I, You, He, She, It, We, They

Oh, the joys of pronouns! For the past four months, I've been turning a blind eye on grammar and referring to our baby as "they." *cringe* Let's face it, saying "he or she" or "his or her" EVERY time you need to talk about your baby is cumbersome!

And let's not even talk about calling our baby "it." *cringe x 1,000,000* I never want my child referred to as "it," thank you.

Saying "they" has its own challenges, in addition to the obvious grammatical one. For example, the gasp and tentative question if we're having twins. No, there's just one in there. I promise! Also, you get so used to saying "they" that when you DO find out Baby's gender, you have a hard time using the correct pronoun! It's the power of conditioning, friends. Frightening.

However, that habit served us well the week we found out. I was all prepared to do the envelope game: have the ultrasound tech write the news on paper, seal it up, give it to the clerk at the party store and have him or her fill a box with the appropriate color balloons for the gender reveal party. Complicated? A bit. But I figured we'd waited 20 weeks, so what's one more week?

Then I learned Super Husband's preference for us to know and keep it secret until the party. At first I found myself clinging to "my plan," but when I considered how nice it would be to know and to able to relish in and enjoy that knowledge for a week, with my husband? I felt at peace about it.

It sure wasn't a "ta-da!" kind of moment, though! The ultrasound took an hour and a half, and the student tech had us convinced it was a boy when she quietly referenced "his head," and after a pause, hurriedly explained to the licensed tech that we said we wanted to find out the gender, "just in case it slips out." Wouldn't you be convinced too?

So when the news came, we were both surprised and overwhelmed. I think the student was even more emotional than we were--maybe it was her first time getting to share such news with parents. But as the days passed, and reality sunk in that we have a daughter, the happy tears and laughter came afresh.

No more vague pronouns! We kept our secret for the week, and sharing the news was a joyful event. We're so in love with our baby girl already and can't wait to hold her. And by how active she feels, plus the way she wiggled her feet when we were trying to count her toes in the ultrasound...I think we may have a little dancer on our hands! I just want to learn more about her. Only four and a half more months until that happy introduction!

Until then, I find myself increasingly excited over the color pink.