Red

Do you see this adorable boy with crazy hair? Crazy red hair. My mom has red hair but neither my brother nor I inherited that trait from her. My whole life I've heard my mom say, "I didn't get red-headed kids, so I expect red-headed grandkids." To which I always responded, "I'll try to work on that for you." Well what do you know, we got one on our very first try!

Bennett with his Grammy at Christmas.

I'm kind of a nerd about all this and figured out that my parents had a 50% chance to have red headed children since my mom actually has red hair. Matt and I have a 25% chance of each of our children having red since neither of us do and we both carry the gene. It is actually caused by a genetic mutation, which is why it also effects so many other things like skin tone. And that, my friends, is your science lesson for today.

I love Bennett's red hair. It's so unique and pretty. Can I say that my son's hair is pretty? Because it is. It's hard to get a good photo of just how red his hair is. People who see his pictures on Facebook then see him in person and always comment about how they didn't know he was a redhead.

We cannot go into a store or out in public at all without hearing whispers as people walk by, "Look at that boy's red hair!" or frequently getting stopped so that people can comment to me about it and admire it. Maybe it's because my mom has red hair, but I never realized that it was that much of an oddity. Apparently, only about 2% of Americans are "gingers". I really don't mind the comments, well at least not most of the comments, but it really does make a difference in how long it takes us to get any shopping done. So much so that if I need to get in and out of a store quickly, I've learned to put a hat on him. Which may or may not be why he has so many hats. He seriously has had more than 10 hats over his 14 months of life.

What's that? You don't believe me? Here's a little bit of proof...

Need more? 



And that's just a sampling! Okay, he probably just has so many hats because I love to knit and my mom loves to crochet...and because he looks so darn cute in them!

Anyway, back to his hair. Even though along with his beautiful hair and fair skin comes a little inconvenience, a greater resistance to anesthesia, an increased likelihood of sunburns, skin cancer and wrinkles, and is probably the reason that his first tear duct surgery failed (or at least that's what I'm blaming it on). I wouldn't change it for anything. In fact, I hope I have 3 more just like him.