OK so I am very very pregnant. I mean, technically there are only two settings ("not pregnant" and "all the way pregnant"), but we all know what I mean. I am enormous, cranky, and tired.
I was making a half-hearted attempted not to whine about the difficulties of the last month of pregnancy. After all, it's not like anyone ordered me get pregnant with what will hopefully be the fifth kid in the family. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of you, had you been asked, wouldn't have recommended it. So what right do I have to whine?
On second thought, though, I realized that I feel free to whine about work, even though I'm lucky to have my job and nobody told me to work there, and I feel free to whine about math, even though nobody told me to major in math. So I'm going to go ahead and whine about this as well.
(On third thought, it might not be such a good idea to look to my own behavior as a standard for appropriate behavior... )
Anyway. I'm big and tired, and things hurt.
There. Whining done.
*****
So... why try for five kids? I wanted to write a whole post about this, but I'm not sure I have a whole post's worth of explanation. Suffice to say, I have yet to not be very happy about deciding to try to have a kid, after making the decision in the past (maybe that doesn't suffice to say. But it's all I can state semi-coherently for now, so I'll have to stop there).
*****
So... I must really be hoping for a boy, right?
I'm going to give you all the benefit of the doubt and assume none of you were actually thinking that, but based on the comments I've been getting in recent weeks, it's definitely something some people think.
So no. I am really, genuinely not hoping for anything but a healthy baby. Viggy too.
It's so weird how some people are about a baby's sex. I'm not someone who thinks that men and women are naturally the same, and the only gender differences are cultural - not at all - but seriously, it's not like if you've met one girl or one boy you've met them all.
A boy baby would be an interesting new person, and unique in our family. A girl baby would be an interesting new person, and unique in our family. Yes, we would have four other girls, but so what? If we have a boy, he'd be one of about 180,000 boy babies born worldwide that day. And yet, still not interchangeable with any of them.
(OK, at least not after the first six months or so. As much as I really do care for even the small squishy new babies, they are pretty interchangeable.)
(There. Gender rant done, too.)
*****
And since you've let me rant so nicely, a couple of kid anecdotes -
My mother in law was here recently, and brought the kids some clothes. Among the clothes she brought were three t-shirts with a picture of Dora the Explorer.
All of the t-shirts are six 6. And all of them now belong to S.
She doesn't insist on wearing all of them at once (I'm not sure if that's because even she has to draw the line somewhere, or if it just hasn't occurred to her yet). So instead, she wears one, and if anyone tries to touch one of the others, she wrests it from their hands and runs around with it, usually while yelling "S's shirt!!!"
Did I mention that she's taken to referring to herself in the third person?
She's going to be Dora for Purim, for the simple reason that if we can't get her to wear anything but Dora-themed clothing anyway, we might as well just go with it.
Did I mention that she barely ever watches TV, let alone Dora (which A and N have rejected as a "baby show")? But it doesn't matter. The beauty and wonder and just plain right-ness of Dora are so obvious to her that she doesn't need things like TV shows to help her see it.
**
S is very attached to Adi, who recently explained, "It's like we're beads on a bracelet. N and D are right next to each other, so they're very close. S and I are at opposite ends of the string. But then when you loop the string around, we're right next to each other! So we're very close too."
**
Adi is on the way to becoming a true bookworm. Today I had to call her name four times before she looked up from her page, and I'm not sure she was listening even when she did. I'm so proud.
**
D has started writing me notes. No, her writing isn't that good. But that doesn't stop her from scribbling on pieces of paper, bringing them to me, and saying things like, "This note says I love you, Mommy."
I'm not sure how much of it is an attempt to express herself even without knowing all the letters, and how much of it is an attempt to justify the quantity of paper that she's been cutting into note-size pieces (D and scissors get along like lighters and gasoline, ie, a little too well). But either way, I find myself keeping her notes.
I was making a half-hearted attempted not to whine about the difficulties of the last month of pregnancy. After all, it's not like anyone ordered me get pregnant with what will hopefully be the fifth kid in the family. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of you, had you been asked, wouldn't have recommended it. So what right do I have to whine?
On second thought, though, I realized that I feel free to whine about work, even though I'm lucky to have my job and nobody told me to work there, and I feel free to whine about math, even though nobody told me to major in math. So I'm going to go ahead and whine about this as well.
(On third thought, it might not be such a good idea to look to my own behavior as a standard for appropriate behavior... )
Anyway. I'm big and tired, and things hurt.
There. Whining done.
*****
So... why try for five kids? I wanted to write a whole post about this, but I'm not sure I have a whole post's worth of explanation. Suffice to say, I have yet to not be very happy about deciding to try to have a kid, after making the decision in the past (maybe that doesn't suffice to say. But it's all I can state semi-coherently for now, so I'll have to stop there).
*****
So... I must really be hoping for a boy, right?
I'm going to give you all the benefit of the doubt and assume none of you were actually thinking that, but based on the comments I've been getting in recent weeks, it's definitely something some people think.
So no. I am really, genuinely not hoping for anything but a healthy baby. Viggy too.
It's so weird how some people are about a baby's sex. I'm not someone who thinks that men and women are naturally the same, and the only gender differences are cultural - not at all - but seriously, it's not like if you've met one girl or one boy you've met them all.
A boy baby would be an interesting new person, and unique in our family. A girl baby would be an interesting new person, and unique in our family. Yes, we would have four other girls, but so what? If we have a boy, he'd be one of about 180,000 boy babies born worldwide that day. And yet, still not interchangeable with any of them.
(OK, at least not after the first six months or so. As much as I really do care for even the small squishy new babies, they are pretty interchangeable.)
(There. Gender rant done, too.)
*****
And since you've let me rant so nicely, a couple of kid anecdotes -
My mother in law was here recently, and brought the kids some clothes. Among the clothes she brought were three t-shirts with a picture of Dora the Explorer.
All of the t-shirts are six 6. And all of them now belong to S.
She doesn't insist on wearing all of them at once (I'm not sure if that's because even she has to draw the line somewhere, or if it just hasn't occurred to her yet). So instead, she wears one, and if anyone tries to touch one of the others, she wrests it from their hands and runs around with it, usually while yelling "S's shirt!!!"
Did I mention that she's taken to referring to herself in the third person?
She's going to be Dora for Purim, for the simple reason that if we can't get her to wear anything but Dora-themed clothing anyway, we might as well just go with it.
Did I mention that she barely ever watches TV, let alone Dora (which A and N have rejected as a "baby show")? But it doesn't matter. The beauty and wonder and just plain right-ness of Dora are so obvious to her that she doesn't need things like TV shows to help her see it.
**
S is very attached to Adi, who recently explained, "It's like we're beads on a bracelet. N and D are right next to each other, so they're very close. S and I are at opposite ends of the string. But then when you loop the string around, we're right next to each other! So we're very close too."
**
Adi is on the way to becoming a true bookworm. Today I had to call her name four times before she looked up from her page, and I'm not sure she was listening even when she did. I'm so proud.
**
D has started writing me notes. No, her writing isn't that good. But that doesn't stop her from scribbling on pieces of paper, bringing them to me, and saying things like, "This note says I love you, Mommy."
I'm not sure how much of it is an attempt to express herself even without knowing all the letters, and how much of it is an attempt to justify the quantity of paper that she's been cutting into note-size pieces (D and scissors get along like lighters and gasoline, ie, a little too well). But either way, I find myself keeping her notes.
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