Eyes
I’ve written about eyes before. I get emotional, waiting and hoping for my blue-eyed child. And I feel so guilty for that, guilty that I am disappointed in anything at all. It’s the one struggle that I can’t seem to let go of. I have spent the past 10 months staring at Kate’s grey eyes, knowing they weren’t going to turn blue but hoping they would at least stay grey. When they started turning brown I kept trying to convince myself it was the light. It wasn’t – they clearly were turning a brown hue. I was trying to just accept that, she is who she is and I need to let it go.
The other day I studied her eyes by habit and realized with a shock that they have green in them. Green. I had to look three times and I keep asking people if they see it too, because I was sure I was imagining it. They keep confirming that her eyes are in fact a grey-olive tone now. Definitely brown in there, but also a green tint. So unexpected. Yes I know that your children can end up with pretty much any color eyes under the sun, no matter what you have, but we all just figured brown (Den’s) or blue (mine).
I admit, I feel a rush of relief. Green! I can handle green. It’s not blue, but green feels unique and very… Kate. Who knows what color they’ll actually end up, maybe hazel or grey/brown/green. It sure is interesting watching them change.
10 Months
8 Months
4 Months
2 Months
Those are wonderful pictures. Her eyes sure have changed!
I keep waiting for a green-eyed child too. Both Erin’s and Patrick’s are very brown. *sigh*
I think Kate’s eyes are beautiful.
I think she has a beautiful shade of grey!! :)
I cant remember where,but I read that babies get their eye colour from their fathers side..I have tried to look something up online (because I know I read it in a parenting magazine and I wont be able to find that after all these years lol) but all that I found (that could make any sense) was this:
“It depends on the eye color genes of the parents. If the mother has a recessive eye color, such as blue, and the father has a dominant eye color, like brown, then the baby will have the father’s eye color because brown is dominant over blue. If both parents have recessive colors, blue, only then will the baby be born with blue eyes. Only if both parents have the recessive gene.
Blue+Blue=Blue
Brown+Brown=Brown
Brown+Blue=Brown”
I hope that helps..Its basiclly what I read years ago in that magazine,but in english! lol
The daddies eye colour is the dominant one.
In my case,its true.I have 3 kids and I myself have grey eyes,and I was soooooo hoping that one of my kids would inherit that,but alas,they all have brown eyes,just like their daddy.
From what I read about eye color is that it’s far more complicated than what was once commonly believed about dominant/recessive… there are several genes responsible for eye color. And it doesn’t really matter which parent has what color, if mother has brown and father has blue baby will likely be brown (because brown does tend to be dominant). But then there are cases like my SIL where both mother and father have brown, baby has blue.
This topic has always interested me. Yes, parents genes can combine in various ways to create different colors. My dad’s are blue, mom’s were green/hazel and mine are my mom’s color. My sister has intense blue, my brother-in-law green and both her kids have blue. My eyes are darker green with a brown/hazel ring around the iris, so I’m partial to that (and it looks like Kate might end up with the ring around the iris too :)
My husband has brown eyes. I have blue. All three of our boys have blue eyes! I too have read that there are several genes that contribute to eye color rather than just one. But I’m not a geneticist, just a mommy :)
Great pics! She really does have beautiful eyes.
As for the genetics, I’m pretty good at that stuff. I figured out before he was born that my son had a 50/50 shot of having blue eyes. Here’s how I figured that out:
Husband (blue), his father (brown), his mother (blue):
Husband = bb, his father had to be Bb, and his mother was bb
Me (brown/green); my father (blue), my mother (brown):
Me = Bb, my dad = bb, my mother BB
In my case, a person who didn’t know my father had blue eyes but knew basic genetics could guess that he had blue eyes based on the color of mine. They are a blend, suggesting expression of a recessive allele in the genotype – Bb rather than BB which is straight brown.
But back to my son’s eye color…..Anyone remember Punnet Squares from biology?
B b
b Bb bb
b Bb bb
50% chance Bb genotype, phenotype “Brown” or 50% chance bb genotype, phenotype “Blue.”
There are always exceptions, blends, etc., but if you have the grandparents’ eye colors for both parents, you can pretty accurately determine the statistical chance of a particular color.
And I’ll go take my science dork ass out of the conversation now……lol
Neil’s eyes are like that, a cheerful muddle of not quite surety… it’s very enigmatic. :)