Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Every mom should have a daughter. Natasha is intoxicatingly delicate and sweet. And remarkably easy. Everyone told me how much easier having a girl would be and I didn’t believe it until she arrived. Here’s the thing, though. Even though Adam required a lot as a newborn, I always theorized that you get out what you put in. So giving a lot to Adam meant that he was going to be a super hyper genius happy child and grow into a super hyper happy successful content secure (insert all positive adjectives here) adult. So I feel really freaked out when I don’t have to put as much effort into Natasha. Since I don’t swaddle her and hold her and bounce and “shhhh” in a dark room by myself with white noise for 24 hrs a day, maybe she’ll just be average. Then I stop and think…maybe she’ll just make up for the lack of parenting effort when she is a teenager.

Another thing different about girls is the amount of pink involved in dressing your child. I had long lamented over the dearth of boy clothes to choose from, but at least there is some variety in color choices. I remember looking at newborn girl clothes wondering what in the world I could bring myself to put on Natasha given my aversion to the color of Pepto Bismol. And hair! What would I do with her hair?!? Mine is always in a pony tail and I use that term loosely. Half of it is usually hanging out and I can’t get rid of those blasted comb lines. I am hair challenged, despite having more than my fair share of it.

Maybe it’s the hormones, but I find myself renewing my love affair with the color pink. I had always thought most newborn girls look rather anemic in the color pink, but Natasha looks quite vibrant in it. So I find myself gravitating to pink, ruffley clothing. Not that I have other options, mind you. And hair isn’t too much an issue since Natasha’s is less than an inch long.

We’ll see how girly she ends up being. She is quite petite and I think she always will be, but she’s also pretty tough having survived her 50% chance of not making it into this world, overcoming a single umbilical artery and thriving perfectly. Oh, and taking a few blows to the head courtesy of her clumsy older brother who hasn’t fully grasped the concept of gravity yet. No matter, he’ll always be there to look out for her when she’s older as he is quite the loving older brother already.

We’re hoping he is big enough to help keep those teenage years of hers from getting too challenging; it’s going to be his job to keep all the riff-raff away.