A Bevy of Boys

At a party this weekend I met a mom who introduced her three, young boys to me. She rolled her eyes and told me what I handful they were. 'I imagine that they are', I said, 'I have four of my own.' Then came the expected response - 'You have 4 boys!?' Funny, coming from a mom of 3 boys.

I personally know several families with more boys than me - one with 5 under 9 years old and a family with 7 beautiful boys with their 8th child being an angelic little girl! Sure, my boys are pretty unique - but they've got more!

 

The mom went on to tell me that lots of people ask her if she will try for a girl, to which she responds absolutely not - not worth the risk of ending up 4 boys ~ oh the horror! I experienced this conversation often when I was pregnant with Sean.

People often assumed that my pregnancy with Sean was an attempt to gain bit of pink in our sea of blue, as if my pregnancy with Sean was attempted ;) People would ask if I was hoping for a girl and then would quickly say, 'well, it doesn't really matter, as long as it's healthy.' 'Oh no, we bring them all home', I would reply. Talk about uncomfortable silence.

I was, in fact, hoping that Sean would be a girl. So much so that I cried at the ultrasound. The young, childless technician that did my ultrasound was appalled. I asked her if other people didn't also cry when the gender of their baby was not what they expected. She adamantly answered 'no'. Oh well, chalk another point up on my "Mother-of-the-Year" score card. 

 

 

But my wishing for a girl goes way back, back to even Ethan. I thought for sure he was a girl until while driving to the hospital holding my own medical records (in an emergency situation) I saw a line highlighted that said 'male gender noted'. When I was pregnant with Gavin, I just assumed that because I already had a boy, now I'd have a girl. I do know that it doesn't work that way, but remember, I was just hoping. Then I knew what to do - I called Social Services and told them that we would like to foster and adopt a little girl. I informed them that we already had two boys, so please bring a girl. Mom plans - God laughs - and blesses us with one more boy.

The boys also thought it would be nice to add a girl to our family. They also thought it was funny that he turned out to be yet another 'he'.  They told us how when he got older they would tell him that we hoped he was a girl. What a surprise when I told them that they could tell him, but the joke was really on them - because I had hoped that each of them would be a girl! They like this story and how they've showed up one by one and happily outnumbered me.

I am, indeed, happily outnumbered. I love having boys. It makes so much sense...now :) I really can't imagine it any other way. I must be an adrenaline junkie - the noise, the chaos, the dirt and the broken stuff - they are all in my skill set thanks to a bunch of Y chromosomes.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me,

but I think she enjoyed it.
-- Mark Twain