S/He, It

It's becoming more of a problem that Trouble/Nugget/Baby's gender is unknown. We know it's one or the other (phew!) but I have insisted that I don't want to know, and I am still glad I don't. But this does make for strange references to the little person. I don't feel comfortable saying "he" or "she" because I could be wrong and I don't want the poor thing to have any kind of womb-gender identity crisis. We generally stick to "the nugget" or "baby" around here these days.

I think it's super odd to hear people refer to their unborn child by the name they've chosen for it. I salute those parents for knowing exactly what they're going to do, but I still like the mystery of not knowing-- or telling. In our case, I think it's good for us. We're both going to be happy no matter what, and it's nice to keep guessing. So far the only people who think it's a girl are under the age of 5. My little next door neighbor comes over to play on our swing set and the other day she asked me, "When are you going to have your little girl?" Ha! That was great! I think she's looking for a playmate. I explained that I don't know if I'll have a girl but even if it's a boy she can still play with boys. She seemed ok with that but was more interested in having a fairy princess party pal (still a possibility with a boy, of course).

There are places that can tell you if you have a girl or a boy after something like 6 weeks (this is truly ridiculous-- 34 weeks to plan for either/or?), and there are home kits and other things that can predict (they tout their accuracy) the gender. I wonder why it's necessary. There was a time when Clint needed to know. I think he still wants to know, but this is one thing I get to decide! I think it's good to NOT know unless medically necessary or unless there's a pending divorce or other serious consequence (I will sell/destroy your _____ if you don't let me know the gender!)... Our grandmothers didn't know what they were having, my mom didn't know about me, why do I need to know anything more than that baby is normal and has all of its necessary parts? I'm still a little worried it has mitten paws, but I'm hoping those will become fingers by September. Until then, I will continue to struggle with what grammatical person I should be using.