One Little Pronoun... - Kirsten Oliphant

A throwback! I posted this five years ago on my OTHER (now private) blog, I Still Hate Pickles. Today is Cooper’s fifth birthday and it seemed fitting to celebrate again the pronoun that changed so much in our lives!

8 weeks ago, one pronoun changed our lives.

HER.

From the other side of a surgical curtain, we heard it, and with it, our boy-lives expanded to include a she. A her.

Moments later, a face followed the word. Red and slick with vernix, mouth open in a howl–a gorgeous sound.

Swaddled tight on my chest, she looked and felt the same as my boys had–dark hair hidden under a hospital-knit hat, gray-blue eyes, and a perfect nose. A her, not a him, but definitely an us.

This little pronoun so far still seems little, showing itself in ruffles and the difference of a diaper change. Sometimes I slip and call her him, then remember.

The balance in our family slightly shifted, still in favor of the he: husband, dog, boy, and boy. I have a feeling one day our voices will overpower the he’s.

We have a lot to say, girls. And if she is anything like I was as a girl, there will be no less chasing than we do for the boys. She might also rip bows from her hair.

We have yet to see the full impact of that tiny little word on our lives, of this tiny person.

But we can’t wait.

A note from now: She DOES rip bows from her hair. And hates dresses, but loves skirts and tree-climbing and swinging from the trapeze in the yard and also her littlest sister, Piper who is: “So cute and chubby!” (True story.)