I have two children who are opposites on the spectrum when it comes to coloring. My oldest son is very dark in skin, hair, and eyes. My youngest is very fair in all of those areas. So often when we are out and about, people do a double take and blurt out things like “Where did that blond hair come from?” or “Wow, are they both yours?” or even “Gosh, their daddies must have had very different coloring.”

I have very similar coloring to my oldest son, so I can see why people think it’s a little strange for my youngest to be so fair. But honestly my husband doesn’t have very dark hair and he has blue eyes, so it’s not a huge surprise. Plus we were both blond as children. Not really towheaded white blond like my toddler is, but still we both had light hair and it darkened as we grew. It’s quite common, actually! Add to that the fact that my mom has light colored eyes, and clearly we just have a kid with mostly dominant gene expression and one with mostly recessive gene expression. Unusual, but certainly not impossible or even improbable!

So I’m always a little taken aback when people think that they must have different fathers. And I’m not quite sure what that says about *me* as a person. They are nearly 4 years apart so I don’t suppose it’s completely out of the realm of possibility that I might have had more than 1 relationship in that period of time, but when you’ve been with the same person since you were 17 (yes, I was jail bait when we first met!) it seems a little presumptuous when people ASSume I’m a man jumper or something. It really couldn’t be farther from the truth, and I’m very proud of the fact that we have been together for such a long time, especially considering our ages when we met and the things we’ve gone through together. Not a lot of people my age can say the same. Not that it’s bad if you can’t, of course!

But all of this does make me wonder what type of gene expression this one will have. Will this one be a redhead with green eyes? There are some redheads in the extended family, so it’s possible. I think more than likely he (or she?) will probably be a perfect blend of us, just like our other 2 children.

Or there’s always the theory that my oldest is a bit darker because he came out of the oven late (a week overdue) and my youngest is lighter because we took him out a bit early (2 weeks) so maybe it all depends on how long I carry this one. I was considering not finding out the sex this time but my husband won’t go for it (he says the surprise was in the beginning!) so perhaps our big surprise at the end will be in the complexion. We’ve now had one born with brown eyes (seriously, brown from the womb) and one born with blue eyes that stayed blue, so I guess anything can happen!