Warning: the following contains many gender stereotypes that, in the case of my kids, happen to be true.

I never thought I wanted to have a girl.

When I thought about having more kids, I automatically thought “boy.” I knew what that was like: fun, energetic, lots of baseball and nerdy young adult fantasy novels with dragons and magic… what more could I want?

When the thought of having a girl entered my mind, I didn’t think those things wouldn’t exist in our relationship, it’s just that the good things were clouded by the “bad” things: hormones, dating, mother/daughter relationships and the accompanying therapy bills, and, perhaps the worse: JUNIOR HIGH.

I still have those fears for and about my daughter, Rachel. But the fact that she is the loveliest, toughest, most spectacular, Unicorn-loving, princess-dress-wearing, tool-box-toting little girl I have ever known manages to push those thoughts all the way…