Of Boys and Men

I was complaining to my friend tonight that nothing ever seems to go my husband's way. He works so hard for every thing he has. Nothing has ever come easily to him. I feel like if he didn't have bad luck he'd have no luck at all.

And my friend answered, "He's had the best luck of all. He got to marry you."

I had to laugh at that. I don't think living with me is all that easy.

My friend continued, "Come on, it's true. He got to marry you and you gave him two great kids. One of which is a son."

"Do you really think that makes a difference?" I had to ask. In these modern times, do men really still crave sons to carry on their name?

I don't think any decent man would admit it if it were true. But I wonder.

When I was pregnant the first time we were desperate to find out if I was carrying a boy or a girl. My husband was convinced we were having a boy, but the baby never cooperated during ultrasounds.

We even paid cash to a clinic in town for an ultrasound just to find out the gender of our baby.

The technician was scanning and talking and just casually mentioned, "It's a girl." She kept right on talking like she hadn't said something completely momentous.

I glanced up at my husband and found his face frozen in complete and utter shock. He looked like he was going to be sick. I found it completely adorable. He was so scared about fathering a daughter.

Of course he's my daughter's favorite and she's a total daddy's girl.

When we were pregnant with my second, the ultrasound technician discovered the sex of the baby before she called my husband into the room.

I knew what she was going to say. I had seen it clearly in the ultrasound. So I was watching my husband when she made the announcement. "It's a boy."

And my husband's smile lit up like I had never seen before or since.

He had sworn that he didn't care what we had. He thought two daughters might be the death of him, but we were stopping at two kids no matter what we got.

I wonder if his joy was mostly because we were going to have one of each (the stereotypical perfect family) or because he was going to have a son. Maybe both?

For my part, I really wanted one of each. I honestly didn't care which came first, but once I had a daughter, I really wanted to have a son.

What do you think? Do women really want daughters? Do men really want sons?

I think that no matter what you have, you can't even imagine having anything else.