Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Look Out World!


Our "Little Mister"

We are proud to announce that coming this fall, we'll be adding a little man to the family! We are definitely excited to have a little guy running around, off-setting some of the drama and estrogen that will be coursing through the family as the years progress. Yes, even I, who was afraid to ever have a boy, am excited to welcome a son into the family. You have to understand, we are not just having any boy. We are having a GILL boy.

For those of you who don't know, my husband is the oldest of three. Three boys. Three strong, charming, intelligent, handsome, witty, and adventurous kind of boys. Three wild, crazy, machete-throwing, blender-melting, garage-fire-starting, driveway-fire-starting, house-fire-starting, two-story-couch-jumping, two-miles-from-home-while-still-in-diapers-wandering kind of boys. So you can see where I might be a little anxious about beginning the next generation of "Gill boys." However, I have a few factors in my favor:

First, this boy has two older sisters who will tattle his naughty antics as fast as he can think of them, so there ain't nothin' that this guy is gonna get away with. Don't believe me? You must not have ever played with little girls. Second, HE IS HALF ME. While I do possess an adventurous nature, I also inhibit a great deal of caution and cause-and-effect rationale that may have been somehow erased from my husband's DNA. So our little boy has a 50/50 chance of inheriting a bit of think-before-you-act personality. (By the way, this trait can also be learned, so even if he doesn't inherit it, all is not lost. He will just come out of boyhood with double the scars and double the concussions).

Third, I am more confident in my mothering skills. While I am preparing for the differences in mothering girls vs. boys, I am not necessarily fretting about the same sort of things first-time-moms do. He may eat bugs, skin his knees, fall from a tree, lose a finger, fall face-first into the swimming pool - all before his first birthday and I'm probably not going to freak out too much. Maybe this is God's gift to me. Though I only have 4 years of parenthood under my belt, I've done a LOT of "on-the-job-failing" (I read that phrase in a book and I'm going to steal it) and have learned a lot from my mistakes. I'm fairly confident that my sweet two-girl buffer has readied me to raise a boy who grows into a God-fearing, risk-taking, compassion-giving, ever-learning kind of man. You know, a Gill man :)

P.S. Major kudos to my mother-in-law who was not given a sweet two-girl buffer. She's made of a sterner stuff I think :)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats Brenda! You are a fantastic mother, and a wonderful person! I always love to read what you write :) Thank you for that!

Michelle said...

I also have 2 older girls and then a boy. And yes, he is hyper. Its odd because both my husband and I were quiet kids, but then we get this extremely hyper child. And you know what? I wouldn't change a thing. He's awesome. But having girls first does make a difference. He sees how loving the girls are and he wants to be loving too. He sees them painting or drawing and he wants to do that too. We have to even out the girly things though...too many girly things and I start to worry so I have him go do something with Dad or Grandpa. Sounds like in your family, that will not be a problem. And you could have a really calm boy or a really energetic one. It really all depends. I think you might be a little surprised. Caleb was really well behaved and routine until he was one or one and half. Then he started not being able to sleep, so it really just depends on the kid and their issues, but boys are so fun! Although I'm sort of glad I have one. Two might be too many. LOL. Girls are cute and dainty and boys are chaotic. They all keep life pretty interesting.