In keeping with this as an ‘on-line diary’ this is the time for some updating. Hubby and I have booked our winter holiday, we are off to Tenerife for a week. Last year we did this for the first time, and realised that one week away in the winter was more beneficial to us than two, possibly more, in the summer, plus it’s cheaper. Due to the economic constraints this year we have decided that this is our Christmas pressie to each other, makes it feel less of an extravagance.
Son is incredibly well and has returned to work 3 days a week. There was a slight hiccup last week when he developed an infection, possibly a recurrence, at his wound site but a week of antibiotics appears to have cleared it up. I am so happy, so relieved that I feel as if I beam whenever anyone asks how son is doing, I become a great big smiley face. Son is now talking about having the drop-down surgery, a J-Pouch. Basically where the surgeons pull down his small intestine, form a pouch and then re-attach it to what is left of his rectum. The desired outcome is that son then longer has his stoma and bag, the ileostomy and, other than a few scars on his abdomen appears to be back to normal functioning. Reading up on it reveals that things are no where near that simple. DIL is almost back to normal, her coccyx is not as painful as it was and she appears to be revelling in motherhood. Sitting must be quite a bit more comfortable now as we are babysitting next weekend so they can go and see the James Bond film, I just hope that her Mummy and Daddy will have persuaded her to take a bottle by then as otherwise I can see Nanny and Grandad will be out wandering the streets at night in an effort to convince Evie to sleep. Evie is a real cutie and bestows her smiles on everyone who spends time playing with her, much to the pleasure of her biggest fan, her cousin Amy. We are all still waiting to see what colour the new baby’s eyes will be as our family appears to defy all the inheritance laws as Hubby has brown eyes, I have blue. We have 2 daughters with blue eyes, a son with brown and, so far, all our grandchildren have blue eyes, I thought that brown eyes were dominant.
The boys (twins, only we don’t refer to them as that) are now both walking, Jamie took off about a month ago but Louis only mastered the skill a week ago. To celebrate their achievement I took them to have their feet measured, and they both have the same size, 4G. I don’t know why I’m surprised as they are still almost identical, we can see differences but strangers are still confused by them. Their sister is growing up so fast, she had her pre-school booster immunisations last week, I gather from daughter that havoc was caused as it was the same room and the nurse as the boys attended for their jabs, hysteria all round. Amy, having by-passed the ‘terrible twos’ has entered into the ‘tiring threes’ with gusto and is constantly trying everyone’s patience with her will and determination. It was possibly inevitable that she would have to demand attention due to having x2 siblings thrust upon her at one time, it must be very disturbing to have your one-to-one life swept aside so abruptly. Alternate Mondays I have her to myself, and she is glorious, hugely entertaining and an absolute pleasure to spend time with. Last weekend we had a family meal to celebrate Evies arrival, Son’s recovery and SIL’s birthday and Amy spent much of the time with DIL and Evie, it turns out that Amy loves babies when there is just one of them!
Jack is now a full-time school boy, and is revelling in it, so much so that he has decided that he should go to school at the weekends. I wonder how long that will last for? As it was their Daddy’s birthday last weekend Izzy and Jack stayed at our house whilst Mummy and Daddy had a party. Izzy is now in a bed so she and Jack shared a bedroom, brilliant arrangement they were absolutely no trouble as when Izzy protested about bedtime Jack just told her to be quiet as he wanted to sleep and that was it, silence until the morning.
I have been a poorly individual the last couple of days, courtesy of the latest tummy bug which is doing the rounds. Much better now though and hopeful that this will protect me through the winter from any other viral attacks.
Your husband must have a (recessive) blue eye gene as well as one brown gene and you will have two blue genes. Your daughters inherited blue from you and your husband’s blue gene as well, whereas your son got a blue from you and a brown from you husband, making his eyes brown as this is dominant.
Similarly both SILs must have one blue and one brown gene, allowing them to pass a blue to your grandchildren.
You’re correct that Evie could have either as Son must have one blue (from you) and one brown (from Hubby) and could give either to Evie. Since DIL only has blue to give, Evie wil either get two blue genes (blue eyes) or a blue and a brown (brown eyes).
Becca – Thank you for that, my brain hurts now! Seriously, I think I that I’ve got it now. Basically if someone has blue eyes they can only have two blue jeans whereas a person with brown eyes could have two brown genes or one brown and one blue. In other words, although son has brown eyes his genes will decide Evie’s eye colour, his brown gene is a trump card!
What are the odds though that all the brown eyed family members would have one of each gene and only pass the blue on to their offspring, excepting Hubby to son?
This is also why it is possible when both parents have brown eyes they can have blue-eyed offspring. It’s only a one in four chance, but it is surprising how often it happens.
madsadgirl – It’s weird really. Having read Becca’s explanation I couldn’t sleep as I was working the ramifications out. I worked out the brown + brown could produce blue, and then I sussed that blue + blue can only ever produce blue……but how about green, or hazel, or violet?
AFAIK eye colour inheritance isn’t a simple as say, blood group, where you have dominant and recessive genes (and, er, co-dominant as well… maybe blood group isn’t the best example to use!). I couldn’t explain exactly how and why they’re different – I only have an A Level in biology and that was ten years ago – but I was once told eye colour is quite complex and chose to leave it at that 😉
Kelly – I think I might be obsessional as following you comment I googled and found this http://www.athro.com/evo/gen/inherit1.html which rather than improving my knowledge has caused me to hunt further!
P.S when I took thier test to predict eye-colour it was wrong. Hmmmm
Eye colour is a funny thing…. I have blue(ish) eyes. My ex has brown eyes. Our son developed one brown eye and one blue! It was very noticable until he reached puberty, then the blue eye darkened, but it’s still not quite matched to the other one.