Comedy gold

I must say, this Baby Sister situation has been a true source of FUNNY from Ellen.

First, a little background. We wanted to wait as long as possible to share the news with Ellen. For various reasons, but mostly because 1. I'm a nervous nellie and didn't want anything bad to happen, 2. 9+ months is a long time for kids to wait, and 3. I was hoping to avoid the boy vs. girl discussion.

Well, slowly other people in our lives became aware of the news and it just gets harder and harder to keep that under wraps. So, one day when I was about 13 weeks along, I picked Ellen up at school as usual and we played at home for a while and made dinner. All was right with the world. Then, sheepishly, in the middle of dinner she looked at me, head bowed with big eyes and whispered, "I'm ess-ited about your baby, Mama." I was shocked and my heart sunk and Erik and I just started at each other not knowing what to do.

Turns out, a teacher at school told her - not knowing she was in the dark, I'm sure. I wasn't mad, but so afraid that Ellen would feel like we were keeping a secret. We sat down to have a chat and explained that, yes, we were going to have a baby and we wanted to surprise her and that's why we hadn't talked about it yet. She was all smiles from then on. Cue: RELIEF.

And, just as I expected, the first words out of her mouth? "I want a girl baby."

Me: Well, we don't get to choose. We are lucky and will get a girl baby OR a boy baby. Isn't that great?
Ells: I will feed her a bottle.
Me: Or him.
Ells: Or her.
Ells: Dora's mom had two babies. A girl AND a boy. Let's do that.
Me: Well, there's just one baby.
Ells: And I'll be the big sister! I'll tell all my friends!

The next day ...
Me: Did you tell your friends about the baby?
Ells: Yes, all of them. But they couldn't see your belly. Did you tell your friends at work?

Me: What kind of baby are we having?
Ells: A boy or a girl.
Me: Yes, right. Mama will find out in a few weeks.
Ells: Yes, we'll find out in a few weeks when the baby cracks out.
Me: Do you remember when the baby is coming? (After Halloween, after Halloween, after Halloween)
Ells: Tuesday. No, Wednesday. No, Friday.

Me: How will we know if it's a boy or a girl?
Ells: A girl will have a cupcake bow and a boy will have a Spiderman bow.
(In case you're wondering, no bow = puppy)

Ells: Will the baby peek out for the taco party? (Cinco de Mayo)

Ells: What if the baby disappears?
Me: Oh, honey. That won't happen. How would the baby disappear?
Ells: A fox would come with his magic wand and say abo-cadabo.

And, just this week ...
Ells: I'll help change baby sister's diaper.
Me: Sure, you can help.
Ells: I'll just (makes throwing motion) put her on her changing table.
Me: Oh, well, we can't throw her. Babies are very fragile and we have to be very careful.
Ells: Well .... that's ok. If we break this one, we'll just get a boy.

And, if you're still hanging in there with me ... I'll share the big gender reveal. I have the truly fortunate situation of being able to have ultrasounds at work. My wonderful co-workers help maintain my sanity for 9 months, but these ultrasounds are out of town and Erik can't ever be there. I found out the gender on my own one day and wanted a fun way to share it with Erik and Ellen (see above re: cupcake bows). I waited ONE WHOLE DAY and concocted the pinkiest cutest little cupcakes (thanks, Dolce Bakery for the raspberry cupcakes).

And here is what happened ... let's just say my family members were a bit slow to catch on.