no, really, it's a...

"it's a boy!" the tech rejoiced.

"it's a boy!" i repeated. rups and i looked at each other with big smiles on our faces, the same smiles that would have been there had it been a girl. wow, a little boy. i knew it all along, but just hearing it was strange. rups couldn't stop smiling. the tech pointed out the proof on the screen--yup, it was a boy all right. many people choose to wait till the birth of the baby to find out it's sex, and i totally respect that. to me, though, getting the huge surprise now, when i'm energetic, and awake, and can hug everyone immediately, is still just as much a surprise as finding out later, and a heck of a lot less draining.

rups hugged rani a bit tighter and i couldn't stop staring at her for some reason. every development made her seem less and less of our only baby. "rani, you're having a little brother! what is his name?" we asked jokingly. in all seriousness, rani stated "tony." what?? tony? we asked her again. again she said "tony". now rani has never said the word tony in her life. we don't know anyone named tony, there is no one with the name of tony in her show 'sid the science kid' and none of her stuffed animals bear that moniker. where she got tony from we don't know, but for now, we will nickname this kid tony (at least in the blog).

our parents and sisters were, of course, ecstatic, but i think even they were less than impressed with the name tony. had rani said "raj" or "chandu" maybe they would have adopted it immediately, but tony? yeah, we'll come up with a different name...

so now we're having a little boy and i'm putting off thinking of all that entails. what do i do with a boy? i come from a family of girls, i have a girl, i AM a girl. i get girls. so to have a little boy growing inside me is almost foreign. exciting, but foreign. the rows of pretty dresses lining rani's closet are going to be packed away in more than temporary boxes, the little ribbons and sandals will follow, and with all the girly things i put away, i know i'm going to feel like i'm losing my little tiny sweet baby girl. i'm going to leave the pink bears and pink boppy out, though. hey, even rani wore blue sometimes! when the baby boy (tony) comes, i know all the adoration i thought i had packed away will come pouring back out, along with little blue clothes, and more trucks, and sporting equipment and baseball caps. (i have all those things for rani already, but what else do you get for boys?)

so now you have it, we're having baby tony patel. i have a feeling this journey is going to be just as exciting as the last one.