Catching up...

Once in a blue moon, Rosemary takes a nap. She woke up with a bit of a cold this morning and because we have a birthday party to attend later today, I told her she had to nap in order to be able to go. I've used this excuse about a million and a half times and of course it never works for the energizer bunny...but today, it did! WOW! Both girls napping - how DREAMY! Things at our house have been great. Of course, busy as ever with the holidays and transition into a new year, but great nonetheless. Of course the biggest news we have to share is the gender of our third child. It is with sheer awe and utter disbelief that we announce we are having a B-O-Y! Jeff and I have never found out the gender of our babies in our previous two pregnancies - but this time we decided we wanted to. I am SO unbelievably glad we did and had the opportunity to experience pregnancy/delivery in two completely different ways. The experience of finding out during our 20 week u/s was incredible in itself, and on top of it to find out we are expecting a completely new gender from what we are used to nearly sent us both over the edge. We told the u/s technician that we wanted to guess what we were having based on a decent image she showed us of the 'parts.' So after she had spent some time measuring and assuring us baby was healthy, Jeff asked her if she knew yet what it was. She told us she did and that whenever we were ready, she'd get us a good shot. My blood pressure had to have been around 200 - I thought I might just pass out right there on the table. We told her we were ready and she spent 45 seconds or so getting a good image of our baby's unmentionables and then froze the image. I immediately guessed it was a boy (if it wasn't, I think we would have had a problem on our hands) and Jeff was just speechless. She asked him again if he wanted to guess and he said he couldn't say anything. A few seconds later she said, "That's a little boy!" and our life was forever changed. I know that I covered my face with my hands - I don't know why but that was my reaction. I looked at Jeff and his eyes were closed, the hugest smile on his face and tears coming down his cheeks. It's one of those moments I will never, ever, ever in a million years forget. I know that we both would have been beyond thrilled to find out we were having another girl, but I'm not so sure my life would have been complete without seeing my husband's reaction to the fact that we had created a son together. In all honesty, after the initial shock and excitement wore off, I had to take a few moments to come to terms with the fact that it's very likely I won't ever have another little girl. Jeff and I feel that three children will be our magic number and that this little boy will be the final piece to our family puzzle. So I had to take my list of girl names I ALWAYS have in my mind (I love naming girls) and put them to rest in order to make room for what God has planned for us. And with that, the dreaming of our future began! Later that evening, we had invited both of our families over to share the news of what grandchild #13 and grandchild #7 would be. We had ordered Famous Dave's for dinner and a cake for all the December birthdays in our families and spent an evening playing and chatting together. Once everyone had arrived, Jeff lifted Rosemary on to the counter for the big announcement (can you believe she kept it a secret all evening?) She started by saying, "I have an announcement..." Our families all chuckled a bit and she got a little stage fright which slowed down her announcing process;-) After some coaxing and lots of "WHAT IS IT's" from our family, she shouted, "IT'S A BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!" Cheers, clapping, high-fives and tears followed and it is a memory we will always cherish. I did video tape her announcement, but of course in my frenzy of excitement, I grabbed the actual FILM video camera instead of the digital one. Boo...what can anyone do with film these days? So, I'll have to convert it so I can share it easily! Anyway, I feel like I have about a million more things to share, but wanted to be sure and record these wonderful memories somewhere. I'll be sure to catch up again soon with a recap of our holidays and plans for 2012:-) Happy New Year to you!