I bet you can guess where this is going...

When I was growing up my parents didn't have a lot of money. However, they worked very hard to make sure that my siblings and I didn't know it. We were lavished with love, attention... and Barbies. We had a small city's worth of Barbies. They were my sister Kate's and my favorite toy, by far. We spend endless hours coming up with "scenes" for our Barbies to play out (These scenes were often outlined in pencil and misspelled words on notebook paper). From there we set the stage with just the right outfits, hair-dos, and props. Once we had the storyboard set just-so, we'd announce "play!" and begin our Barbie adventure; only "pausing" for lunch but often "rewinding" to go back through a particularly fun scene or to get the action just right.

When it came about that our legion of Barbies desired a mansion, my Mom and Dad one-uped Mattel and saved themselves some cash. I'll never forget the moment of unveiling on Christmas morning of their handmade Barbie dream house. They took four big boxes, painted the walls, sewed on curtains, and even carpeted the boxes with scraps from the construction site where my dad slaved for us. There were two gorgeous pink bed rooms resplendent with white and pink canopy beds; a kitchen with pretty yellow curtains; and a living room with wonderful wicker furniture. Over the years there were additions added to the Barbie house until the boxes lined an entire wall of our play room. And though the boxes sagged in the ceiling some by the end, we treasured them and they survived intact until we outgrew the whole business of Barbies.

I know, busty Barbie gets a bad rap for presenting our daughters with an unrealistic body image at a young age. Her opponents claim she teaches materialism and greed to the very young. And though I can't deny Barbie's crazy rockn' body, bottle-blonde locks, her endless buy-now wardrobe, or all her other collect-them-all accessories... I think any toy is what you make of it. Sure, I hate the fact that Barbie is mass-produced in Chinese sweatshops. (I'm working on a whole Made-In-China blog post... we're giving it up as a family resolution.) But, Barbie can be anything. She can be a Doctor, a teacher, a mermaid. Heck, our Barbies were rock stars, and mothers, and princesses to be saved from Dragons. Barbies even taught us about diversity. My Florida-cracker sister and I had four black Barbies, one lonely Asian (who was my favorite for a log time), and many hispanic Barbies. They were all cast as the ingénue at various times in our scenes. Plus, most importantly, Barbies (and other such toys) were the vehicle that cemented the amazing bond of sisterhood between Kate and I. From the start, she and I were best friends.

So, it should come as no surprise when I tell you, yesterday at the ultrasound, when we were told we were expecting an other girl I squealed in absolute delight. Immediately intoxicating visions of knitting with luxurious pink yarn, matching Christmas dresses, and BARBIES swirled in my head. I can't help it... SISTERS! I am so excited. Sure, it mean's my mother's-intuition is crap; I was just so sure it was a boy. And though I would have been equally thrilled to be knitting masculine little longies, envisioning a house full of wrestling children and more Lego castles than floorspace... I feel nothing but giddiness over being wrong in my prediction of the baby's sex.

Maybe part of it is that we can put the name anxiety firmly to rest. I was really torturing myself to come up with a good boy name. The night before last I awoke at 2 am, 3:30 am and finally at 4:30 am each time with a list of boy names scrolling unwanted through my brain: "Able (great suggestion!), Albert (NO!), Arthur, Augustus, Brian..." Seriously, in alphabetic order and everything! We will have our little Lola; Smoochy and I couldn't be more resolved or united in our choice of name. We simply HAD to have a Lola... which might be why we were chosen to have another girl in the first place! Smoochy said to me last night before bed, that he was really glad that we were having a girl because he loves the name so much. He was worried that if it were a boy and our last child (undecided) that he might never get his Lola. How very sweet, I love him.

So, that's our news. A girl. A sweet wonderful girl.

Also, A huge thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. That was a riot. I have NEVER in 5 years of blogging had so man comments on a post! And your name suggestions were awesome. Corin, don't worry, I won't steal River! (And none of you had better, either!) ;-)