The Year of "Little One"

A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.

--Carl Sandburg

As of midnight last night, this officially became the year of "Little One". "Little One" is our first child, due to be born on June 5. We refer to "Little One" as "Little One" because we have made the rather uncommon decision to not find out the sex. Some may think that this is strange, and not conducive to being prepared. Leila and I, however, have no real preference on the sex of our child (and so what if we did?).

Our main argument is that there are so few good surprises left in life, why shouldn't we just let this one happen on it's own. This is our first foray into the parenting world, and I have a feeling that the surprises that "Little One" will leave us will be nowhere near as pleasant as the surprise of finding out the sex upon birth.

Both of us are extremely excited about the forthcoming birth of our first child. I have to say, Leila is an absolutely gorgeous pregnant woman. She's also got a mother's instinct that cannot be denied. My fervent hope is that I will turn out to be as good a father as she will be a mother. I do not doubt my desire to be a good father. In fact, one of the only things I asked for specifically for Christmas was a book or two on being a good father. My worry is in the execution. If I screw up a program at work, I can go back and fix it. I'm pretty sure the same does not hold true for being a parent. I've got one shot at it, and I can't blow it.

All anxiety aside, I can't wait to become a father. My only question is what do I do if it's a girl? Not that I don't want a girl -- I truly don't have a preference. It's just that I have experience with boys. I used to be one. I have exactly zero experience with little girls. Plus, I'm pretty sure that a little girl will grow up to become a teenager who'll want to date. I'm also pretty sure that she'll want to get married. Scares the bejeezus out of me. But it's all part of parenthood.

All in all, I can't wait. I'm loving Leila being pregnant. She's absolutely glowing (and I didn't really know what that meant until she became pregnant!), and aside from the nausea, she's doing very well.

What a year it's going to be. The year of "Little One"!