Faces

My boys have an interesting way of describing people. They have often pointed out that I have a round face while my wife is more square, or oval. This description has carried over into their descriptions of classmates. "You know dad, the boy with the round face, like yours", or "the one with more of an oval face, like mom's."

The dialog has even been extended to family members. At first they asserted that my family is full of round faces, while my wife has more ovals, but they are willing to accept that certain members have cross-over features. Some of my relatives have "sort of oval faces, but not like mom's family", and some of her relatives have "rounded faces, even though they are on her side."

Recently I began to lose weight. My wife put on many pounds during her pregnancy, and managed to lose them all. I was not as diligent as she is and kept mine on, so finally decided to start losing my own baby weight.

A month ago my son pointed out that my face was becoming oval, due to my weight loss. This is no coincidence as it is shown that round-faced people carry weight in their cheeks, which I can certainly attest to. This study also shows that round faces age better, while ovals get hollower cheeks. I was excited about this new development in my appearance but my one son, with the round face, was upset. He thought he would be the only round face in the family. My wife and I assured him that even if my face becomes more rounded, I would still have a "mostly rounded-face", and this seemed to appease him.

In time I will teach the boys about the heart and rectangular shaped faces, when they're ready, but until then I will try and maintain my round, slightly oval face, knowing that if I stray, my boys will point it out.