It's a Boy!

We found out Wednesday - we are having a BOY!

I know some people don't want to know, but I think it's so fun to find out ahead of time. It makes it seem more real for me, to be able to call the baby "him" and not "it" and to wonder what he will be like and all that.

Steve and I both felt we'd be happy either way (how could we not be? boy or girl - every baby is a blessing and a miracle) but I am so excited for this kid to join our family. I think it will bring a nice balance to things and I know Daphne will be a wonderful big sister. She's still not clear on the whole gender thing, so when I first told her "the baby is a boy!" she corrected me, "No, just baby." And when I tried a different tactic, "You are going to have a little brother!" she still wasn't convinced. "No, I'm a big sister." But we keep repeating the words boy and brother and I think she is starting to get used to them.

Either way, she is always happy to talk about the baby in Mommy's tummy and that's good enough for now.

May 9th!

There are a lot of April birthdays in my family. So all the celebrations last month got Daphne pretty excited for her own birthday, this month. She told anyone and everyone when her birthday would be, "May Ninef!" and couldn't wait for the party to begin. I think we did not disappoint her.

For convenience sake, her actual party was on Saturday May 12th, but as she had been talking about "May 9th" for weeks, we couldn't let it go by without doing something special. So we took her to Applebee's, which offers a free kid's meal and ice cream sundae. She was so excited about everything! Smiling and dancing the whole night.

For her party, we had my family and our neighbor come to celebrate. We started with pizza, then presents (so many presents!), then cupcakes and ice cream. I can't believe we didn't get a picture of her with her cupcake (though we have some video). I'm sure (I hope?!) someone else did though. Cameras were flashing everywhere.

The main event was her new "big girl" bed. She opened presents containing bed sheets, a pillow, a mattress cover, a quilt, pajamas... of course she didn't know what it all meant. She was just happy to be pulling stuff out of bags like everyone else does on their birthday. So while she ate her cake and ice cream we set up the big surprise in her room. It was a success. She ran and jumped on it and pretended to sleep on it and did some kind of swimming moves on it... Throughout the rest of the night she would invite people to go up and look at her bed again. And surprisingly she has slept through the night every night since (three nights in a row now). Which is saying something, as she hasn't consistently slept through the night for months. We were hoping this bed might cure that. It's too soon to tell but I'm enjoying the extra rest while I can.

The quilt was made by Steve's grandmother (years and years ago - not intended for Daphne specifically, but it couldn't have been more perfect). I know some people might consider it a shame that we are using it at all, not to mention using it for a kid's bed (as it will most likely be loved to pieces over time) but isn't that what quilts are for?

little girl in a big bed

 

Now our little girl is two years old! It's hard to believe she's been with us that long, but we can't imagine life without her.