The Surprise That Wasn't

This coming weekend Brendan and I are having our long-distance baby shower and we can't wait.  Being pregnant away from friends and family is tough, especially your first.  And to expect people to fly all the way from the four corners of the country is way too much to ask.  I felt sad about not having a baby shower, as this is my only baby, and not getting to share that time with people.  

My bestie from San Diego, Shantala, offered to put one on for me, but it didn't make sense to spend $400 to fly "home" and then haul gifts and such back.  I could just spend that money on baby.  Plus, my friends and family are so scattered: Seattle, Denver, New Jersey, Florida, NorCal.  It meant a lot of people would have missed out anyway.  I kind of gave up on the idea.

Then Shantala decided to throw me a "long-distance" shower, which made me feel all kinds of special and gave me a great excuse to wear a cute dress and take lots of pics of my handsome man and my growing belly.  I'll be posting about the shower, so I'll save all the ends and outs of what we did for that.

Here's how surprises are ruined:

First of all, I'm a renowned surprise ruiner.  I'm a bit controlling when it comes to situations I'm involved in and like to know what to expect, so while I love surprises, I also love knowing.

My suspicions were raised when I noticed that Brendan and Shantala had been texting and calling.  I never saw what they were texting, but I knew that if the two of these rascals were talking and I didn't know about it, then a plot was being formed.  

So I started to do what I always do: I hounded Brendan.  I found holes in his story, I dropped hints to see his reaction, I gaged his physical responses, I even saw his crinkly-eyed "I'm-lying" smile.  But he remained strong.  He didn't give in and after a few days of relentless attacks, he convinced me that Shantala was actually just sending a big ole' box that he knew what to do with.  

I had moved on.  I didn't think about a visitor.  I had seen the airline prices and knew that was a stretch.  Yesterday Mr. Brendan was out building a new compost box for our garden.  I sat on the couch and popped open the laptop when I noticed his Google calendar was already up.  

And there it was: Friday, April 1st. Shanti.

Well, now I knew the gig was up.  And I felt kind of sad that I knew.  But there was more.

Saturday, April 2nd. Lisa.

Lisa?!

Yep, my sister-in-law from New Jersey was coming in just for our little baby shower.  

I ran out to the garden in a tearish state.

I had to explain that I wasn't snooping (honest) and that if someone is keeping a surprise from someone else they should probably close their calendar with that information on it.  

We stood in our little dirt garden and I cried a little bit, just at the excitement of having real, live people in our home (I love guests!), but also at the sheer flattery I felt from people caring about us so much that they would do that. It made me feel really, really loved and excited to share this day with them.  
 
As a result, I've found some of my motivation again! I worked more on Brix's room, washed baby laundry, cleared off the dining table (the place that we never eat at, but serves as a dumping ground for all things random) and reorganized our kitchen cabinets!

So hooray! I can't wait to have girl time, have the chitter-chatter of girls in my home, oooh and aaah over little baby things, make Brendan sick doing it, and do that high pitched girl laugh that we do.  Yay girls!