Little Miss

Yep, it's a girl.

Why is Mark always right?  He is 2 for 2 now.  I think this situation is an unfair one because his dad is on the other side, getting to know our kids before they come to us, and cheating by somehow whispering to Mark what each one is going to be.  I don't think I should make gender-guessing a competition any more.

When my family came up for our big Thomas family reunion, they decided they just couldn't wait another week to find out what their second little grandbaby would be.  So off to Costa Mesa we went, where for a measly $25, you get 10-15 minutes of oogling your tiny one on the screen. 

It took drinking orange juice, walking, touching my toes, coughing, rolling from side to side, and finally telling jokes (to get me to laugh) to get a split-second glimpse of what our baby is.  And to respect all her efforts to be so very modest, I just can't put the telling photo up on the internet.  But here is a lovely profile:

 Two cute miniature feet:

 And a head shot, with her little arm up on her face.  She kept rubbing her face with her arms while we were watching.  Despite the creepiness that these black-and-white ultra-sounds give off, I did end up thinking she was pretty precious.  I wish I had a picture of her legs.  They looked like frog legs and she kept crossing her ankles.

 When we first found out, I won't lie, my initial reaction was nervousness.  I have a boy.  I know how to raise him ... at least up to the age he is now.  I have everything for him.  It just felt simpler to have a little brother to goof around with Mac, especially when they're around 13 or so and the adoring adults in my family have other smaller ones to spend their time on.  Family reunions might get boring.  A boy just made sense, right?

Mark's first reaction was, "Of course she is." 

Mac was running in circles and eating a banana.  Not sure how he felt about it.

But then Mom, Rachel and I went shopping and all my nervousness about girl things washed away.  Girls are so fun to buy things for.  When I came home with the giant bags, I think that was the first time Mark experienced any apprehention about it all.  Oh, except for the day he came home from his gynocology class and had learned about teen pregnancy.  "If this is a girl, I need to go get some of my dad's guns," he said.

Welp, we are excited of course to have our baby girl coming to us.  Right now Belen (call her Bel) and Elsa are our top two names, but we haven't nailed it down yet.  I know I know, plenty of time, but we knew Mac's name before he ever existed, so this feels odd to me.

And my body must be reacting to Mac's constant use of my growing abdomen for a trampoline/landing pad/punching bag, because I have been gaining weight and it is all going to my trunk.  My waist disappeared.  Now there's a substantial amount of cushion protecting my baby girl, and I really can't complain too much about it.

I feel her little wiggles all the time, and last night, Mark felt them!  I'm thinking it has a lot to do with his experienced chiropractor-ness; after all, if he can put a finger on my back and feel that something is 1/64" to the right, then why can't he feel our little lady through all my chub and muscle and guts?  Pretty sure it was a solid month or so later on that anyone besides me could feel Mac's acrobatics.

We are excited to meet her this Thanksgiving!