Jonathan asked a few weeks ago, "Mommy, why is your tummy just a little bit big?"
God bless him for having more tact than a slew of three year olds and not asking straight out, "Mommy, are you fat now?" I was shocked that he totally took the answer I provided, "Well, Sweetie, we'll have to wait and see." No big deal. Much of the world makes sense to him, much of it doesn't. That made about as much sense as anything else, I guess!
But that moment impressed upon me that we'd need to come clean pretty soon... We're expecting a baby in January!
So after weeks of putting off talking to him about it, I decided on a whim that tonight was the night. We're 15 weeks along now, and figured that was far enough to spill the beans. Playing on the couch before dinner, I told Jonathan, "Do you remember how you once prayed a few months ago that God would give us a baby? [He did, it was adorable, but that story's for another day] Well, God's answered your prayer and put a baby in Mommy's tummy to grow and get bigger until after Christmas."
He was sweetly tickled. Not shocked or incredulous, just happy. I've never seen the news broken to a child before, and it was totally different than telling an adult. There was no "Congratulations!" or "Oh my goodness, for real?!" or "We're you planning this?" Just a big smile! We told him we've been calling the baby Pebbles as a nickname, but that once we find out if its a boy or a girl (after Jonathan's birthday, to give him a frame of reference), we'd pick a full name. He insisted he'd want to call the baby Pebbles all the time and not change names, and I acquiesced that he's welcome to call the little one Pebbles even after he's born. So he reached right down to talk to Pebbles, put his hands on my tummy and said, "Hi Baby Pebbles!"
Photo courtesy of David.
After dinner Jonathan ran around the table to my spot and told me he wanted to talk to the baby again and chatted for a while. Then at bedtime we were praying for our family, Pebbles included, and I told him we'd have to be gentle to Mommy's tummy (i.e. no jumping on my tummy!) to take care of Pebbles. Jonathan said, "yeah, and we can sing to him!" So he again put his little hands on either side of my tummy and sang a full round of "Jesus loves me" to his little brother or sister. It was the single sweetest moment ever.
[Jonathan may be a bit of a planner, not unlike his parents, as since that day he's been sweet and excited about the baby, but also thoughtful of practical plans. One evening it was, "But Mommy, Abby's baby room has pink butterflies in it. What if Pebbles doesn't like pink butterflies?" He was relieved to hear that, in the event that Pebbles is a boy, I also have a green safari theme we can use for the nursery. He agreed that another girl would probably like the butterflies just fine, but it was good to have something a boy might prefer just in case. :) Yesterday he was concerned that Abby was using all the diapers, "But Mommy, we're going to need diapers for Baby Pebbles, too!" I reassured him that there would be plenty of time to buy diapers for Pebbles before his or her arrival in January. "Oh, good!"
He's becoming an oldest child already. He also used Pebbles to settle a recent dispute in the car. We got in the minivan and Abby declared, "Please turn off! No music. Please turn off!" I thanked her for using "please" and agreed to a break from the music. Jonathan noted that he preferred the music on, and then after a few seconds chimed in, "But Pebbles likes the music!" Abby responded, "OH! Yeah! Pebbles music!"
Jonathan: "We need music for Pebbles, right Abby?"
Abby: "Yeah, Pebbles music!"
Mommy: "So you want me to turn the music back on, Abby?"
Abby: "YES! Music... Pebbles!"
So on went the music.]
Abby meanwhile seemed a bit lost in the conversation around dinner but was pretty excited about the idea of a baby in Mommy's tummy come bedtime. She's been pretending a lot, often creating pretend animals either plucked from books or simply fabricated and carrying them around, asking others to pet or kiss her pet of the moment. She handled the news of Pebbles as though I had a pretend baby sitting on my tummy (logical, for 21 months), and reached down to my tummy as I rocked her tonight, scooped up a pretend baby into her hands and held it up to kiss "Puddles" then gently tucked Baby Puddles into her puppy's paws, leaving the puppy in charge for a while before taking back the baby for kisses and replacing baby on her Mommy's tummy. I remember watching Jonathan's understanding of his anticipated baby sister grow over the months of my last pregnancy and am excited to watch how Abby comes to understand the upcoming arrival of her brother or sister.
We had the joy of sharing the news with my parents a few weeks ago when they came down for Memorial Day weekend, and they were as delighted as we were. We had a fun Indian dinner out to celebrate. Then in Minneapolis we got to tell David's parents in person for the first time. I happened to have the camera out shooting the kids when we randomly blurted out the news, so I caught this fun pic of my mother-in-laws expression as we told her. I think Oma would be tickled if we had a kid every two years indefinitely!
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