it’s a … boy!?!?!!!!

a few weeks ago, we purchased a pinata online. wow, there are a lot of pinata shape options on amazon! the boy decided that a monkey pinata was just right to use at the “boy or girl” picnic we were planning to have with friends – a gathering in which we would find out if we will welcome a son or a daughter into our family in july.

we had our twenty-week ultrasound on thursday afternoon. the tech conducting the scan was the sweetest lady and when we explained that we’d like her to write down the gender on a peice of paper and not let us know, she cheerfully obliged. we had such a wonderful and beautiful experience looking in at our little baby inside my womb. we got to peek at pretty much every part of baby’s body and were so, so happy and grateful to see and hear that all is well and healthy and normal in there! when it was time to look between baby’s legs to determine the gender, the tech told us to close our eyes! when the scan was complete, she took us back to the waiting room, got some paper and envelopes and prepared two little surprise packages for us in the scan room (the boy wanted a back-up…just in case)!

having those sealed envelopes in our flat for a couple of days was kind of wild! on friday afternoon, i brought one sealed envelope along with the monkey pinata to the sweet shoppe around the corner and the awesomest guy that works there agreed to fill the pinata with blue or pink candies corresponding to what was printed inside the envelope. he and his coworkers were excited and so nice. i picked up the full pinata an hour later.

on saturday morning we brought the little monkey down to victoria embankment gardens, a lovely green space close to our flat along the banks of the thames. we hung it from a tree and a bunch of our friends gathered. it was a chilly london day, but we were fuuuuull up with anticipation and a lot of love for the awesome people in our life here in england.

 
^^ ian’s uncle brent happened to be in town last weekend for a work conference. it was so so fun to have him around, especially for this special day. brent handled the pinata rope for us, bless him. ^^

we had the kids, starting with the youngest, take swings at the pinata one by one. we figured it would take a while for anything to bust out and we had so much fun just watching the kids have a great time…

 
^^ isn’t the boy the cutest with these kids?! so, so, so excited to see him as a dad. ^^
 

… but before we knew it, one single, tiny blue candy fell out of a crack in the pinata! it took us both a split second to realize what had just happened and then ian threw his hands in the air and yelled “it’s a boy!!!” and we hugged. such a crazy moment.

we were totally shocked because we were both completely convinced it was a girl. we even started calling the baby by the girl name we’d picked out, and we had a few conversations about what life would be like with our little daughter. so that tiny blue candy was truly a huge surprise. we couldn’t believe it!

 
^^ our friend matthew snapped this photo right as we realized we are going to have a son. he was behind us but i still kind of love this picture. twelve-year-old marta was up next for swatting the monkey and managed to decapitate it, so then we handed out the plentiful blue bon-bons to all our friends. ^^

we opened the spare sealed envelope just to make sure something hadn’t gotten mixed up. we both seriously thought it might still say “girl” inside – we were so shocked (i have no idea why we were so convinced it was a girl – haha!). but sure enough, the paper said “baby boy!!!” and from then on, minute by minute, we started moving from surprise to lots of excitement and happiness.

indeed – oooooh boy we’ve got joy :)

it was so, so fun to share this experience with most of our favourite london friends (of all types and ages), whom we are so, so grateful to have in our life. what started as a random whim and silly idea (a pinata filled with blue or pink candy is pretty darn corny, i know!) turned into a glorious morning of connection, celebration and cheer.

and thirty six hours after that first jubilant “it’s a boy!!!”, we are still wrapping our heads around the fact that we are going to have a son! it feels more and more real with each passing hour, and we are so excited and grateful (have i used those words enough times in this post?!). my paranoia that our beloved girl name is going to get snatched up is waning, luckily :) and we just can’t wait to meet our baby boy (although naming him will be an adventure!).