My husband is so adorable! I have to say that up front. Though he isn’t innocent, he has the ability to appear as impishly innocent as a sweet-faced 6 year old boy. I also happen to be self-assured enough to assume the best intentions from comments rather than the worst. Thus, when my husband told me tonight, “You don’t look pregnant, you just look fat” I was able to take it for the complement that he intended. I was also able to laugh and explain to him why I might not be able to laugh at a similar comment later in this pregnancy. He recognized the flaw in his statement and tried to make it better by saying that I don’t look fat because my arms and legs and face aren’t fat, just my belly. This made me laugh harder.

Now, I realize that most women, especially those with extra estrogen, relaxin, and other pregnancy hormones rushing through their system, would probably burst into tears if their husband said that. Somehow, I’ve managed to keep my emotions completely separate from how I look. I think it comes from a long history of thinking I was uglier than the family dog (which was a beautiful malamute husky), and finally overcoming that inferiority complex through…well that’s another story.

Perhaps another reason I was able to laugh instead of burst into tears is because my masculine and feminine thought processes are pretty fairly balanced. I’ve known this for a long time due to my great ability to have guy friends and my difficulties in dating guys. It was confirmed again today when my husband sent me a BBC link to Sex I.D., a site where you can determine your brain’s sex. I fell pretty close to the middle, but slightly to the feminine side since I prefer masculine features in men.

Because of my brain’s balance between masculine and feminine traits, I’ve tended to have some very guy-like tendencies and still manage to have the feminine mystique. I can fix cars, manage a map, have great spatial relations, and speak my mind without beating around the bush. At the same time, I can sew wedding dresses, decorate a cake, arrange flowers, and do just about anything else needed to plan a wedding (not that I did anything to plan mine). While I was single, I used to say that I needed a guy that was more of a man than I was. Apparently, I did a good job finding him!