A Special Surprise in Life

Only being a member of the blogging world for an extremely short time, it is still amazing to me the number of wonderful people that are connected by the honest sharing of their thoughts and life happenings.

Browsing around on friends' of friends blogs, I have begun to frequently read Erin's blog Blue Eyed Bride.  She had a very thought-warming post about being a mom of boys, or how she put it a "boy mom." 

Her post made me think about our pregnancy with Ralph Ryan, and the experience of Mike wanting to know if we were having a boy or a girl and me wanting it to be a surprise.  So, we comprised.  During the ultrasound, the tech asked if we wanted to know.  I said "No, I want it to be a surprise, but I think he wants to know."  Mike said he was not sure if he "really" wanted to know or not, but he wanted to watch the monitor to see if he could figure it out.  The tech said she would print out the picture confirming girl or boy and seal it in an envelope so if Mike decided he wanted to confirm what he thought he saw or didn't see, he could open the envelope and find out.

When that part of the ultrasound took place, I looked away and Mike studied the monitor.  The tech printed out the picture and sealed it in an envelope and handed it to Mike. 

As we left the doctor's office, Mike said he had decided to not look at the picture. 

However, later that day I received a phone call from him.  He was very flustered.  "Hey, do you think that if I called the doctor's office they would be able to tell me if it was a girl or a boy?"  "Well, no, since I didn't want to know they didn't write it down," I responded. (Our doctor said he didn't want to know either so he wouldn't accidently slip and give away the surprise.)  "Well, do you think that the tech would remember?"  I said that I was pretty sure that our experience with her that morning was fairly memorable.  "Why don't you just look at the picture?" I asked.

"Well, I couldn't take it any more so I went out to my truck to get the envelope.  When I took out the picture, the sun had bleached it out.  It's completely black."  I have never laughed so hard.  Tears streaming down my face.

The crazy thing was that Andrew was absolutely convinced we were having a girl.  You would ask him what mommy had growing in her tummy, a girl or boy?  And he would always answer girl.  It didn't matter what order you asked him or how you brought it up - the answer was always, girl!  When my in-laws were visiting over Christmas, Andrew and I were showing my father-in-law the baby's room.  And I asked "Andrew, what's in mommy's tummy? A girl or a boy?"  Andrew, just newly three rolled his eyes at me and said "Mommy, we already talked about this! Rrrgh!  It's a girl!" And stomped out of the room.

I really was beginning to get worried that if I didn't have a girl, Andrew would be extremely disappointed.  When my mom brought him to the hospital for the first time to meet his new sibling.  Mike told him it was a brother.  "Leeeettt meee see..." was Andrew's skeptical response.  Yes, he was adament we show him.  "Yep, it's a boy!" he said with delight once he saw what he needed to confirm we were telling him the truth.

I will say, boys are wonderful.  I know I say quite a bit that I would enjoy a girl to only follow it up with - "I think God knows what He is doing and probably knows that I am a better mom to boys than I would be to girls."

Someone made a confession right after I had Ryan, "Oh good, I was hoping you would be the Princess of your family, and you are!"  I do L.O.V.E. my boys and the wild charming moments they bring to my life.