had a dimple on the left side of his face. I haven’t noticed his dimple as much as he’s gotten older, but you can still see it when he smiles sometimes. And he’s definitely got a cute little mischievous grin. When Isaac was born people said he looked different than his brothers too, until his hair grew out curly like Camden’s, and then everyone always asked if they were twins up until the day I cut Camden’s hair. (They were our closest in age – 13 months apart). I tried to let Isaac’s hair grow out curly again recently, but it didn’t have much curl left in it, and I cut it again because he looks so cute with it spiked.

Isaac and Camden, 2009

And I’ve always thought Courtland had the same round face as Kolby and Camden. I think it’s a lot easier to see the resemblance between Camden’s and Courtland’s baby pictures too, because they both have the curls. Courtland was born with a little bit of a cleft chin, like Michael, which is different than all his brothers (and adorable, if you ask me). His hair was light when he was born – lots of people comment about my three little blonde babies, but Courtland’s hair has always been just a little darker than Kolby’s, Camden’s, and Isaac’s was. And Courtland has blue eyes too, but a different shade of blue than either Camden’s or Isaac’s. They are kind of a darker blue color than his brothers, I’d say.

I think that it seems like the boys look a little more alike as they get older, or maybe it’s just the fact that they all have more similar haircuts when they’re older. Who knows? But I just had to share some pictures of my adorable babies.

Camden, Eli, Courtland, Kolby, and Isaac, 2009

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Look-Alikes:

Camden                                                         Courtland

Elijah                                                                      Isaac           

Kolby        Camden   

Isaac Kolby

Courtland                                                                  Camden

Eli    Isaac

Camden                                                  Courtland

                          Isaac                                                                  Eli            

Kolby       

Courtland

Courtland                                                                        Kolby