News of Family Expansion

This weekend, Steve and I were able to reveal our exciting news of family expansion to my mom, as well as Dad, Katherine, Clair and Maria. We really wanted to tell them in person, so for my mom, I bought a cute little bud vase from Michael's and some ribbon that says BABY on it and tied it around the neck of the vase. I put a pink gerbera daisy in the vase (but not to represent the sex of BB b/c we don't know that yet). I had some postcard size paper with a cute border on it, leftover from my 30th b-day party 2 years ago, so I printed "Llama Mama Jo" (inside joke about her name) on the front of the card and on the back, I put a picture of the sonogram and said "Congratulations, you're going to have a grandchild". When we met up with each other Friday night, before going to the Conti's for a weekend visit, I got out of the car with the vase and card in hand, hugged her and said I had a little gift for her. She was surprised I would have a gift, loved the flower but didn't realize what was going on until she opened the card to see the sonogram. She just stared at me, shocked, but excited, hugged me and I told her about how we decided to start trying and bam, got pregnant! We chatted for a bit in the parking lot and then headed over to the Conti's to start our weekend with them.

I decided to try to keep it from the Conti's - it was hard, b/c typically when I visit with them, I drink. But I just wanted to keep the news to myself until our appt. on Nov. 8th. I was successful in not telling them, but whether or not they have a hunch is another story. I even supplied my own ginger ale!

Last night, Dad, Katherine, Clair & Maria came to our house for dinner and to celebrate Maria's 17th b-day. Of course this was also a ploy to get them all together (w/ Steve included) to share the news of BB. It was hard to wait, but we waited until the end of dinner to share the news. Everyone got to our house around 7 and we visited while we waited for Steve to get off of work and get home w/ the pizza. Once he was home, we ate dinner and I then called Steve into the kitchen to help clean up and get Maria's b-day cupcake and everyone else's cupcake ready. I made similar cards as my mom's for the fam - with Clair and Maria's saying they were going to be an aunt, and Dad and Katherine's saying they were going to have a grandchild. We placed the cards under the cupcakes, so once Maria blew out her b-day candle and picked up her cupcake, she would see the card. Everyone was oohing and ahing over the creativity of the "place card holder", not realizing there was something inside. I think I eventually told everyone to open the cards, and one-by-one the realization of the message hit each of them. Clair screamed, Maria said "who's pregnant....wait, is someone pregnant" and she stared at me. I looked around the table and once Katherine and Dad figured it out too - I confirmed that yes, I was in fact, pregnant! Excitement filled the room. Everyone got up to to hug me and we talked about how quickly it happened and how we (or really more I) was scared and nervous and asked that they not post anything on FB or Twitter or anywhere on the internet until we give them the go ahead. Everyone agreed. It felt so good to tell them. It's so hard to keep this a secret. Fortunately I'm not showing or anything (considering BB is only the size of a blueberry, soon to blossom into a raspberry by Wednesday) so that helps. But it's going to feel good after our Nov. 8th appt when we can tell more people.

Next it's trying to figure out a way to get a visit in with Steve's parents - which will mean I probably need to take a day off of work on a day that Steve has off and we go visit them for the day. Our excuse? To show off Steve's new ride, of course! And Dad had a great idea - to put a car seat in the back of the car. Now, if only we could get our hands on a car seat...