Whether we need another feminine touch or not, it's coming...
It feels as though I'm constantly writing about how girly
Diana is and the reason is that suddenly everything in my day-to-day life is about
jewellery and princess tiaras and makeup brushes and stealing my (high-heeled)
shoes and all things ultra-feminine.
Well, it's about to get even girlier.
At my 20-week scan, I found out that baby number two is also going to be a girl. I have to admit I was a little surprised:
since everything about this pregnancy feels and seems so different. I'm much more energised, have only thrown up twice, after long car journeys, my bump is about a foot higher than it was with Diana. I just assumed it must be a gender thing and thought this baby would be a boy.
Of course, part of me was probably slightly wishfully thinking that it would be easier to have a son to appease my cricket-mad husband, although - as I am always pointing out to him - just because you have a child of a certain gender doesn't mean they're going to have the same interests as you do. And in fact, my husband lucked out with Diana, who loves throwing a ball around as much as any little boy would (she just does it with a handbag slung over one shoulder).
But the female domination in our household is already becoming apparent. Diana, who doesn't understand why cricket is constantly on in the background of her life, actually turned to her beloved Daddy and said "No cricket!" this weekend;
Bolshy, the other male presence in our household, has been enlisted in the part-time (sadly unpaid) gig of surprisingly non-reactive model for D's jewellery and accessories (see pic above).
My husband, who grew up in a male-dominated family with three other brothers, was slightly terrified when we found out Diana was a girl (I think he worried that this meant the time had come for him to learn to relate to women finally).
He insists that he is very excited about the prospect of another girl, mainly, I believe, because someone told him that two-daughter families are statistically very happy and advised him to prepare for a lifetime of Daddy worship and getting things done for him.
I've caught him snuggling up to Bolshy more often of late, so I guess he's found someone to turn to when he needs a little male solidarity and three women are acting out Tangled in the next room...
As for me, having grown up with no siblings, I didn't have a preference when it came to the baby's sex, but, like all mothers-to-be, am just hoping for a happy, healthy baby. At the moment, I'm currently trying to wrap my head around what it will be like to be the parent of siblings, let alone sisters, having had no first-hand experience of that relationship myself.
Truth be told, even though I don't like dressing Diana all in pink and am just as happy for her to play football as I am for her to try ballet, I am really enjoying the girly things that I've started to do with D, from listening to Disney princess songs to collaging fashion magazine pages over old nappy boxes to turn them into seats.
While I am thinking that having another daughter means a lifetime of ransacked makeup cases and a permanently bejewelled bulldog, there is the possibility that baby number two will be completely disinterested in princess pursuits, and will be begging Daddy to keep the cricket on in the background.
She'll have to answer to Diana then.