Ah, The Joys of Little Boys

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails- that's what I was told little boys were made of...and girls are supposed to be made of sugar and spice and everything nice, right? While I don't believe that applies to all boys or all girls, it was enough to warrant my leaning toward wanting daughters- ONLY daughters for the majority of my life. It didn't help that my younger brother who I adored as a baby (and love very much now) broke and destroyed all of my favorite things and toys when he became mobile. That was enough put me on the fast track for "Team Pink." 

But over the past few months since I finding out I was pregnant I've truly become okay with the idea of having a son. The reality is that it's going to be one or the other. Either way it's your child and you will love it. My husband, CJ, really wants a boy, at least for our first child, then he's open to whatever. The idea has gained more popularity with me as the weeks have progressed and it seemed like every dream I've had about the baby suggests it is going to be a boy. 

However, as of this weekend I'm having second thoughts as to whether or not I can do "the boy thing".  Saturday night we went to our friends house for dinner. A ridiculously fun and attractive couple and their two little boys who are six and three years old. CJ, refers to the younger as a "Putin sleeper cell" because the mother is a stunning Russian woman and the baby one time removed 80-90% of the keys from my husbands laptop in like 90 seconds flat.

I will say this though, for high energy young boys they were incredibly well-behaved, they played without making a raucous and they weren't overly rambunctious. They even sat at the dinner table with all the adults and didn't act up. I was quite impressed- that is until bath time. The boys were upstairs by themselves for maybe 5 minutes while we were getting ready for dessert. When out of no where the baby (okay he's 3 but you know what I mean) starts screaming bloody murder. At first he was shrieking so intensely I thought he was laughing, but his mother assured me (as all mothers know their kid's cry) he was upset. So the husband went upstairs to see what happened. He was gone for about 5 minutes and came back down with this ridiculous grin on his face.

Apparently while taking their bath the older one thought it was too much trouble to remove himself from the tub to use the toilet so he stood up and peed right in the tub. In doing so, accidentally or not (we don't have proof, but we did get an admission), he hit his younger brother on the shoulder with the stream; and while he found it amusing the baby understandably did not. (Can you blame him?)

The mother of the children asked if her husband made it clear to both sons that that was not okay behavior. I nodded in agreement. And the husbands- mine included, for the next few minutes made jokes about knowing that at least the kid wasn't going to be into golden showers. Men are so mature sometimes.

I didn't have anything to say as it wasn't my kid(s) but I did turn to my husband and said, "See, this would never happen with girls!"

There Are Just Some Things I Don't Want to Know

And some things I do. At the top of that list is who killed JFK-near the bottom, what the sex of my baby is. We have the BIG ultrasound coming up in about a week. It's the one where we can, if we choose to, find out the sex. I am still pretty adamant that I don't want to know. (See To Find out Or Not to Find Out) I'm sticking w/ the same argument which is: how many real true GOOD surprises do we get in life? My friends who have found out the sex of their babies praise me for my patience. Nothing could be further from the truth, y'all. I normally want everything and I want it right now- just like the song. But this is different.
My husband, CJ, is dying to know. He claims he'll be able to tell just by looking at the ultrasound. He's certain of this because he worked in research & development and used to test diesel cell engines where using a sonogram to detect cracks in diesel particular filters was his specialty. Uh-huh, and I suppose looking for a crack in an engine is much like looking for a penis on an embryo. This must be like how his growing up on a farm & helping calves come into the world will be such an asset to my birthing process. (See my Huffington Post article S#!T NEVER to Say to Your Pregnant Wife!)

My argument is this- even if he does find out the sex "on his own" how is he going to keep the secret?! There's no way he's not going to slip up. I'd slip up and I'm a master secret keeper. 

I can hear it already- we'll be in mid-conversation about the baby & he'll say "So, how is he- I mean- she feeling today?" Or on a random trip to Target and I start buying clothes or items that are not associated with the baby's gender I can hear him saying something nonchalantly like, "I wouldn't take those tags off if I were you." Or "I'd hang on to that receipt."

And that'll be great. Just great.

To Find Out the Sex or Not to Find Out- That is the Question!

My husband CJ and I usually agree on most things- although picking names for our future children is another story covered in several other blog entries on here. (Please to refer to any of "The Infamous Name Game" entries.) My DH or darling hubby as they refer to the male spouses on the What to Expect When You're Expecting site most definitely wants to know the sex of our baby. I DO NOT. My argument and I believe it's not only logical, but valid is: Why?! Why must you know now?! What is it going to change? How much you love the baby? I don't think so. AND what about this awesome thing called "the element of surprise"?!
How often in this day & age do we get surprised? And I don't mean walking in on your married boss with his male assistant surprised. I mean really surprised in a GOOD way. I have never in my life had a REALLY fantastic blog worthy surprise. Because of a loose-lipped neighbor I knew about the Chihuahua I was getting for Christmas when I was 7 yrs old. I knew about the sweet sixteen birthday party my mom threw for me at which only one of my real friends was in attendance (although I suppose that counts as a surprise.) I even knew when my husband was going to ask me to marry him (my Spidey senses were tingling and I knew) - I obviously still said yes. But here's the deal, I want- no I NEED a good surprise!!! And dammit I deserve one for once in my life. Okay, okay, okay-  I'll make one concession. I will only find out the sex if it turns out I'm carrying more than one.