Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Sex of the Baby (And Weren’t Afraid to Ask)

The following is a true story.

A few days after I took a positive pregnancy test, I told Emrick that I had a baby in my belly. Ever since then, he has lifted my shirt on an almost-daily basis in hopes of seeing it. He recognizes what a baby is when he sees one in person, and I think he understands — at times, anyway — that there’s a baby inside my tummy. But what it’s doing in there is beyond his comprehension at this point. And since his concept of time is limited, he does not understand what I mean when I say that we will see the baby “in about six months.”

Nevertheless, I continue to tell him things (not just baby-related) even though I know their meaning doesn’t click with him yet. One night in January, we were sitting down to dinner, and just for fun I asked Emrick, “Do you want a little brother or a little sister?”

“Little sister,” he answered.

Marcus and I looked at each other and laughed. We laughed because we expected Emrick to be too confused to answer the question. When he doesn’t understand what he is asked (which is rare these days), he is usually silent in response. And since I am pretty sure that I had never explained to him the concept of brothers and sisters, nor even uttered the words “brother” or “sister” to him in recent months, I found it pretty amusing that he gave such a quick, clear, and definitive answer.

About a month later, when I was home with Emrick during the day, he began talking about the baby in my belly. I asked him again, “Emrick, do you want a little brother or a little sister?”

He grinned and said, “Little sister.”

At this point, I figured that he was just repeating the last thing I said. So to test him, I reversed the boy/girl order and asked again.

“Emrick, do you want a little sister, or a little brother?” I asked, trying to keep my tone neutral so as not to inadvertently emphasize one over the other.

“Little sister,” he said again.

Well, what Emrick wants, Emrick gets. 🙂