Deep thoughts

We found out our baby was a girl during the "anatomy ultrasound," the last of the regularly scheduled ultrasounds. During this visit, the medical staff looks at the baby's development and takes various measurements to make sure the child is growing as it should. If the parents want, the sex of the baby can also be examined at this time, though it doesn't really matter to the doctors.

After the technician told us it was a girl, she still had some work to do (measurements, etc), which gave me time to process the idea of having a daughter. While sitting there, squeezing Michelle's hand tightly, numerous thoughts passed through my mind. There were the usual (happy, scared, etc), but below were some of the other ones, not in any particular order.

1. "I call not taking her to Miley Cyrus concerts" [or whoever the Miley Cyrus-type popstar is at the time our daughter is a tween]
2. I'm probably going to see more women's basketball games than I ever imagined.
3. On a related note, I hope Title IX is still going strong when it comes time for her to apply to college.
4. She's eloping.
5. I'm excited that it's a girl. I think some guys are really interested in having a son (for a variety of reasons, e.g., carrying on the family name, living vicariously through the son, passing on the seat on the throne, etc), but even if this is our only child, I am really happy that it's a daughter. That said, I would have been just as happy had it had been a boy.
6. I'm petrified of having a teenage daughter.
7. Something I didn't think of at the time but Michelle called to my attention later: I'm going to be really outnumbered in the house (Michelle, baby girl Tyler, and even Molly).
8. Ug. I'm going to have to deal with douchebag boyfriends.
9. Yes! I don't have to have "the sex talk." It's a girl, so that conversation falls to Michelle (or at worst, the two of us together, but I'm hoping it'll come up while I'm out of the house).
10. We've come to accept that our child is going to be a nerd. If this kid had been a boy, he was going to be beat up once and a while. It's something about which we felt bad, but about which we could do nothing. Since it's a girl, we don't have to worry about her getting beat up. Sure, she might get picked on by The Plastics, but that could happen to any girl. We'll just hope our daughter will have high enough self-esteem to take it (if she's anything like her father, we don't need to worry about her self-esteem).
11. Finally, as often goes through my head: Since it's a girl, I'm going to be so weak and a lousy disciplinarian.

There were hundreds of other thoughts, but those were some of the ones I can remember right now. I'll add more if I think of them.