boys on pumpkinOkay, maybe it's just me, but has anyone else noticed that damn near everyone seems to be having baby boys this year? I swear, ask a few pregnant women if they know what they're having, and I bet most of them will tell you, "It's a boy!" Among my own friends and family, 8 out of 12 have either had or are expecting little lads in 2011.

Of course, rationally, logically, I know better -- it's 50/50, right? I mean, in 2010, it seemed like everyone I knew was having girls. But, last week, after attending an expectant parents-of-twins meeting with 15 other families, I could no longer dismiss this boy baby boom as mere coincidence. This year, the city of LA -- possibly the entire universe -- is going to be hit with a whole helluva lot of testosterone!

How do I know? Exhibit A: At this meeting, all of us parents-to-be went around the room and shared when we were due and what we are expecting. Two couples didn't know their babies' gender yet, but among the 30 other kids that'll be born this year, we figured out that 25 of them will be boys. And that includes a set of male triplets, too! And mine were the only identicals. There was a woman there having triplet girls, and two other women having boy/girl pairs. No girl/girl pairs though. Soooo weird, right? Now, I'm no math genius -- yeah, it took me like seven tries to get all of these calculations down -- but if our little group is at all representative of the general population, that means that 5 out of 6 babies born this year are going to be XY?!

Wait, before you start thinking maybe it has something to do with twins or fertility treatments or any of that, let me also present to you Exhibit B. In May, after my friend delivered her healthy baby BOY at the hospital, she discovered that there were 9 little guys in the nursery, and just one girl. One girl and nine boys! Where were those numbers when I was single in NYC? And Exhibit C: Two of my friends who are in separate new Mommy & Me groups (one in LA, one in NYC) were surprised to find just a couple of baby girls among a whole big posse of baby boys.

Alright, so maybe this is all just one big fluke. Maybe my world is just particularly male-centric right now. It seems people want boys over girls! Maybe just because I'm having boys, I'm suddenly seeing or hearing about boys everywhere. Or maybe, must maybe, there actually is a boy baby boom happening, and in twenty or thirty years, we'll notice a rise in contact sports, beer sales, and ginormous flat screen TVs...and stay up at night wondering why our sons can't seem to find enough nice girls to date. Here's to hoping 2012 swings back in the other direction -- we need some chicks up in this sausage factory!

Have you noticed that there seem to be more boys being born this year?


Image via Frazzled Jen/Flickr