Right now you are 11 weeks along, and are the size of a walnut, or a fig, depending on who you ask. You continue to be incredibly low maintenance which I am so grateful for. While morning sickness continues to be a non-issue, you are a little persnickety when it comes to food preferences. Last week all I wanted was a turkey sandwich, but this week the thought of meat is pretty unappealing. A couple of weeks ago peppers were off my list forever, but these last couple of weeks I’ve been inhaling salsa faster than I usually do—which is remarkable. The only consistency is that salty things remain high on my list of priorities, whereas sweet things like candy are less important (of course, as I type these very words I have a piece of candy in my mouth).
I am currently taking bets for determining when you’ll be born, what your gender is, etc. I will post them once the results are in for record keeping sake. But for now, your aunt Shay thinks you’re a girl. She directed us to a Chinese Gender Chart, which remarkably has been accurate for all four of your cousins so far. According to the chart, if we calculate it by your estimated conception date, you are a boy. But if we calculate it by your estimated due date, you are a girl. So if nothing else, at least we know you’ll either be a girl or a boy. Your Great Grandpa Allen thinks you are a boy, given that men out number women significantly on the Allen side of things.
Duchess Kate announced today that she is pregnant as well. I don’t know how far along she is, but regardless she’s kind of stolen my thunder. My guess is that you’ll be born within weeks of her royal heir. The reason I bring this up is because now would be a good time to let you know that you are technically an heir to the throne too—just an illegitimate one. You are a descendant of King George III, but unfortunately for you (and me) we descend from the wrong line. Over the course of your life you will learn that there are ample places in our genealogy where we were SO CLOSE to vast wealth and/or royalty, but just missed the boat by a nose hair. You will hear these stories a lot as you grow up, because I lament about them loudly all the time.
As you continuously double in size over the next 28 weeks or so, and your DNA strands continue to connect and your inherited traits slowly begin to unfold and reveal themselves, there are some things to think about regarding where all of this data is coming from.
One, is that you are extremely American. You have ancestors that came over from England on the Mayflower (you’ll learn what the Mayflower is later on), which means that our people were the first Europeans to settle this country hundreds and hundreds of years ago. One interesting note is that while your family is spread out from Coast-to-Coast and even across the world right now, many of your relatives settled Carver, Massachusetts--a town your Idahoan mother visits frequently for work.
Anyway, you’re last name is Irish. There is some confusion as to whether you actually have much in the way of Irish roots from your father’s side however, as the first McNally in our family was apparently adopted and people are unsure whether he actually came from Ireland, Scotland, or somewhere else. You have a lot of English in you, a lot of German, some Dutch, and even some Transylvanian. You have a strong Mormon lineage. In fact, some of your ancestors traveled for years across the plains in handcarts to flee from religious persecution back in the 1800’s. One of your more notable ancestors moved from Maine to Kansas in the wake of the Civil War, and allowed the Underground Railroad to run beneath his home for years.
If you are anything like me, you might find your ancestry to be less than thrilling one day. After all, our families are pretty much just an amalgamation of American, English and German with a few others mixed in. But this summer your dad and I had the opportunity to visit both England and Germany and for the first time I realized just how stunning it is to derive so heavily from these countries. One day I will take you there too so you can discover this for yourself.
When you’re in school and you start to learn about medieval Europe, keep in mind that those are your ancestors—the ones with the swords and the braids and the Renaissance fairs and the castles. And when you start to learn about the first Thanksgiving and the puritans, remember that those are your people too. When you learn about the Native Americans, keep in mind that you have Native American ancestry on both Grandpa Paul’s line and Nana’s line. Remember that in this country, your ancestors settled the East, the Mid-west, and eventually the West. You have ancestors that fought in the Revolution, the Civil War, the World Wars, the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, and probably even more. You have ancestors that were cowboys and sheep herders and farmers and artists and musicians and settlers and soldiers and scientists. And most significantly, always remember that one of your ancestors was a Count in Transylvania—which might make you part vampire. Time will only tell on that one.
It is so wonderful to imagine all of these traits pouring into your walnut-sized self as we speak (the vampire thing makes me a little nervous, but hopefully if you are part vampire you’ll be one of the good ones, like Edward in Twilight). So often people think about what color their baby’s eyes will be or how much hair it will have or how tall it will grow. But to me it’s more fun to think about how all of these familial influences will impact your mind and your personality and your potential in life. You have a vast pool of resources to draw upon, so my only hope for you is that you’ll make your mark on our family tree one day, much like so many of your ancestors already have.
