Sheesh.  Ok, so this pregnancy has been a doozie thus far and I'm barely even 8 weeks into it!  I've been tweeting about how annoyed I am about my debilitating morning all-day sickness and how so many people have responded to my pregnancy with

"Oooohh, you might finally get your girl?!!"

Can I just say how God-awful annoying that is to a mom of boys?  I mean, look at this picture….do I look like I don't already have everything I want?

Even some of my closest friends, who I know LOVE me as much as I do them, have said things about how I just HAVE to be having a girl and how wonderful it's going to be.  And then, I die.  Not because I wouldn't be absolutely in love with a girl if I had one, but no more so than if I could brag about having FOUR sons in my life!!!!  I know how much fun it could be to have girls…with my sister recently giving birth the most angelic baby girl on earth, I couldn't be more happy or proud as an Aunt.  I love that little tootsie more than life itself and I am unbelievably happy for my sister and brother-in-law.  But none of that takes away from me loving my boys and having room for one more!

I was at a friend's baby shower this past weekend and she's got 3 boys (like me) and is having a girl this time around with number 4.  We both had such a great convo about how when you have 3 boys and are pregnant with #4, people just give you that empathetic {almost} reaction when it comes to talking about the sex of the baby.  As if "finally getting your girl" implies that you've been missing out on something during your whole journey as a mother.  And that somehow if it's a girl {and not simply a healthy baby} that you'll finally get to die a happy person.  That your life will somehow now be complete.  It was refreshing to talk to her about how she dealt with it and how I am now starting to deal with those comments.  Because, truth be told, I have never been one to fall in line with the white picket fence notion.  I would be BEYOND elated if I found out we were going to be adding another little ferocious boy to our family! 

Ok, not that I like cleaning up 5 toilets after them all but there are tradeoffs with either gender.  And by the same token, if I had ALL girls, I would hate to be made to feel as if my experience as a mother were less than ideal because I had no sons to speak of.  It is all just too much sometimes. 

Given that I am classified "advanced maternal age" this time around, my biggest prayer is not that I look up at the ultrasound screen and see the highly coveted "hamburger buns", but rather my baby be healthy and all good, regardless of the sex.  Plus, if you ask my two older sons {and hubs}, they aren't at ALL keen on having a little girl around this house.  Apparently all they can envision is the sight of Barbies lying around all over the floor. Seriously. That's what my two older boys came up with.

So while I try and muster up my energy each day of this pregnancy to stay an active mom of boys who are in fall baseball, flag football, soccer, tackle football, piano, let's not forget school – I hope that the insinuations that hubs and I are finally going for "our girl" will soon die down.  Because I am so incredibly in love with my boys.  So much so that it makes my mind smile when I think about the possibility of adding one more of them to this life.  Boy or girl – it makes no difference to me.  I've already got the best of it all.