I think many of you may already know, either from conversation or Instagram, but I wanted to share the news officially here: we are welcoming a little lady to our family in January! To back up a little, we knew pretty much from the beginning that we would find out our baby’s sex before birth. I know several folks that have been so happy with their decision not to (my sister and Nancy, for two), and the frugal side of me really liked the idea of loved ones gifting us practical, gender-neutral gifts over tons of pink or blue outfits. However, I didn’t really buy the argument that the surprise of the gender would provide any additional motivation to get me through labor (it seems unlikely anything could top the idea of simply meeting our baby!). I also felt that the waiting and wondering over many months would make me more anxious than excited. Finally, we thought that knowing whether we were expecting a boy or girl would help these two non-baby-lovers wrap their heads around everything that’s going on. So, when we went in for our twenty week ultrasound, we asked the doctor to hide anything pertinent on the screen, and write the sex on a note sealed in an envelope. I like that he signed the outside — very official, like the Oscars :) That was a Thursday, and we kept the envelope in our hot little hands until Friday evening, when we opened it at dinner on our first night in Greenville. From the beginning, I thought we were having a girl. Actually, it was less of a thought and more of an assumption — I have two sisters, 90% girl cousins, and almost all of our close family friends have all girls. We just don’t do