Me approx 10 months old

Me approx 10 months old, originally uploaded by JAYREY.

I have some pictures of me when I was close to Oliver’s age. I haven’t looked at them for a while. It’s cute so see a little bit of me in Oliver’s face.

Van Gogh Lick

Maybe it’s cause I’m an art nerd, but we both think that Oliver’s hair kind of looks like the Vincent Van Gogh painting, Starry Starry Night.

Oliver’s Extra Finger

So, in case you’re looking at Oliver’s photos and wonder “what’s that thing dangling from his hand”. Well, it’s an extra finger (polydactylism). We were told that it is very common for children to be born with extra digits. There was no bone connecting the finger to his hand, so we made the decision to have it sutured which will cause it to eventually fall off. The doctors say it can be a genetic trait… so, if any of you know of any past family members born with extra digits, we’d like to know so we can tell lil’ Ollie about them and their similarity.

Here’s an excerpt from wikipedia:

Polydactyly or polydactylism (from Ancient Greek πολύς (polus) “many” + δάκτυλος (daktulos) “finger”), also known as hyperdactyly, is a congenital physical anomaly consisting of supernumerary fingers or toes. When each hand or foot has six digits, it is sometimes called sexdactyly, hexadactyly, or hexadactylism.

The extra digit is usually a small piece of soft tissue; occasionally it may contain bone without joints; rarely it may be a complete, functioning digit. The extra digit is most common on the ulnar (little finger) side of the hand, less common on the radial (thumb) side, and very rarely within the middle three digits. These are respectively known as postaxial (little finger), central (ring, middle, index fingers), and preaxial (thumb) polydactyly. The extra digit is most commonly an abnormal fork in an existing digit, or it may rarely originate at the wrist as a normal digit does.

Polydactyly can occur by itself, or more commonly, as one feature of a syndrome of congenital anomalies. When it occurs by itself, it is associated with autosomal dominant mutations in single genes, i.e. it is not a multifactorial trait.^[1] But mutation in a variety of genes can give rise to polydactyly. Typically the mutated gene is involved in developmental patterning, and a syndrome of congenital anomalies results, of which polydactyly is one feature.

The condition has an incidence of 1 in every 500 live births^[2]. Postaxial hand polydactyly is a common isolated disorder in African black and African American children, and autosomal dominant transmission is suspected. Postaxial polydactyly is approximately 10 times more frequent in blacks than in whites and is more frequent in male children. In contrast, postaxial polydactyly seen in white children is usually syndromic and associated with an autosomal recessive transmission. One study by Finley et al. combined data from Jefferson County, Alabama and Uppsala County, Sweden. This study showed incidence of all types of polydactyly to be 2.3 per 1000 in white males, 0.6 per 1000 in white females, 13.5 per 1000 in black males, and 11.1 per 1000 in black females.^[3].

Where’s Oliver?

Well, the 23rd was little Oliver’s due date. He must be ultra comfortable, because he is still hang’n out in the womb. I’ve been talking to Trinity’s belly saying, “Olly Olly Oxen Free”. Trinity didn’t know why I kept saying that. So I explained that that is what we would say when playing hide-and-seek. It’s what we’d yell to let everyone know that is safe to come out of their hiding places. Plus it’s fitting because a little bit of his name is in the call. So I did a google search and found some interesting explanations for the phrase.

The exact origin of the phrase is unknown, but etymologists suspect it is a childish corruption of a phrase that would have made more sense in the Hide-and-seek context; such as “all ye, all ye, oxen free!”, “all in free”, “out’s in free”, “all set free”, “All ye all ye outs in free”, “All ye, all ye, outs are free”, or “All the, all the outs in free”

German: “Alle, alle auch sind frei”, (literally, “Everyone, everyone also is free”).

Oliver :: The Bearer of Peace

I took this picture on one of our walks… We’ve been walking a lot in order to get Oliver to move down and navigate through the pelvis bone. (a little TMI perhaps) We thought it was a fitting image since Oliver’s name is latin for bearer of the olive branch, or the bringer of peace. In Western culture, derived from the customs of Ancient Greece, it symbolizes peace or goodwill. The original link between olive branches and peace is unknown. Some explanations center on that olive trees take a very long time to bear fruit. Thus the cultivation of olives is something that is generally impossible in time of war.  Other explanations include, the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, a white dove carrying an olive branch is a sign of peace. After the Great Flood, in order to find land, Noah released a dove. The dove came back carrying an olive leaf in its beak (Noah 8:11), which informed Noah that God had taken mercy on humanity and caused the flood to recede. Need I say more?