He Ate His Twin!

HE  ATE  HIS  TWIN!

My oldest has 2 different colored eyes - a brown and a green.  When he was born they were both a gray color and as he grew to be a toddler his eyes changed into 2 different colors.  We didn't think too much of it, until...

Until he got married and cell phones and internet were the latest rage and the "information highway" stretched out before us.  His new wife looked it up.

Chimera - Chimerism can occur when a mom is pregnant with twins. If one embryo dies, the other one could possibly absorb its deceased twin's cells.

"In humans, a chimera is a person who has cells from two different sources. Since those cells are from different organisms, it results in two sets of DNA."  

"Not only can Chimera have split faces, but another noticeable characteristic is also their two different eye colors."

Ah, ha, grandma, on my mother's side of the family had a boundary line right down the center of her face!  One side was almost red.  She always wore makeup to make it blend!  It looks like Rusty has inherited chimeraism.

Then came the day he and wife adopted 2 children.

According to Rusty, "This morning, Jayden noticed I have one green eye and one brown.  He told me I need a new one." 

We laughed.

Later, they had more children, and Rusty, though he had pulled the trick on brothers and friends, he now used it on his own kids.  With his black rumpled hair, and curly beard, he'd squint one eye and in a gruff pirate voice declare, "I'm giving you the evil eye."

The mom in me asked, "And which eye is that?"

"Whichever I choose not to squint."  

I laughed.  He grinned.

Then last year, we were all in Home Depot at Christmas time.  They always have a grand display of lighted trees, characters bigger than humans, and blow ups of current Christmas movies players.  Rusty was walking behind his family.  Wife pushing cart with newest baby in the seat.  The little ones checking out the Grinch on wheels, and Nutcracker Suite hanging tree ornaments, and the blow up Minions.  

7 year old Alayna grabs my hand all excited, "GrammyPam, GrammyPam come see!"

"There's a minion that looks like daddy."  And we take off at a half run.

I'm thinking, "What makes him look like daddy?"  Rusty's not wearing coveralls, he's short, he does have a round belly but surely that's not what this little girl is referring to.  So I have to go see, I'm curious now.

"You have to see, GrammyPam.  Don't you know?  It's Bob."

"No, I don't know, I really don't know one minion from another."

"It's Bob," she says, "he's got two different colored eyes!"

And she smacks the inflated belly a good one! 

Now, that's a belly laugh!