We Need Some Menfolk 'Round Here!

I don't know who these folks are that make up the national average of 1.5 children/family? If I had to guess the average just based on what I see in my home state, I'd guess the average at 3 easily. So, my family is anything but a spectacle, though seeing that all three of my children are girls, I will occasionally be asked if I'm going to try again for a boy. My answer has always been, "No, but I might try for another girl!"

Husband has always said he felt the same. When we found out that we were pregnant with a girl the first time around, he was relieved. He had been concerned that he would be too harsh with a boy -- perhaps that was his baggage coming from a household of four sons and no daughters. After the first girl, and certainly the second, we just felt that we had found our "rhythm," and weren't anxious to be moved out of the zone. Frankly, we don't know what we're missing, so we aren't actually missing anything at all!

Girls are verbal. They start talking early and don't slow down for years and years -- maybe not ever. When One was about kindergarten age, she would talk and talk and talk until finally at dinnertime I would answer her, "I'm sorry. Mommy is all out of answers for today. You will have to wait for a new shipment in the morning." To that, One would just laugh! And then she would gleefully ask me a series of random-fire, nonsensical questions -- just because she thought I was kidding. Of course, I wasn't kidding. I really was spent. I had been listening and answering her attentively all day and it was important, but taxing. It's a lifestyle to be acclimated to, for sure.

I have a theory: I've always said that the mothers of boys are thin because they are physically active, while mothers of girls are heavier due to the constant snacking we engage in to relieve the mental stress. It's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Know what else is true of girls? They really are sugar and spice and everything nice! They are precious and nurturing, and they begin making the world a nicer place to be as soon as they arrive on the scene. There are days when I admittedly spend too much time just staring at them, adoring them, wondering what it's like to be them -- thanking the Lord for His kindness to me in letting me be their mother. My cup runneth over.

Today, though, Husband and I saw something different. It was a workday around the house. I finished a jumper for each of the younger girls while Husband and One built a garden patch frame that they hope to install next weekend. Afterward, all the girls were drafted to the service of raking leaves from the half-dozen oaks that have dropped their foliage this month. Rather than bagging the leaves, Husband prefers to pile them up and mulch them with the mower. It was a long, hot day, and when it was over and we two stood at the window to admire his work, I asked him to see 15 years down the road when he will be 62. "Do you really want to be doing this then? We need some boys!"

Solemnly and only half jokingly, Husband murmured, "Yes, we do. We need some boys. We'll have some boys for the sake of the work."

I already have names picked out. I say "names" because they will be twins. I couldn't possibly leave a little boy without a commrade at the bottom of this prissy food chain.

All photos are owned by Grafted Branch for use on Restoring the Years