Oh yeah, it’s a girl!

By now the three people who read this already know that we are having another girl, but in the spirit of documenting things I figured I’d better write about it. So yeah, it’s a girl! I’ll admit, we knew it was a girl since the first ultrasound we had at 17 weeks (due to some of our issues), but the tech was wishy-washy and wasn’t sure so we decided to wait until the official ultrasound to get confirmation. I’m personally thrilled.

Bella on the other hand isn’t as thrilled. I don’t know if it’s because there was a lot of boy talk before we knew or what, but when I told her we were having a baby girl she freaked out - “No! Not a baby girl, either! Baby boy! Baby boy named Olaf!”. Two things to clarify – she’s started to add “either” onto the end of her sentences when she doesn’t want something. Even if we don’t give her a choice. “I don’t want cereal, either” “I don’t want to go home, either”. Little does she know that sometimes it’s her only choice. But it’s pretty cute so we don’t correct her. Second, I mentioned the name Olaf once. In some random story I made up where I needed a character with an ‘O’ name. She clung to it and started naming everything Olaf. Apparently the baby is now named Olaf as well.

Within the past week Bella has seemed to get used to the idea of a baby sister as she doesn’t tantrum when we talk about it anymore, but I wonder if she’s just smart enough to know that another girl in the family means that she really will have to share everything. I would have them in the same room for a while no matter what, but now that there will be two girls they won’t move into separate rooms for as long as they can stand it (not for 18 years though). Her old clothes, baby toys, etc will go to baby. I’m thinking of a strategy to let her pick out 2-3 things that she wants to claim as hers only and then ask that she give the baby the rest to try to avoid her being too possesive, but we aren’t quite there yet.

Other things going on in our world include the wrap up of another 4th of July party. We had a great time and love that everyone comes to party with us. Bella left before the big fireworks which was good this year, but I think next year we’ll let her stay. She enjoyed the small, legal ones that we shot off for the young kids before it got dark.

And the latest thing that Bella is doing that I love is reading to us from books. Any book. It could be one of mine from the library or a manual to an appliance, but she’ll make up a story as she turns the pages. It’s also fun to listen to her read her books and hear how she interprets or remembers the stories being told. She catches on to more details than I would have given her credit for!