Ultrasound: At first, the ultrasound technician said that our baby was in breech position. A few minutes later during this 20 week appointment and the baby was head down. Acrobat. And stealthy too, I didn't even feel it happen.
Later we found out that the baby is a girl, I point this fact out now so that I can start saying "she/her" instead of "the baby". She, as in the ultrasound technician (see what I did there?) said she (baby this time :) ) could also potentially be a toe sucker. Our daughter likes to move and contort. She had her feet above her head most of the time. The attempt at a 3D image of her face came out distorted because Baby Girl had her hands and knees by her face. Every body part that needed a clear view was visible though. Femur and humerus lengths, heart ventricles, valves, atriums. All that jazz. What a miracle!
The technician was super nice. She even let me take a bathroom break when she could literally see how full my bladder was.
A Girl!: Dresses! Devon and Whitney are having a girl at the same time we are! We had more ideas for girl names than boy names this time around. We don't have to worry that we might never have a girl (like my mom). Our daughter has mostly girls as cousins so far, which will be fun for her and them.
Fiesta: That night we had some friends, and the family that could make it, over for a nice little get-together. The baby gender reveal part of it was more of an excuse to have a party.
I wanted to do a pinata for the reveal, so why not have the whole thing be a fiesta? Dallin said it was a little racist and that I shouldn't go crazy with the fiesta theme. I tried not to. We had tortas, chips, dips, Mexican soda, avocado pie, and Mexican cookies. So pretty much - slightly cultured junk food. But besides the pinata, we didn't have "proper" fiesta games, decorations, or music; so that counts as not going crazy with the theme. We chatted and ate, the kids played with balls and Frisbees. Every kid got two hitting sessions with the pinata. We ate pink candy. Some kids (and Whitney and Jon) put the empty pinata on their heads. It was all a lot of fun.
Everett:
- loved walking around with a cookie or piece of bread in his hands
- got incredibly dirty
- stole a girl's sandwich, to which she replied that he was really hungry and she wasn't so it was okay
- had on shorts that came to his ankles (so much for trying 24 month pants)
- didn't apply his usual love for whacking things with sticks to his turn with the pinata
- ate more sugar than he has ever had (I think). One girl kept feeding him Nerds until I realized this and asked her not to.
Pinata-making: I decided to make, instead of buy, a pinata, thinking it would be cheaper. And maybe it was, but probably not. It certainly took more time this way. But it was fun. I did it in stages, starting a week ahead of the party with a punch balloon that I paper mached slowly to give it time to dry. Newspaper strips and flour/water goop with cinnamon to make it smell better and salt to prevent molding. The stinger was just made of cardstock paper that I colored with a sharpie and attached with duct tape and paper mache. I made and inserted a reinforced hanging hook to support the weight. Next I glued on a layer of yellow gift tissue, made fringe out of strips of thin plastic tablecloth, and glued those on in stripes. I made the tail end of the bee weaker (fewer layers of paper mache) so that the candy and confetti would fall out better. Kira helped me with the idea-rendering, shopping, and some paper macheing. Good times.
Dallin's commentary: This was a very stressful party to be involved with. Thankfully Alicia toned it way down from her original ideas. Leading up to the ultrasound (which was the day of the party) I kept worrying that for whatever reason we wouldn't find out the baby's gender that day. I still have no idea what we would have done if that happened. Stuff the bee with a bunch of question marks?
In case you couldn't tell, the pinata is another pun: "What is this baby going to bee?"
I don't remember exactly when this happened, but I know it was after I had gotten home from my mission. In my prayers one night I started thinking about my future family. If you can believe it I thought a lot more about my future kids than I did about my future wife. I felt impressed that I was going to have a good number of girls, and I asked Heavenly Father if I could have a boy first. He said yes. It was a very sacred experience for me. I don't think I altered Heavenly Father's plan for me. I think that that prayer was an opportunity for He and I to get on the same page about what was going to happen and what I needed to be ready for. I love my family: my wife, my son, and my daughter. Just thinking about Everett and Little Miss Marr makes me so happy and feel so blessed.
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