Reveals

Over the last month I have gradually come out of the pregnancy closet.  The first one started with my extended family. 

At the beginning of December we always get together for a Christmas cookie exchange and I usually bake the sugar cookies and everyone decorates their own at the exchange.   So this year I also made and decorated some for everyone to enjoy while they decorate.  I cut out some cookies in the shape of little onesies and decorated them as Dr. Suses's Thing 1 & Thing 2.  I forgot to take pictures of them so I don't have any to show you :( but they were cute!

I was a little late getting tot he exchange so it wasn't quite how I planned it.  I wanted to put the two Things on top of everyone individual pile of sugars so when they came in and had a look around, they would see them.  But by the time I got there, there was already a few people there and they were all hanging out in the kitchen.  My mom and sister tried several times to get them to leave the kitchen so I could set up, but it was no use, someone always stayed behind!  So instead, I put two cookies each on several small plates that my mom had set out for appetizers, then covered them with a napkin and brought them over to the table 2 or three plates at a time so no one would notice.  I thought I was being weird so someone would notice, but no one did.

Once we were all seated, I waited a few minutes, but no one even looked at the small covered plates so my mom finally had to tell everyone that there were a couple of cookies already decorated to enjoy now under the napkin.  Once everyone saw the cookies, it took a few minutes for it to sink in and even then, people were a little nervous to say something in case it didn't mean what they thought.  They were kinda looking between me and the cookies so I smiles and did some jazz hands before my  Aunt tentatively asked "are you trying to tell us something?"

There was many congratulations and then when my mom said something about twins, it finally clicked what the cookies meant and there was a whole other round of congrats.  Everyone knew our journey, so there were a few tears from everyone and they were so happy for us.  My cousin started slowly growing red trying not to cry before finally breaking down.  I swear you could see the line of red rising from her chest, up her neck and over her face.

There was one Aunt missing from the cookie exchange so we called her on speaker right away and told her about the cookies.  She just kept saying "awe that's cute" and then I said "oh ya, and they are in the shape of little onseies." again, "Too cute!".  Then there was a long silence while I waited for her to get it before I just jumped in and said "This is taking forever, I'm pregnant with twins!" Again there was silence before she said congratulations in a shaky cracking voice (she was obviously crying).  It was bitter sweet telling her because she herself was infertile and adopted both of my cousins.

Eventually we all got settled into decorating sugar cookies.

For D's extended family, he really had no interest in doing a grand reveal to his extended family so instead I just signed all of our Christmas cards "Love Erin, Dave, Babies M & M, and Jak".  Thankfully the cards were delivered before his big family Christmas on the 22nd.  Some of them got it, but others were confused and wondered if Jak had puppies.  We were the first to arrive that day and I was a little surprised that his Aunt started talking to him about work before saying anything.  Apparently she wanted to wait until she could confirm with his mom before sticking her foot in her mouth if she misunderstood.  Once D's mom arrived and set everyone straight there was many congratulations.

I didn't realize I had made my reveals so complicated that it took so much thought, but apparently so.  I decided to take a different approach at work.  For a few weeks I conducted a social experiment where I stopped hiding my bump and waited to see if anyone would say anything.  Only one person asked my coworker M who lied and then promptly told me of the inquiry.  No one else dared ask.  Eventually, just before New Years, I told a few people at work and then instructed them to spread the word so I wouldn't have to tell anyone.  I really don't know how some of them can still not know, it's really pretty obvious now...

The picture in the bottom right corner is from this past weekend compared to the top left corner from October.