Our Team is Expanding!: My Dearest Daughter,

It feels so surreal to say that--to know who you are and give you an identity. Although, I firmly believe that your gender does not detirmine your identity, nor will it. But I do enjoy using the proper pronouns for you now.

Our little girl. That's who you are.

Yesterday, I talked Daddy (with the help of some friends and our assistant principal) to going to a little elective ultrasound place. It was only $35 dollars for 10 minutes and a gender scan. Absolutely worth it, and he finally agreed. From the moment we first saw you on the big screen, we were in love. You smiled nearly the entire time. It was as though you knew we were watching. You would fall asleep and wake back up pretty quickly. The juice I drank seemed to have no impact. But when you would move? WOW would you move. They had trouble keeping up with you once you got going! You may be a thumb sucker--your little hand was up by your face for a good portion of the time, and as I look at your picture from our 12 week ultrasound taped to my computer, you are in the same position. Your face has seemed to balance out a little bit of Daddy's nose, but you still look a lot like him already.

And your legs. Your long legs. They gave us the most trouble, and I think you knew it. You were sitting indian style, with your little heels and feet tucked into you and your knees sitting straight up. Daddy and I got a kick out of it, but it blocked getting a really good shot of your "parts." We tried everything! We shook you, I stood up, I went to the bathroom and came back again. But you just wouldn't stretch those long legs out. I hope you are not running out of room already!

A hilarious side note is after the appointment, Mommy and Daddy went to dinner at Red Robin. As we sat down in the booth, I told your Daddy to stand back up and look at how I naturally sat down. I was sitting indian style. We laughed so hard and he said, "That's how we should have known it was Momma's girl!"

Anyway, back to the joy. We got to spend nearly 30 minutes watching you, because there was a new ultrasound tech on her externship who needed to practice. We certainly didn't mind the extra time! You flipped over quite a few times, but those legs still never moved. It was wonderful, and Daddy and I were beaming ear-to-ear when it was finally over.

LPG, we are so happy and blessed to have you. While Mommy doesn't consider herself completely girlie, I know that daddy and I will be able to take good care of you. We will teach you to be strong and proud, and to stand up for yourself. We will teach you to love sports, and music, and appreciate natural beauty. And we will have tea parties and play dress-up should you so desire it. We promise to be the best parents to you, and love you with every fiber of our beings. Because we already do. We love you, dearest little girl.

Here are a slew of pictures from the day: