Start spreading the news.....

My mom and sister arrived in town on July 22nd. It was their first visit to Chicago. And it just happened to be timed perfectly to share the exciting news. I considered a variety of ways to do it. From over the top: greeting them at the airport with a sign that said "Welcome to Chicago, Grandma!" to very simple: just blurting out "I'm pregnant!" In the end, I went for something in the middle. I found some cute grandma and aunt t-shirts to wrap up and give them as a thanks-for-coming-to-Chicago gift.

My mom opened hers, looked at it, and chuckled a bit. She knew we had been trying, so I figured she thought "oh, it finally happened" and just had a subdued reaction. Then she peeked over at my sister's shirt. Meanwhile Jamie was looking at her own and then trying to see my mom's and saying something like "What? Really?" I don't remember the exact details until my mom finally got it, gasped, stared at me while I smiled and nodded and finally said "Yep, I'm pregnant!" My mom leapt from the couch to come over and hug me. Oh, and to ask a dozen questions and start talking to my stomach at the same time. Jamie was having none of the talking to the stomach business, which was just fine with me.



My dad was supposed to have a work trip in the area at the beginning of July and I was going to tell him then. And then make him keep a secret until Mom and Jamie came up. But his trip got rescheduled to August when we'll be in Canada. So we took a picture of the shirts and texted it to him and to my brother. My dad's response was classic! "Holy sh--!" That was immediately followed by "Where's my shirt?" Fortunately I had anticipated this issue and had gotten him one as well.


And then I had to draw the line somewhere since they weren't cheap. So Jeff and I don't have parents-to-be shirts. My brother and future sister-in-law don't get a shirt either. And Jeff's parents will be third time grandparents so hopefully they can live without shirts as well.