oh my gosh, she's got red hair

those were the first words uttered by my ob-gyn when kate was born.

since then, her father and i have been asked this question A MILLION times:

"where does the red hair come from?"

i know it's a conversation starter, but how do people that you don't know expect you to honestly answer that question? leo and i have been asked this by everyone from the baggage handler at orlando international airport to the produce guy at kroger's. so ultimately, i find myself delivering the following explanantion to complete strangers:

well, red hair is a double-recessive trait, which means that her father is a carrier of the gene for red hair and i am a carrier for the gene too. leo's grandmother was a red-head. and as for me, i had a great-aunt and uncle who were twins, and they had red hair. and since i'm a twin, the red-head gene must have been lurking about in my dna somewhere. if you complete a mendelian-based punnett square of our alleles, you'll see that we probably had a 25% chance of having a red-headed child. at least that's what my ob-gyn and our family doctor have told us. does that answer your question?

kate's red hair suits her. she displays, what i would call, the typical personality characteristics of a red head: stubborn, fiery, and tough. "tough" seems like a rather generic adjective, but kate is exactly that. the girl is tough as nails. emotionally and physically.

last year, ian slammed the car door completely shut on kate's finger. i freaked, opened the door, and her finger had a deep crease in it. i don't know how it didn't break. we ran into my parents' house (we were in their driveway) to ice her hand down, and kate was determined not to lose it. my dad looked at her,and told her it was okay to cry if it hurt, and she finally did. surprisingly. once she digs her heels in, she usually doesn't budge.

i often joke that i pity any boy that becomes interested in kate when she gets older. she will definitely wear the pants in all of her relationships, which i think will be a very good thing.

so i have this beautiful red-headed daughter whom i cherish so deeply it sometimes amazes me.

i love you, kate. happy birthday.