Destined to Tan?

Yesterday, I was admiring my little Lola, as I do most days. She wore a hot pink skirted bikini and her hair in a high, perky ponytail, and she looked tall, slim, and tan. Tan. This is the two-year-old who patiently submits to thorough sunscreen-smearing sessions at least once a day, and often twice. She starts each day completely slathered in sunscreen, and then gets another application post-nap, if she is going outside. How could she possibly have a tan? I discussed this with my friend, Marcie, whose daughter Adriana has shown the same predisposition to tan. We blamed it on genetics, and our olive-skinned backgrounds, but it really brings home the fact that sunscreen is not a perfect medium. It rubs off, smears off, washes off. I hope and pray, that before my girls' baby faces get much older, that a better (less messy, more practical, easier) method of sun protection will be available. Just thinking about it makes me jealous of future moms who don't need to struggle to apply sunscreen to squirmy toddlers.