KC Visitors, Sonogram, & Unemployment

It’s been a while since I’ve posted – oops. Last time I wrote on here, little dude was a lemon; now he’s a full-fledged papaya! Now that I have some free time on my hands (see last section), maybe I’ll post every time something remotely noteworthy happens.

A few weeks ago, my parents along with their comrades, Sandy & Sharon, came to visit. It was a really fun, really gluttonous weekend. We planned our days around where to eat lunch and dinner, so we all gained roughly 10 pounds.

To recap, I am so glad we were able to experience the following: drunk girls walking in the stall with Sharon at Joe T’s, the flat tire on the second trip to the airport with Sandy (and the man who wouldn’t accept money because we’d “block his blessing”), riding a scooter through Canton like a 90 year old woman, walking around the entire perimeter of Canton to find mom’s missing credit card and license after already spending what seemed like an eternity there, eating at Twisted Root in Dallas where Dad was positive someone was going to steal our newly acquired treasures, shopping endlessly for maternity clothes and gender-neutral must-haves, coming home from work to find all of my dad’s handiwork around the house (and then breaking the door he fixed within 2 days)…and much, much more.

Taylor and I are so blessed to have the Brooks (Sandy, Jeff & Taylor…girl Taylor Brooks…it’s confusing) and the Fulks in our lives, as well as Jojo and Papa Curt of course.]

Shortly after the girls left, Taylor and I had our sonogram appointment to find out whether baby B was a boy or a girl. I’d read a lot about “Gender Reveal Parties” and loved the idea, so we decided to have our own, especially since my parents were still in town. Originally, I wanted to find out what we were having at the party along with everyone else, but Taylor hated that idea…so we compromised, resulting in one of the best weekends ever.

Our appointment was on Friday afternoon and our party wasn’t until Sunday afternoon, so Taylor and I used some of his Hilton points to treat ourselves to a “staycation” until the big reveal.

Meanwhile, back at the doctor’s office, we get started with the sonogram where the sonographer just happens to start the exam exactly on the baby’s junk. Right off the bat she says, “Well, do you want to know right now?!” Since I was 100% convinced little Finley Hope would grace us with her presence in August, I confidently told her we were ready to know. The lady says, “Ok – here is one leg, here’s the other leg, and then there’s something in the middle.”

Here is what transpired:
Me: Oh no, what’s wrong with her?
Her: Nothing. It’s a boy!
Me: WHAT?!! A boy? A boy. Hmmm. Are you sure?
Her: Here’s another view of his … stuff.
Me: WHOA! Umm…is that normal? That looks sort of large.
Her: Yes, it’s normal. He also might have a full bladder.
Me: Ok, but, like, that’s really big, right? What do you even do with boys? Don’t they only play in dirt, smell like grass, and make swords out of their “natural resources”?
Her: Ha – you might need a minute to process.
Me: So…we’re positive it’s not a girl then?

I don’t really remember the rest of the appointment. The funny thing is, I was sure I would be a little disappointed because I was so sure it was a girl. In reality, I wasn’t at all. For one, I now have a son! For two, I can get my girl fix by dressing my son in bows and headbands while Taylor’s at work and neither one of them will ever know.

All kidding aside, I almost can’t remember how badly I wanted/how strongly convinced I was that it was a girl. It’s hard to think of anything other than our little dude. Taylor is such an incredible man, husband, friend, etc, that I can’t wait to see Taylor 2.0. We are going to be two very blessed parents when baby B comes in August. We are going to be even more blessed when we can think of a name for him. Any ideas?!

About Taylor 2.0…I like to inform Taylor (current version) of all the enhancements that Taylor 2.0 will have. For one, he’ll be much better at making sound effects that are appropriate to what he’s saying. (Current version will say, “So I saw this bald guy…” and then insert a swooshing noise. That’s nonsensical.) For two, his face will be much more attractive when he fake laughs. It’s something we’re working on with current version, but I’m hoping version 2.0 will have this automatically built in.

For the rest of the weekend before our party, I stopped by every baby store within the area to stock up on little boy clothes. We find some serious treasures on the clearance racks from winter. Here are a few of my favorites:

And I absolutely love this one because, embarrassingly enough, Mack has almost the same onesie. Judge me if you must.

Side note: little boy clothes can be kind of creepy. Little girls wear cute, outrageous little outfits that grown women wouldn’t be caught dead in (or at least would be friendless and alone if they tried). Little boy clothes, on the other hand, are just mini-grownup clothes. If you already have a kid who tends to look like a little old man, that is only magnified when you dress him in a three-piece suit with penny loafers. Just a thought.

The reveal party will be the next post. Stay tuned.

Big Fun Friday last week was just like any other BFF at my company…oh, wait, no…that’s when I got laid off. True story. 6 more weeks left to work before I took the summer off to bask in a pool of my own pregnancy fat…and I was laid off.

I leave work around 3 every day, so at about 2:40, I get called into my boss’ office where he tells me that orders have been down, they’ve eliminated my position, etc. It really isn’t a surprise they had to lay off several people and it’s no surprise that marketing is the first to go. He gave me the option to scale my hours back…to one day a week. Since I drive 36 miles one way to get to work, I decided I’d call it quits that day.

At first I didn’t think there was severance, because he didn’t mention anything about it, but I ended up emailing him yesterday and he told me there would be some compensation.

For those who knew my stance on my job, I’m pretty glad to not be driving to Dallas every day anymore, and it was never the dream job I had in mind. Still, I got close to several people and it was hard to say goodbye, gather my things, and leave forever – all within about 10 minutes. I would have appreciated a little more time to say bye, but I get that it was a sudden decision. (I guess…I still would have liked more time.) I also wish I didn’t leave the company with a bad taste in my mouth. Oh well. Life goes on, and I am certainly not missing it.

I also wasn’t on the company’s insurance and, excluding the severance, they would have only paid me for 4 more weeks of work. I’d like to think that wouldn’t be CRAZY to “eliminate my position” in one more month after I left anyway. Oh well. Now I have plenty of time to get caught up on what’s been going on in Mack’s life, planting a fabulous garden, reading stupid romance novels, watching daytime talk shows, and posting on my blog.

Now, on to the reveal party. Seriously, you won’t want to miss this next post…