Saturday, January 23, 2010

Blue genes

I love genetics. According to basic Mendelian principles, Tareka and I have a 1 in 4 chance of having a child with blonde hair or blue eyes, despite us both being brown-eyed brunettes. Tareka's father has both blonde hair and blue eyes, so Tareka has a gene for both characteristics. My mother has blue eyes, and her mother had blonde hair and blue eyes so I should be carrying the gene for blue eyes, and possibly the one for blonde hair too.
As both blonde hair and blue eyes are the recessive gene, I was not surprised to have 2 daughters with both dark hair and eyes - like their parents - but I always joked that we had a chance of having a baby that didn't look like it came from us!

Now we have him.

Our little boy was distinctly fairer than his 2 sisters were at birth, and although we won't know for sure for about a month or so, he is looking like he may well have blue eyes. I love the fact that my 2 daughters have different characteristics - one has straight hair, the other curls - and now our little man is going to be different again!

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