Why God Made Little Boys

My mom gave birth to 3 girls total by the time she was 23 years old. Growing up, things were very much centered around girly things. My step-dad was clearly outnumbered, and his only hope of anything remotely masculine in our home was one sister playing softball for a few years. I will never forget circa 1985 at the ripe age of 5, having my two older sisters doing me up in full face make-up, complete with bright yellow and green eyeshadow, to then parade around the mall. The fact that no one took a picture of this is inexcusable now, but I remember it clear as day.

There was always an entire closet full of beauty products that were ripe for the picking and playing. My mom sold avon for a few years, so it was like a virtual smorgasboard of "Let's try this on Emily!" I can't even count the number of times we got brushes stuck in our hair trying crazy hairstyles, or how many times we fought over who borrowed some girly item from one another and didn't return it. Seriously, it was ALL GIRL in our house....complete with hair flips and attitudes.

We had this vintage Hallmark plaque that floated from room to room for years, and I had completely forgotten about it until today. I don't know where it even came from, or where it went, but I had it memorized I'd read it so many times. It looked like this...

It's amazing how things that were seemingly so insignificant as a child can pop into your mind 30 years later and affect you on a deep emotional level. Little things like this plaque remind me of how special we were to my mom. She wasn't a perfect mom and made many mistakes, but she cherished each of us for our own individual strengths and had a unique and slightly different bond with each of us. More than anything, she just LOVED that we were all girls!

At our OB apt. yesterday, I wasn't expecting to see the baby via another u/s, since they listened for the heartbeat by itself at the start....which was great at 157 bpm. However, when the doc said, "Let's take a look!" I was stoked. No idea how many of these u/s insurance will cover or how they're coding them to make them "medically necessary", but so far no bills in the mail. I know most (normal/low risk) people only have a couple u/s tops their whole pregnancy, and this made #6 for us at only 14w4d. Either way, we will not turn down the offer. Measuring at 14w6d...

We were given a guesstimate on gender at right around 12 weeks, and yet again, it became very apparent that our OB's first guess was spot on. Please meet Preston Alexander...

Best pic we could get. Our model was wiggling and kicking like karate kid.

I couldn't help but wonder if they made a plaque for Why God Made Little Boys, and it turns out they did...

"Why God Made Little Boys"

God made the world out of His dreams
Of magic mountains, oceans and streams,
Prairies and plans and wooded land,
Then paused and thought "I need someone to stand
On top of mountains, to conquer the seas,
Explore the plains and climb the trees.
Someone to start out small and to grow,
Sturdy, strong as a tree…" And so,
He created boys, full of spirit and fun,
To explore and conquer, to romp and run.
With dirty faces and banged up chins,
With courageous hearts and boyish grins.
When He had completed the task He'd begun
He surely said "A job well done".
Author: Unknown

The more we find out about our little one, the more I am falling head over heels in love with him. One thing that makes it extra special is that he is due one week before my hubby's birthday. I can't help but imagine shared bday parties for the two men in my life and how fun that might be. And while my former self might have felt slightly unequipped to do "boy stuff", now that we know we're having one, any lack of confidence has been replaced with a ridiculous amount of excitement to do all things boy. So there you have it. Looks like God wants me to be one of those crazy sports moms yelling from the sidelines! A boy is going to be so good for this family. No doubt this child will teach me more than I could ever teach him. :)