The Real Deal

Today was Bruce's real birthday. No time to party hard today, so we did the friend birthday bash last week and today we did the family party. Bruce and I baked, frosted, and decorated the cake. Okay, Bruce did pretty much all the work. He's very serious about his sprinkles. This afternoon he and I ventured to a bowling alley. We went candlepin bowling; it's a New England thing with smaller balls and skinnier pins and - the best part - three turns per frame instead of two. Sweet!After dinner we busted out the birthday cake and candles and sang the traditional song. Scott "helped" Bruce blow out his candles and here is how Bruce felt about it. So we lit them again and Bruce blew them out the second time around. All. by. himself. Bruce had a fun birthday. We went to Dunkin' Donuts and got his fav pink donut. I sent strawberries to preschool so he could have an awesome snack with his class. We went bowling. We played at least a dozen rounds of Candy Land. But Bruce's days as a spoiled singleton are numbered.

Finally!

I am 12 weeks along. I had quite the first trimester. I had a few weeks of ignorance ("this one isn't going to work out anyway") followed by a few weeks of ginger ale and crackers (getting more convinced that it might actually stick around) followed by a 10-week appointment with my doctor where I saw the baby kick around and heard the heartbeat (okay, I'm in love). I cried my eyeballs out at that appointment. I had another ultrasound this morning and everything looks great (i.e. beating heart), so I breathed a big sigh of relief.

Bruce is very, very, very excited about being a big brother. Previous pregnancies he never really understood what was going on. But for some reason, he gets it this time. He knows there's a baby in the uterus and that it's going to "squeeze out when it gets big," as he put it to someone. Some days Bruce wants a brother. Sometimes a sister.

Either is fine with me. I'm totally unprepared either way. After the miscarriage in February, I got rid of our crib and changing table, along with a bunch of baby clothes. Two or three days after I sold the crib on craigslist, I found out I was pregnant.

Life is full of surprises. I'm glad this is a good one.