Our first glimpse of the beta version

It seemed like a good idea at the time, to bring The Boy to our ultrasound appointment so he could see the baby growing in Mommy's tummy. That was before I realized it would take at least an hour for the technician to take the 80 pictures she needed of the baby's various parts from various angles. The Boy sat quietly for about five of those minutes, then he wanted to know if the monitor we were watching also showed cartoons.

Ah, the sad plight of the second child. "Look, there's a foot!" your mommy says as the ultrasound wand is guided over her gel-ied belly. I'd like to look, but right now I have to deal with your brother, who is climbing onto my shoulders because he wants to stand on my head. We'd like to attend your start in this world with the same fascination and awe on which we lavished your brother's beginnings, but we're a little distracted. Also, I'm sorry to say, there's a been-there-done-that quality to the whole adventure. Sorry, kid. You should have gotten here first.

The good news is everything seems to be normal. As for the big question that people seem pathologically driven to ask: We won't know if it's a boy or a girl until the the kid joins us on the outside. We asked the technician to avoid any areas that might give us a clue as the baby's sex, and she was happy to comply. I figure we'll have plenty of time to stick the kid in a box and slap a label on it, as we humans are driven to do. No need to start in utero.