Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
Boys are made of snips of snails and puppy dog tails.
I
sure do like sugar. But I also love puppy dog tails, not so much in
snips, but when fully attached to puppies they're sublime.
How
does one answer when asked which gender baby they'd prefer? What if
your child finds out someday that you really wanted the alternative sex,
will it always feel as if it's disappointed you?
As the weeks of our pregnancy progressed, Angie was not shy about stating her strong desire for a little sister. Jon mentioned a few times that he wouldn't mind balancing out some of the Estrogen in our home with more Testosterone, although I corrected him many times that our dog, Ruby, is no longer contributing to that imbalance. And I told people who asked that I had a hunch it was a boy, but wasn't really partial to one or the other, except for being worried about an epic Angie-meltdown if she didn't get her precious little girl doll to dress up.
When
our gender reveal party finally came and it was time to learn what our
little zygote, "Zy" for short, had turned into, Jon and I both chose to
go Switzerland, and use neutral green plates and cups instead of pink or
blue, while Angie proselytized for pink like it was a campaign and the
decision would be made by vote rather than God's decree and chromosomes.
Alas, the piñata had
the ultimate word, and when Angie eventually decapitated it, the blue
contents spewing all over the ground revealed Baby Charles' fate as... a
BOY!
Instantly, my hands went to my mouth, in the classic reaction to a delightful surprise (see any proposal video) as I gasped, and my eyes brimmed with joyful tears. After 19 weeks, our little one's identity was finally starting to take shape.
Over the next five minutes as I hugged Angie and was hugged by ~40 other guests at our party, every thought that could be thunk on boys vs. girls went through my head like a tornado. Unfornately, many of them negative...
Boys' clothes are not nearly as cute as girls' clothes.
We have no good boy names at all, I LOVED my girl name.
Now we have another decision; to circumcise or not to circumcise.
We're going to get sprayed every time we change a diaper!
We thought we had to be careful with the internet with Angie, we're gonna have to throw out all technology when this boy comes of age.
Then I overheard Jon enthusiastically talking to his guy friends, other fathers of boys, about shooting things, blowing things up, and driving/flying fast things. Ugh! These are not qualities in Jon that attract me to him, rather hobbies I endure more gracefully with each passing year of our marriage. Now, he will have a little partner in crime.
But as the dust settled and the piñata candy disappeared into little hands and mouths, I settled too. I realized I'm absolutely no good at girlie stuff, I couldn't care less about shoes, shopping, hair, or fashion. So, it really is great that Zy will have a dad who can relate to him in his masculine pursuits of hunting and speed, instead of a girl with a clueless mom when it comes to accessorizing, braiding, and the mall.
Although Angie has proven a parent can relive their sports days through a female just as easily, a boy brings the added perk of vicariously playing football!!
And, while a young boy will likely require inexhaustible energy, maybe, just maybe, he won't come with quite the drama in his tween/teen years that inevitably follows so many females.
In
the end, what we've been telling Angie all along, is the ony thing that
matters; God knows what we need, and He'll give it to us. I never
prayed for a specific gender, I've never even prayed for a healthy baby.
I pray that our new addition will truly know the love of Jesus and
teach us more about His love every moment that God gives us with him.
I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on boys vs. girls as well....
As the weeks of our pregnancy progressed, Angie was not shy about stating her strong desire for a little sister. Jon mentioned a few times that he wouldn't mind balancing out some of the Estrogen in our home with more Testosterone, although I corrected him many times that our dog, Ruby, is no longer contributing to that imbalance. And I told people who asked that I had a hunch it was a boy, but wasn't really partial to one or the other, except for being worried about an epic Angie-meltdown if she didn't get her precious little girl doll to dress up.
When
our gender reveal party finally came and it was time to learn what our
little zygote, "Zy" for short, had turned into, Jon and I both chose to
go Switzerland, and use neutral green plates and cups instead of pink or
blue, while Angie proselytized for pink like it was a campaign and the
decision would be made by vote rather than God's decree and chromosomes.Instantly, my hands went to my mouth, in the classic reaction to a delightful surprise (see any proposal video) as I gasped, and my eyes brimmed with joyful tears. After 19 weeks, our little one's identity was finally starting to take shape.
Over the next five minutes as I hugged Angie and was hugged by ~40 other guests at our party, every thought that could be thunk on boys vs. girls went through my head like a tornado. Unfornately, many of them negative...
Boys' clothes are not nearly as cute as girls' clothes.
We have no good boy names at all, I LOVED my girl name.
Now we have another decision; to circumcise or not to circumcise.
We're going to get sprayed every time we change a diaper!
We thought we had to be careful with the internet with Angie, we're gonna have to throw out all technology when this boy comes of age.
Then I overheard Jon enthusiastically talking to his guy friends, other fathers of boys, about shooting things, blowing things up, and driving/flying fast things. Ugh! These are not qualities in Jon that attract me to him, rather hobbies I endure more gracefully with each passing year of our marriage. Now, he will have a little partner in crime.
But as the dust settled and the piñata candy disappeared into little hands and mouths, I settled too. I realized I'm absolutely no good at girlie stuff, I couldn't care less about shoes, shopping, hair, or fashion. So, it really is great that Zy will have a dad who can relate to him in his masculine pursuits of hunting and speed, instead of a girl with a clueless mom when it comes to accessorizing, braiding, and the mall.
Although Angie has proven a parent can relive their sports days through a female just as easily, a boy brings the added perk of vicariously playing football!!
And, while a young boy will likely require inexhaustible energy, maybe, just maybe, he won't come with quite the drama in his tween/teen years that inevitably follows so many females.
 |
| Being knit together in my womb, by the Creator Himself. |
 |
| Proof that Angie will be an awesome big sister to a brother. |
1 comment:
We have 1 daughter and 5 sons! They are definitely different but all are a joy. I too wasn't interested in girlie things (though the daughter was all ballet and fashion) but have always felt that I was better suited to playing in the dirt, frogs, lizards and such. Boys are on the go all the time!
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