It's a Boy

Yesterday, Mary Kay and I got the happy news that our baby is a boy. It's weird really; I had convinced myself (pretty deeply) that we were having a girl. It's just the way life works.

Even though I didn't admit it to my wife, I had already been narrowing down girl names in my head. I love Brianna, Kelly, Katie, and Erin. But now, that's not to be.

When we were told it was a boy, I have to admit, I wept. Although my wife's tummy is covered in gel for the ultrasound, and she was on her side (Baby Boy LoCicero was spining and moving quite furiously), I had to keep it to myself. A thousand thoughts fly through your mind when you hear the gender of your unborn child. Sure, it's the continuation of the patriarchical surname (not like there's not thousands of LoCicero's out there), but I immediately thought of what sports he might play (if he plays any), what his interests will be, my fear that I'll be 60 when he heads off to college, and of course, the usual, how in the hell are we going to pay for all of this?

Admittedly, Mary Kay and I are consummate planners, and the college fund is already in place and growing (thanks to a bullish market right now). As some of you know, we already have our unborn child registered at The Goddard School to start in March '08 and we are likely the ONLY homeowner in Moose Lake Estates with decent equity in our home. (Hell, with two foreclosures in our neighborhood, one across the street from us, we're probably the ONLY ones with more than 20% equity!!). So our own disciplined behavior of money management means we really shouldn't have much to worry about, but you just never know. With escalating costs of education, with technology taking over our lives and with the massively increasing debt that the United States is accumulating, I'll be surprised if gasoline isn't $5.00/gallon in the next 18 months.

Don't get me wrong, for the 30 minutes in the dark during an ultrasound, I definitely celebrated this happy day of our lives, but isn't it sad that one's mind goes to worry and concern so quickly? America is still the land of dreams that so many immigrants try to make true but our leaders have me very very worried about the future for my child, my boy, my son. As any Father must do, I will do everything in my power to ensure he doesn't make the same mistakes I made and that he cherishes family over anything else in life, but the variables we cannot control, well, I guess we're going to just have to face them together.