Telling the Parents…Napkins and Cake…

As a couple, finding out you really are pregnant truly is an amazing moment.  The next best thing (at least up to this point) is getting to share that information with others!

Telling one’s parents you are expecting, especially if you are a Daughter or an Only Child, makes for a pretty special occasion.  And with Dina and me, as most of you know, why do anything in an “ordinary” fashion?

The timing of telling our parents actually worked out very well.  We wanted to wait until we were far enough along that we felt fairly confident things were OK.  We obviously wanted to do it ‘together’, and we wanted it to be a memorable event.   Dina went home to Kentucky in November, but I was not able to join her, so that was out.  She wasn’t showing too much at that point and was able to stay in stealth mode.   Since her parents are fans of the River City Men’s Chorus and have only missed one concert series since I started singing with them 5 years ago, they had already planned to be in Little Rock for the Holiday concert.  So, we decided that weekend would be the perfect time!

We really spent some time trying to figure out just how we wanted to ‘surprise’ them.  It is not uncommon for my parents and her parents to have dinner together while they are here, we decided we would cook and just have everyone at our house that Saturday night.  Initially, Dina came up with the idea to take ‘onesies’ (the little baby outfits) and roll them up and put them in napkins holders/napkin rings and just have them on the table.  She decided fairly quickly that idea was just too easy and there had to be something else.  She kept thinking (“scheming” is probably a better term) and came up with the idea of using cloth napkins and t-shirt paint to write out the sentence, one word on each napkin, “Guess…what…we…are…having…?”  She took each napkin, folded it so that none of the writing showed, and put them in festive napkin holders.

Festive Christmas Table Decor

The weekend of the visit arrived and Dina’s Mom, Dad and Grandmother, Minnie, made it in without issue.  My parents (Mom, Step-mom Dianne, and Dad) were also here.   Dinner prep went very well (pot roast in the crock pot, with potatoes, carrots, and green beans…yum!).  The food was served, everyone sat down at the table with their plates, a blessing was offered, and the napkins were placed randomly.

No one really took notice of the napkins when taking them out of the rings…you did read earlier that Dina had cooked pot roast…YUM…no wonder they were headed straight for the food.  Dina sort of cleared her throat and said “you might want to look at your napkins”.  As it turns out, my Mom got “Guess” (and had just assumed it was a brand name and thought nothing of it), Dina’s Dad got “are” and was a bit confused, my Dad got the “?”.  However, her Mom got “having” and that was all it took for her! 

Guess What We Are Having ?

Jean (Dina’s Mom) looked up at Dina and said “Are you kidding me?!?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?”  She jumped up, grabed Dina and a bear hug and a bit of boo-hooing began.  The rest of the folks around the table were looking at them and still in a bit of a confused state.  Her Dad looked up and said “What?”  Dina and I both said “you might want to look at your napkins a little bit closer.”  After looking at the napkins, the rest of the table figured it out and were VERY excited.  A few tears crept out and over all it was a very excited mood.

Dina and I walked into the kitchen to fix our plates and she leaned over, and with an evil grin and in a very sinister voice said “Phase 1, complete!”  (Wow… that was a bit of a scary moment, I’m not sure I had really ever seen that side of her before!)

As the news of us expecting began to settle in over dinner and the questions and comments flowed freely, we still had “Phase 2”.  As some of us were finishing the main course, Dina offered that “we do have a ‘celebratory strawberry cake’ for dessert.   It has pink and blue icing on it, so we have had it hidden and didn’t want to give away the surprise.”  Everyone had pretty much finished eating, so I decided to go get the cake. 

Again, from Dina’s creative, yet slightly devious side, she had ordered a cake with the number “3” in icing on the top.

That would be a "3"

As I walked back in with the cake, her Mom was standing near the doorway to the kitchen, and was the first to really see the top of the cake.  She took one look, turned to Dina and very excitedly said “Seriously?!?!?  SERIOUSLY?!?!?”  She reached over to Dina with another big embrace and a few more tears.  Once again, the rest of the folks around the table look at the cake and say “What?”  I tried to show them the cake a little better (in their defense, it probably was a little difficult to tell what the figure was).  Jean helped them by saying (through the tears) it’s a “three”, and Dina held up 3 fingers to help them out also.   Dina and I both grinned and said “Triplets”.  With a rather shocked look, Dianne (my step-mother) said “Triplets??  Triplets??”  We both nodded and said yep, there’s three.  Dina reached around behind her and picked up strip of ultrasound photos (which was about 3 feet long) and said “And I’ve got the proof!”

Needless to say, it was quite a world rocking experience for all of our parents, and one they won’t likely forget any time soon!

The only real drawback to telling them was that we still had her brother and some other family in Kentucky who we wanted to tell face-to-face.  This was the type of news you just didn’t share over the phone, and they were going to have to keep it a secret!

… and the Circle continues to grow.