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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Baby Gender Reveal Bunko

This is a picture of the hand of my daughter:



Yes, this is the same daughter that is due in about 4 weeks.

Yes, the date at the top of the picture says April 8.

And yes, once again, apparently the ultrasound folks feel the need to label the picture ("HAND") so that I don't think crazy-hormone-induced thoughts like "What IS that thing in there?  A broom?!?  A tail?!?".

This is one of those catch-up posts that I really needed to do a long time ago, especially at the rate I am accumulating new catch-up posts.  Wouldn't it be nice if I was all caught up before the HAND we're expecting on August 25 arrives?  Maybe this will mean that my catch-up posts will be more concise and efficient instead of my usual rambling prose. 

Wait - who are we kidding...what it more likely means is that I will stay up way too late on way too many nights so that I feel caught up on documenting our happenings for the blog book I am one day doing to get printed since I don't really journal anymore since journaling doesn't include pictures and makes my hand cramp up and makes me think grumpy things like "ARGH!  Writing is so SLOW!  I wish I could be typing!".  The sad thing is, I love journals.  I love the excitement that comes with finding a journal with a really cool cover and how all those blank pages are just waiting for deep thoughts and poignant memories to be placed within.  If only I could type into a journal.

What was I saying about more efficiency and less rambling?  Right.  Just as I suspected.

So anyway - we found out in early April that said HAND I am carrying is female, and I had decided that a fun way to share the news with our extended families would be to have a Bunko party with the theme of revealing the baby's gender.  Everyone was to dress in blue or pink to indicate their gender guess, and the winners of the traditional Bunko categories (most wins, most Bunkos, etc.) would win more money if they also guessed the gender right.

Christina and Great Aunt Dode represented their picks in full head-to-toe fabulousness:


And much to my surprise, we actually had a pretty equal number of people guessing each gender. 

The boy Guessers, holding their consolation prize chocolate cigars:


And the girl Guessers, holding their 'you-guessed-it-right' prize chocolate cigars:


If you're saying to yourself "wait a second, that's mother-in-law Mary in BOTH pictures!  I declare foul play!"  then let me reassure you that she was not playing the odds and trying to broaden her chances of winning additional Bunko loot by switching her guess back and forth.  She came representing guesses for both her and my father-in-law.  And besides, she's the grandmother of our little female HAND, so there are special rules in play.  (For the record, and to document on Wayne's behalf, his guess was girl and Mary's was boy, and he was right.  Which I'm sure he didn't tease her about or gloat over being right about like I probably would have smugly done to Bret, because we have only been married for 4 years and my in-laws have been married for 38.  Although, I suspect I will still gloat over guessing things right even when Bret and I have been married that long, because I'm totally non-competitive like that.)


All in all a fun Bunko theme (in my oh-so-not-so-humble opinion). 

And did you notice both Christina and Sara in their regular picture poses?

Friday, July 8, 2011

4th of July

It's hard to tell who enjoyed the holiday more...

...this little boy:


...or this little boy:



All I can really be sure of is that as Gabe gets older, I should probably never let these two go to buy fireworks without either a chaperone or a very strict budget in place.

The little girls across the street shared some of their super-sized sparklers with Gabe:



...and he was a little disconcerted when Bret took his new car and lit it on fire.  But once he saw it zoom off
and flip over, he thought it was pretty cool.

Lately Gabe has been giving me this response when I first ask him to smile for a picture:
I think it must be the beginning phase of that fake smile that kids start to do when you say "Say Cheese!" and they look back at you with a sort of forced grimace that they think is the picture smile you want but really it just looks like you're making them eat brussel sprouts.  Luckily I can still manage to get a couple good ones out of him -


...especially if Bret's making him laugh.