You are all right, their "color" can take away. Our DD #3 is biracial, no one could really tell she was biracial until her hair came in curlier at 18months old. Even then she had loose curls. At about 2 you could probably tell but because of her hair not skin color.
DD#4 is full AA. She was born looking like an Eskimo.
By the time she was a couple weeks old she already was very dark.
DS#5 is also full AA. He was very light skin but had black features. He is actually LIGHTER than our Biracial daughter!
It's all in the genes. My cousin has 4 children with the same man, he is AA she is very light Caucasian. All 4 kids have different texture hair & skin tones!! Same thing with a friend of our who has 5 children, all different shades all different skin tones.
Deb