Unexpected

Josh and I did not expect to have a boy. We were absolutely certain from before I even got pregnant--before we even started trying--that we would have a girl. The hours I spent planning the nursery online revolved solely around pink toile and gingham check.

We chose to learn (or confirm what we already knew about) Dash's gender over dinner with our closest friends, so we asked the ultrasound doctor to write us a note and seal it. We opened it that evening after taking a poll around the table. Seven votes for "girl." One vote for "boy," and that guesser was just being contrary. I have never been so surprised by anything in my life as I was when I saw those three letters: B-O-Y. It just never ocurred to me that it was a possibility.

Then Dash came out to greet us and he is blond and blue-eyed. Again, I am a little jarred every time I see him. I mean, yes, Josh is blond and blue but I assumed that my dominant genes for brown and hazel would beat his dainty little recessives into submission. Wrong again.

And now. Now it is becoming impossible to deny that Dash is a lefty. Again. It just never occurred to me in a million years that it could happen. And I had given it some thought because for some reason Josh was always joking about hoping he threw lefty as southpaw pitchers earn more. But I did not believe it could happen. I knew for a fact that he could not be left-handed. But he is. It's fine, of course. Better than fine. But it is so totally "other," to me that I just can't wrap my mind around it.

So what next, little man. What other surprises do you have up your sleeve for me? Maybe you'll have a great singing voice (inconceivable) or you'll be good at math or directions (impossible to believe).

It's interesting, isn't it? These little lessons they teach us, even this early, even from the very start, that they are them and not us and will surprise us at every turn because they are separate. They're distinct from us and we'd better learn it sooner rather than later because the divide between us is only going to grow as the days pass.