The Day the Girls Found Out

We told the girls about their impending sibling on Saturday, December 14th.  We’d been waiting to make sure everything looked okay (we saw the baby’s heartbeat on the 5th, so we are hopeful!), and also because we didn’t know how long our precious heathens could keep a secret (we didn’t plan to tell our parents until closer to Christmas).

But both of the girls had stumbled upon me throwing up on several occasions (Allison said, “Mommy, are you okay!?  I hope you feel better.”  Nicole said, “Mommy?  Why you keep doing that?” in a disgusted voice), so we felt like we better fess up sooner rather than later.

The night before we told them, I wrote Allison a note:

Chris drew a picture for Nicole which featured our family of four plus a baby:

The Crazies.  Also, ignore the misspelling of Coco.

We folded both of the notes and placed them in envelopes with the girls’ names on them.  The next morning, I told the girls that we had a little surprise for them, sort of like an early Christmas present.

“We get to open it?” asked Coco.  I told them we would once Daddy was awake.  Weirdly, Daddy awoke not long after.  I think it might have been the combined efforts of Nicole sitting on his face, Allison pulling on his leg, and them both yelling, “Get up, Daddy!” at approximately 10 decibels.

Once we were all downstairs, I had the girls sit in front of the Christmas tree.  I filmed as Chris handed the girls the envelopes.  Nicole opened hers, tossed the note on the floor, and said, “That not a present,” in a very disgruntled sort of way.

Allison read hers aloud and though she didn’t jump up and down and scream like I had predicted, she did have a huge smile on her face.  We explained about the baby to Coco, who immediately said, “I want a boy baby!”

Allison, Chris and I cast our votes right after her [girl, boy, girl].  We started talking about what we would call the baby.  Allison suggested “Lyla” if it’s a girl, and Nicole’s first suggestion was “Candy Cane”.  Shortly after, she changed her mind in favor of “Tootsie Pop” as a first name and “Hello Kitty” as a middle name. 

Allison told Nicole that the baby was in my tummy, but Nicole wasn’t buying it.  “No.  Probably Daddy’s tummy,” she said, shaking her head.

Then Allison asked how the baby had gotten in my tummy, and I quickly asked if they wanted to see a picture of their baby sibling.

I showed them the ultra-sound images the doctor had given me.  I pointed out the head and the arm nubs and the body, but Nicole was still quite skeptical.  “That not look like a baby,” she said.

Later, after the girls had been ‘helping’ Chris rake leaves, Allison ran inside.  “I can’t believe we are going to have a baby!” she said excitedly.

Little Lyla Tootsie Pop Hello Kitty Claussen is going to have the best big sisters ever.