"that's a redheaded baby"

 a question we are asked at least once a day..."is her hair red?"

my "red" hair is clearly from a bottle.  hers is really glowing in this light.

 
"who has red hair in your family?"
"did you have red hair?"
"where does she get all that hair from?"
"is she the milk man's baby?"

there's no denying it...she's a redhead.  and she has a lot of it.  we thought she might follow suit like most babies and lose it, only for it to return a different color.  but instead of losing it, she's getting more.

during nap time today, i decided to do a bit of research.  without boring you with too much science, i will provide you with the facts:

-red hair comes from a pigment called pheomelanin
-genes determine the amount of this pigmentation
-the MC1R gene allows for this "red" pigmentation to be changed to eumelanin (at darkening pigment)
-if the MC1R gene is mutated, this change can't happen
-jake and i both, then, have one "working" and one "mutant" MC1R gene
-drew happened to get two of those recessive genes, making her...a redhead.
-the odds...25%
-to add to that, apparently redheads have more hairs per square inch than any other hair color

so to answer why there aren't any redheads in our families.  obviously, someone's been passing that "mutant" gene down.  but unless they conceived with someone else who was a carrier, they would have no chance of having a redhead (hence no redheaded family members).  and even if both parents were carriers, there is still only a 1 in 4 chance.

so, we had a 1 in 4 chance of having a redhead and we couldn't be happier to have beaten the odds :)

she's pretty stinkin cute, so i'd take her with any hair color.

she'd even make a cute blonde. (drew and her cousin out apple picking)