Blue Genes

Craig and I have spent the last three years wondering how we ended up with two blue-eyed daughters. He half-jokingly calls them the pool boy's kids because his own eyes are as chocolate brown as they come.

I thought I had it all figured out from the two weeks we learned about genes in my college biology class. I learned back then that hazel and green are parts of the blue-eyed gene, so a person with hazel eyes(me) has a 13% chance to have a blue-eyed child if she gets it on with a blue-eyed carrier(Craig). Having TWO kids who were a 13% shot is, like compounding percents ...too much math for me. But I'd been thinking we should play the lottery with those odds.

So anyway, now it seems that the old beliefs about recessive blue-eyed genes are not altogether accurate. The recessive inheritance works the same way, but now there's some more juicy tidbits. I'll spare you a LOT of super-smart sounding, scientificy mumbo-jumbo about genomes and the blue-eyed gene, and just give you the interesting parts.

A gazillion years ago, everyone had brown eyes. Scientists discovered a genetic mutation that causes blue eyes, and that it came from one person a thousand years ago. And they now believe that people with blue eyes have a single common ancestor.

Also, get this, people with hazel eyes like me are just freaks in general, because they are a further mutation of the blue gene. Hazel eyes can't decide if they want to be brown or green so they shift around, helped by a genetic mutation that allows them to do so.

So...here is my conclusion. All three of my girls are mutants, and Christian and I are mutants to the 2nd power. The only normal gene pool around here is Craig.

He knew this all along, I bet.