Monday, November 06, 2006

Red Hair - (It's really orange you know...)

Hello everyone. Susanne and I send our greetings as always. We just got some wonderful news that my friend Colleen (another redhead like me) and her husband Dan out in Seattle are expecting in March. How great. Dan’s also a redhead so they are really tempting all those recessive genes to go to town! Colleen is a very special person—very spiritual and loving and I think she and Dan are going to be awesome parents. Congrats you guys.

If our baby ends up with red hair it will be pretty cool. We have less of a chance of that than Colleen and Dan, but who knows! When I was a kid my brother Joe and I were the 2 redheads out of the 7 of us. (It’s Joe’s birthday today as a matter of fact, so happy birthday little brother.)

Su and I have a dear friend Dave who I was in Peace Corps with, who also has bright red hair. He says he can remember as a boy in Iowa the little old ladies would make such a fuss over him. “You have such BEAUTIFUL red hair” they’d croon. Pretty soon Dave started thinking there must be something terribly wrong with him. After all, the blonds and kids with brown hair never got told that. So he’s start carefully agreeing—“Yes, I DO have beautiful red hair, Mrs. Peterson.” He never quite figured out what the big deal was. I can remember that too. Red hair is different and some people just love it. Susanne and I were on flight recently and the attendant could not contain his enthusiasm for the redheaded toddler in our section. I’m pretty sure the kid was thinking “Yes, yes, I DO have beautiful red hair Mr. Flight attendant”….

If we are blessed with a redheaded baby it will be interesting because then our baby, although not from the same lineage as me, would look somewhat like me. Maybe I think people will be less puzzled by me being its mom if it sort of looks like I’m the mom? Maybe I should stop giving a cr*p what other people think? After all my sister’s beautiful daughter is adopted from China and although they look nothing alike there is no doubt to anyone that they are mother and daughter.

The baby that Susanne and I have next June will be our baby regardless of any physical or other attributes. And I have to say that what I really hope is that the baby looks just like Susanne. She is beautiful and I love the idea of a “mini-she” running around our house--boy or girl I say! (In this pic taken a few years ago I am apparently trying to explain to then 2 year old great-niece Cassie that when she meets a red-head she should tell them how beautiful their red hair is...) And here is a primer for those of you who don't know...we are not "carrot tops" because the tops of carrots are green. And our hair really isn't red if you look closely. ;-)

This weekend we drove about 3 hours south west of DC to visit our friend C in Virginia which was fun and tried to send “vote no” rays into the heads of unsuspecting Virginia voters all along the way. It was a very fun and relaxing time except for… Su has definitely started to have morning sickness. And morning is when she has it. I think the most unusual thing is that she’s started really hating getting up and having to go to work. She really does like her job, but just not lately. But since she’s a real trooper, we’ve trooped her in every day. We are hoping this will pass soon. Until next time. -Monica

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello, lurker Sarah here. I am one of those people who has always been drawn to and facinated by redheads. My best friend when I was 2. My closest friend from college. My closest friend from adulthood. And now my wife. All redheads. My wife and I are planning to start our TTC journey in less than 2 years and I will be the carrier. It means a lot to me to try and have a red headed donor, even though there's slightly less than an 1 in 4 chance that I will have a red headed baby. For me, I think part of it is the notion that there's a possiblilty of our child sharing a defining physical characteristic with a parent. I look exactly like my mother and as a small child I remember being so proud that people could easily identify our relationship. It's a very superficial thing I suppose, but one of the reasons that I want to carry a child and give birth is the idea of passing along the genetic parts of me that I think can be great in this world. And I would like for my wife to be able to pass along something wonderful too, even it it's not genetically hers. Of course, what we create as parents thru our child rearing will have an even greater impact, but there's still that part of me that wants a donor who is as similar as possible. And having red hair is a most identifiable characteristic.