(Still nameless)

It's old news around here by now, but the scales will officially be tipped to the girl side with the arrival of our (still nameless) baby in September. We took the kids with us for the ultrasound earlier this month. Anna went in with her "I-still-don't-want-another-baby-in-the-family" chip on her shoulder. It was fun to watch the monitor and be able to recognize things before the technician pointed them out. I was much more excited, after working at Riley for a year, to see a complete spine and other body parts than I was to know if the baby was a boy or girl. I think that's ultimately why I didn't even want to know the gender. I just wanted to see the heart, spine, palate... The technician asked the girls if they could read. They responded that they could, and McKenna popped out of her chair to come over and see that the tech had typed "GIRL" on one of the images. McKenna yelled out, "It's a girl!"

I remember the kids' reactions more than Chris' or mine. Anna sat with her arms crossed and announced, "I wanted it to be a boy." (Naturally.) McKenna was all smiles, bouncing around the room. Samuel sat by my side, trying so hard to be stoic. His little chin and lip just quivered until he meekly said, "I wanted it to be a brother."

The updated status is that Anna seems to be much more excited. The hasn't in the last week made any comments, to me anyway, about not wanting another baby in the family. She's been excited about the purchases we've made for the (still nameless) baby. She's spoken in much more positive tones about her. Anna still thinks that Montana should be the name of choice. McKenna is talking to the baby every day, rubbing my belly, telling the (still nameless) baby how much she is loved. McKenna has been suggesting names that are reasonable, just not ones that we want to use. Samuel has come to terms with being the only boy. He's about as verbal about baby-excitement as I would expect a 5 year old boy to be. He thinks that it's pretty neat that he and I will be the only two in the house who have three sisters.

***

Anna recently asked to learn to play monopoly. We spent an afternoon this week (in May) sitting in front of a fire, playing monopoly. All five of us. So fun. Until Chris and I realized that we grew up with completely different sets of house rules. Still fun.

Some more Samuel moments that I don't want to go forgotten.

1. There is nothing better than watching Samuel hoe the garden, see an airplane fly low overhead, and go chasing it across the yard. Unless it's followed by watching that same little boy eat an ice cream cone on the swing. (sigh) Love these moments.

2. At dinner the other night Samuel looked at Nana and said, "I know what you mean by (insert hand gesture quotations) 'your girls'." And he listed Nana's daughters. But seeing the hand motions was so cute.

3. The kids were listening to "Stayin' Alive" in the van today. Sam was singing along then yelled, "Take it away, Girls!" And the girls started singing right where he left off. I was thankful to be stopped at a light because I was in tears I as laughing so hard!