tan skin

I was just giving Brigid a shower and noticed how tan her little arms and legs are. The Saturday before last, mom took her to a swim lesson. When we got her back home, I noticed she had a decent burn on her face, arms, and the part of her back that shows through her swim suit. I guess Granny didn't reapply the sun block as often as she should have! Brigid complained that night that it hurt in the water when she was taking a bath. I put aloe gel on her burn, and after it soaked into the skin, put lotion like I always do. By the next morning, there was no redness, just tan!
I know that, technically, a tan is as much a sign of skin damage as a burn, and I shouldn't be happy about it. But I was one of those kids that would burn really bad in the sun, be red and hurt for days, then peel and be blindingly white again. So I'm mostly glad that the burn didn't hurt her too much. It was, after all, her first sunburn!
But seeing her little tan lines in the shower made me think how glad I am that some of Cameron's genes dominated mine! Thank goodness she has a little Native American, and Italian, instead of all Northern European!