Gender reveal party

March 9, 2019:

The reveal party was delightful. We went to Beau Jo’s in Longmont so my Westminster friends could be there. Danielle made the cupcakes and Beau Jo’s kindly put them in the refrigerator at the restaurant. Mom brought me balloons and several people even brought me gifts! It was like an early baby shower. Johanna was even like, “Oh, was I supposed to bring a gift?” No, but it was an awesome surprise. My partner teacher gave me a diaper bag (backpack). My nephews made cards for me about how they were excited to meet the baby. 

And finally, finally with nervous excitement, I bit into a cupcake (more tore it open) and discovered I was having little Gracie. I tear up as I think about it. I think auntie Danielle may have cried, too. I’m having a little baby girl!

The following Monday, I revealed it to my students at school. I had purchased pink foil-wrapped coins at a party store and wrapped them in plain silver foil. One student painted me a wonderful painting of a tree with animals under it. She brought pink and blue paint, and the students had to decide their choice of gender and add a thumbprint in that color to the tree. I had a lot of teachers and students sign it and guess the gender. Then I passed out the foil candies and they unwrapped them to find out it was a girl. I got lots of hugs, especially from fourth period.

My nausea and occasional bouts of throwing up waned as I headed into the second trimester. Instead, I got sick only when I threw away old food from the fridge or heard about something gross. The idea of bad smells - not even the actual smell! - made me literally throw up. That continued into third trimester as well. On one memorable day, my students got to save me from gross smells. The power strip that powered my mini fridge at work went out, so my fridge was without power for three days. Water had leaked down to the floor of the fridge and started to mold, which I didn’t discover immediately. I had asked a few students to help me move my desk to accommodate the length of my new power cord (a little shorter) and the fridge door popped open. I had to run to the hallway as I gagged, while my students laughed at me. Then two brave students put shirts over their mouths and went to work cleaning out the fridge for me! Another student raced off to the bathroom to get paper towels to help clean it up. That was adorable.

I also noticed that baby Gracie made me much bolder than normal. It could be just me but I liked to say that, “Gracie made me do it.”