Ever wonder what it’s like to spend 2 minutes with Miss T?  This pretty much covers it.  This kid, man, she keeps me hopping.  I’ve always said she lacks a filter from her brain to her face, you never have to guess what this one is thinking.  And boy are those wheels always turning.  I don’t remember what she was doing, but she came in our room first thing one morning, I wasn’t awake yet and whatever it was she wanted felt demanding and over the top.  I looked at Jase after she bounded out of the room and said “Good Lord, it must be exhausting to be T….” and he said “YES, I bet it is….”  And then we both felt tired all over again before our feet even hit the floor that morning.

I’ve been meaning to come and tell the story of the day we told our 3 about the new baby.  This feels like a good place and time to do it….

First, we had to tell the kids fairly early, we only waited a week or so after finding out ourselves.  I was a bit nervous about that, but, I’m a do’er.  I rarely just sit and honestly, with a teenager in the house who has been through 2 other pregnancies, it would only take two or three days of me being face down on the couch by 6 pm before Ty would have figured it out.  I also get oddly possessive of my food when I’m pregnant and the first time I threatened him with a fork, our gig would have been up.  I won’t lie, I had to catch myself more than once (he’s a food thief) before we told the kids.  Plus, we just stink at secrets.

I’m not really sure what I expected out of the announcement.  I guess I expected the unexpected and that made both Jase and I a bit nervous.  We did video tape it, but I can’t bring myself to share it, it makes me sad.  Jase told the kids while I smiled a big, positive, this is a good thing, smile.  Ty’s eyes bugged out really far with a combined look of “oh crap, another one?!”.  Ty looooooves babies, it is the toddler phase he could live without (but really, couldn’t we all?!).  Once I reminded him that by the time this new baby is a toddler he will have much more freedom and a car, all was well.

Teagan started to cry which just absolutely made my heart hurt.  Inconsolable crying.  I think it was a combo of not wanting to not be the baby anymore and then also not understanding what we really meant.  We later figured out he thought we were saying *he* was going to the baby.  Being the baby around here is the biggest insult amongst siblings right now.  He’s a big boy and will fight you with a mean karate chop if anything is suggested otherwise.  But he cried and cried and it was awful.  He’s come around though, he’s clear about what is happening now and tells me every day what a great big brother he will be and how much he will love this baby.  Just today he yelled “knock knock, baby, you in there, are you a boy or a girl?!” at my belly.  He’s excited now.  Thankfully.

Now Ms. T, she did not react as we suspected she might.  She kind of let out this weird laugh and then started climbing on the couch.  No questions, no nothing.  I thought it was a bit odd, but was distracted by trying to console Teagan.  Not a word out of Taryn.  Then a few hours later, I was working in my office when she came and sat in my office on the floor with a book.  I looked over and said “So, are you excited about the new baby?”

Insert blank stare.

Wait some more….she’s still staring at me.

Then she says “what?”

Me:  “The new baby, are you excited to get a new brother or sister?”

Insert confused signature scowl.

T:  “I thought you were kidding.”

I scooped her up in my lap and gave her a huge hug…

Me:  “Oh no honey, we weren’t kidding, mommy is going to have another baby….”

She gave me a hug, got up and ran off as fast as she could.  I asked her where she was going as she disappeared and she yelled back “I have to go pick up my room and toys, I don’t like baby drool on my stuff!”

That kid.

I still can’t believe she thought we’d joke about something like that.  I’ll never forget that blank stare as she processed reality.  I guess all our practical joking caught up with us.