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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

albinism?




there is often talk about shawn being.. um.... melanin challenged.
"what color is he?"
"is he bi racial?"
"is he white or black?" and my forever favorite?
"what is he?"
well, for starters, he's a human being! and a damn cute one too! he is very fair, as fair as i am( i am a fair skinned caucasian with blue eyes LOL)with very light brown eyes(as light brown as kristin's) with reddish, light brown hair. some blonde in there. he is a full african american with 2 full african american birth parents. i met them both and have pictures of them. they both listed themselves as full AA. so... why is he white? we don't claim to know, but a few opinions have been thrown at us(whether we want to hear the opinion or not LOL) in fact, it was the leading topic of discussion at the birthday party on saturday. of course, the true father being a tall skinny white guy is the top opinion in the unofficial, unsolicited family & friend(and stranger!) opinion poll. L. had no reason in the world to lie to me. we didn't care about color and she knows that! J. is the Father, i am convinced of that. at the party, a few poeple joked that Shawn is an albino. not possible right? albinos have pink eyes in the white community, blue eyes in the black community. or so we thought.......
fast forward to today. as i exited the target store with Shawn in the shopping cart a black woman and her kids were looking at him curiously, smiling at him, then looking at me, then at him.....i said,
"yah.. i know" LOL and we started talking. she suddenly said,
"you know he's an albino right???"
"HUH?????????"
"my cousin tim is an albino and he looks just like him." she claimed. she went on to explain that black albinos have blue or light brown eyes.
"SAY WHAT???"
i was just in shock. until recently we never even entertained the idea, but now it is becoming a true possibility. i thanked her, we parted ways, and i came home to look on the internet.
well, guess what the very first "sign" is?(aside from all the obvious stuff)
slow, slow, weight gain, "failure to thrive" type stuff, in infants. shawn still weighs under 18 lbs and is not even on the prcentile charts, with no explanation behind it. he wears newborn diapers. size 6-9 mos. clothes(although they are too short finally) we always just thought he was tiny like his mother.
the extreme light sensitivity(the reason he RUNS away squinting when you grab the camera!) wasn't something we connected either. ya never know....
if he does have it, we are looking at type 3, the WAY less serious type for sure, but i just think it's strange that no one, especially the doctor, EVER picked up on the remote possibility, until now. BUT.....
wouldn't his hair have been reddish blonde from day one? hes only been this way for a few months. (every month it got lighter)
wouldn't he have burned severely at the beach? i did use 45 and re applied twice and kept him covered alot of the time because he was squinty and uncomfortable.....
i don't know, it's so hard to believe. his big 12 month appointment and immunizations is on thursday, and when keith sees his lousy weight gain since may 20th(none)he will order blood work anyway, so i guess he will be tested for albinism too. YAY. NOT. he aughtta be a happy camper huh??? think good thoughts.
ps. my red sox are making me cry. thursday is the trade deadline at 3pm. we BETTER make some deals!

1 comment:

Brenda said...

Hmmmm. I guess I hadn't thought about it much other than maybe he was of mixed race. He is sure a cutie. My favorite question, 2 brown sons and 3 very white children is "Do they all have the same father?" To which I say yes which is leaves them looking very confused.