And so it begins.

Mateo is half Mexican. He looks more white (and more like me) than he does his dad. But the more he goes outside, the more his coloring is changing from pale to a nice swarthy olive color. The more he goes outside, the darker he's going to get. But he's still going to look like me. Yes, I like to say that.

Today he had to go to Kaiser to get some shots and some blood drawn. We went to the research nurses office, and there was a new nurse there I've never seen before.

At one point she asked me, "Does he eat carrots?"

I thought about it, then said, "Does he? No, not really. We're trying to get him to. He loves peas, though." I wasn't really sure why she was even asking me this.

"Oh, so he doesn't eat carrots," she said. "It's just that his skin color is so...."

I don't even remember what she called it. Dark? Brown? Orange? I know the assumption is that he is fully white, but carrots being the reason his skin isn't like mine? Isn't that kinda...dumb? Wouldn't one need to eat carrots constantly to get an orange tint?

So I said, "His dad is Mexican, that's why his skin is that way. The more he goes outside, the darker he'll get."

One nurse said something about how it's nice he'll have tan skin and not....

I interrupted, "...pale? Like his mom's?"

Ha, ha, ha....guffaws ensue. Okay, maybe not that much.

Carrots? Seriously?