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Friday, July 31, 2009

the one where my world was shattered....

Last night, the FD's cousin (who is more my friend than his cousin) came over for some din din and to go for a run ... which turned into a brisk walk when we realized how full we were. After our walk, we headed back to her house because the FD needed to do some work on her dryer.

While he was busting his butt trying to fix the thing, she and I decided to play cards, because, you know, it's fun to play a game right beside your husband who's working really hard.

At some point during the game, FD's cousin (who is more my friend than his cousin), pointed out that her boyfriend is colour blind. You see, she's just started dating a guy and is still in that phase where you tell your friends random tidbits of useless information about your boo and they act like they care (...even though they don't).

Anyway, I guess the fact that we were playing with blue and red cards was what struck this memory.

So, she says, "A's colour blind, just like all the [our last name] men. [Fabulous dude], your dad is colour blind, too, right?"

"Yeah," he says.

"What?" I gasp. "Your dad is colour blind?"

"All the [our last name] men are. It runs in the family." States FD's cousin (who is more my friend than his cousin).

"So, are you colour blind?" I ask FD.

"No, it skips a generation."

"Oh, yeah, that's right."

Now that I've got this sorted out, all is right with the world, and we return to our respective tasks - him working, me playing, such is life - until an awful realization enters my mind.

"Wait a second ...." I say, as I'm processing this new information, "does this mean", gulp, "that our sons will be colour blind?"

"Most likely. In fact, I think it's almost guaranteed that they will be", answers FD's cousin (who is more my friend than his cousin).

Immediately, my world is shattered. "This is a piece of information that would have been useful before I said I do!"

"Why?" He asks.

"Would it have changed your decision?" Laughs his cousin.

"Well, I'm not sure. I can't really say. I just can't believe I never knew this. Now all my dreams of our sons being world class painters are gone...dead. If I had known this, maybe I would have spent my days dreaming about having 5 little girls instead of 5 little boys. How could you have lied to me for so many years?"

After this unexpected discovery, we spent the remainder of the evening continuing our dryer fixing and card playing. However, the night just wasn't the same after learning that my son's futures might look like this...


*Special thanks to Kei for supporting me through this discovery, allowing me to totally kick her butt at speed and helping me craft this clever post.

8 comments:

Gwen said...

I have several friends that are color blind and they make it through life just fine. :) But...my husband's co-worker was complaining about his neighbor painting his house all sorts of crazy colors. Then they found out he was color blind and that's what looks best to him. You just might have to help coordinate for your future sons. But just think...your grandsons will be able to see colors just fine. :) XOXO

SnoWhite said...

what surprising news... :(

but -- to if you do the genetics, if color blindness does not run in your family (that is, you are homozygous for non-color blindness), it is possible that your son's may not be color blind!!

Color blindness is a sex-linked trait, which means it's carried on the X chromosome, of which, your hubby only has one.

If, FD is not color blind, than, his X-chromosome does not have the color-blindness gene (otherwise he'd express it). Thus, he cannot pass it on to your kids. BUT, if your family has a history of color blindness, than, it might be possible that you are heterozygous for color blindness, meaning one of your alleles is for blindness, the other for normal color sight, in which case, depending on what X you pass on to your male kids, they might have a chance to be color blind. But, if not, then you're likely home free.

FD will only pass on his Y chromosome to your boys, which is free-from the color-blindness gene.

Geeze, now I'm bio-speaking and rambling... if you want to know more, I'll be happy to talk for hours... :)

Nicole said...

My dad's mom's dad's (my great grandfather) side of the family had a knuckle issue. Almost none of the "King" kids had the middle knuckle of their fingers! The day I noticed that at a family reunion freaked me out!! Their rings just slid around on their fingers. Gross! I was SO STRESSED about that when I have having kids, although none of my immediate family members had that problem.

When my first child was born that was THE FIRST thing I looked at! It didn't really matter to me if she had ten fingers and ten toes, only that the ones she did have had knuckles!! :)

Happily, all four of my children can properly grip a baseball.

Funny post!! :)

Courtney said...

Haha!! Start picking out girl names!! ;)

I had a guy friend who failed his driver's test because he was color-blind.. he ran a red light. :)

Mandi @ Sweetly Home said...

We found out that my hubby is colorblind when he went to take an eyetest to get his application ready to be a firefighter. The optician told him that Shane had the worse case he's ever seen...he's got some sort of eye deficincy thing. He can't really tell the color green. It's weird! Totally shattered our world bc all his life he wanted to either be a police officer or a fireman. And you have to not be colorblind for that!

Kate said...

Is this true?? Oh now...I am very sorry. I am with you girl! It may not have changed your mind but would definitely been nice to know before you said I DO!

Taryn said...

Dang! color blind kids is totally a deal breaker for me. = )

(and wow- Snow white is a good cook and one smart cookie!)

Lucky in Love said...

What a crazy realization! Too weird!