Salad Eyes

Claire: "Molly has 'salad eyes'."

Me: "What are salad eyes?"

Claire: "They're when eyes are a mix of green and brown, and if you have those, you can see super, super far."

This was the conversation at our McDonald's lunch this afternoon, where I too was marveling at the genetic roulette that played out in my kids' eyes as I took photos of them eating ice cream cones (which induced Molly to murmur "yum yum" the whole time she messily ate it). I have a brown-eyed kid (daddy's dominant gene tagged Claire's eye color), a clear blue-eyed recessive gene kid (Lily) and Molly is, well, um .... we're not sure. They started out slate blue at birth, then started shifting toward a mix of blue and brown, and now seem more of a mix of green and brown. Contrary to popular wisdom, kids eyes do change color up to the age of three while they fully pigment (according to our pediatrician). So I know Molly's eyes have some more adjustment to go, and my guess is they'll keep getting darker until they're fully brown (Claire's eyes actually progressed from blue to green to brown also, so watching this pattern in Molly tells me we're headed toward brown, albeit a lighter brown than Claire). Does my green-eyed self secretly harbor a desperate hope for a true green-eyed kid? YES. I'd be lying if I didn't say I hope they stay greenish, but with her constant shifting toward darker eyes I'm being realistic. So the final score will likely be this: brown dominant gene ... 2, light-eyed recessive gene ...1.

I'll keep rooting for the green though. It would be an amazing spin of the genetics wheel to end up with one brown, one blue and one set of green!