12-19-06 Telling my folks/sister

I’m not a very good secret-keeper. In fact, I tend to “over-share,” so keeping this pregnancy a secret from my family for almost three weeks just about killed me! Ted and I had a wonderful and rare opportunity to have dinner with my folks and sister on the 19th. We knew that would probably be our only chance to get the three of them together to tell them in person, so we took full advantage of the situation. We brainstormed several “ways to tell” scenarios while walking the dogs, and settled on framing two ultrasounds (one for Mom and Dad in a "grandchildren" frame, and one for Stacy in a "baby" frame) and labeling them “Baby Schmidt EDD 8/12/07.” Our other front runner was to hand each person a bib to keep their clothes clean – kind of like the lobster bib idea, because we were eating at Red Lobster. We thought that one might be too vague, so we stuck with the pictures/frames.



We all arrived in La Crosse at the Red Lobster at about 6:30 p.m. We sat down, with Ted, me and Dad on one side of the table, Stacy across from me, and Mom next to her, across from Dad. Ted and I set presents at each person’s place (with the pictures at Dad’s spot and Stacy’s) and after we ordered drinks I told Dad and Stacy that they had to open their presents at the same time, because they were the same thing. They made a fun game of it, and then revealed the pictures at the same time. Both took a moment to look at the pictures and figure out what it was, and then the ruckus began. Dad gave me a big hug and Mom jumped up with tears in her eyes to do the same. Stacy hugged us both too and we were all smiles for the rest of the night.

The funny thing about the ultrasound…if you’re not expecting it, or don’t know what it is, it’s hard to decipher. Since there is so much black in the picture, Stacy thought it was a stylized picture of her dog, Minnie :)