My gift to her

Listening to this week's Quirks and Quarks, I heard a segment about why some folks sneeze when they walk out into the sun. Of course, this interested me because I am one of those weirdos. The explaination given for this behavior, which is known as photic sneeze reflex, is nerves from the eyes and nose suffer some degree of crosstalk, with intense optical sensation resulting in spurious "tickling" of the nose.

What does this have to do with the Wickland family? When we took Eliana home from the hospital, I carried her through the dark entryway and out into the gloriously sunny, beautiful day. Being a newbie father, I forgot to put the shade of her car seat up. She responded with a quick sneeze or two.

As it turns out, this trait is also known as ACHOO, where the 'A' stands for "autosomal dominant", meaning that the characteristic is genetically dominant. As far as I know, Elizabeth does not sneeze due to bright sun. By the laws of inheritance, sun sneezing is one of my little gifts to my daughter.