What is it?

If there is one question that my parents get asked more frequently than any other then it's:
So...what is it...?
Before being able to give a precise answer to that question, my mother (who has the tendency to be a bit too sarcastic) thought of answering :
Well, it's actually a panda!
...or some other animal that she could think of in that moment! But then she thought better of it and just said as it was, that they still didn't know my gender!

Quite often another question followed:
But ...which do you prefer?
Prefer? She thought of reminding people of the fact that we are talking about a baby here, not the taste of an icecream or the colour of the living-room! The preferences of my parents are perfectly described on the cartoon here on the side: they just hoped (and still do) that I'm healthy!

When my parents finally knew that I was a boy, they could start to respond to the (first) question. My mum would proudly pat her growing belly and announce:
It's a boy!
But she would never have guessed the effect the answer had. There were big smiles, applauses, and cheering and people would shout out:
ma che bello.....!
My mother was a bit puzzled and started wondering what this cheering and applausing was all about. In her mind there were really only two possible answers to this question and both of them would have been just as fantastic for her! Was there something that she didn't understand? Could it be that expecting a boy was something to be cheered more than expecting a girl? Or would the reactions have been exactly the same if I had been a girl? And then, why the cheering?
My mum started suspecting that those cheering the most had cashed a fortune on betting on my gender (in which case I will ask a generous percentage in due time). Or was it possible that people were actually fearing that there were other unexpected answers to the question what is it? such as
well, it's a Panda
or
eh...hm...eh...actually it was only a question of gas in my intestines!

But then in the end she just concluded that people were happy to know that my gender was finally known to the world so they could move on to start another game, not less exciting! A game that probably will last until january next year! The have-you-decided-a-name? game ...and now here we have a game that has got MANY possible results....