no big deal

Several weeks ago, we had some news. Big news. And anytime there's big news to be shared with the children, I agonize over how best to break it to them--good or bad. When we were thinking about moving to England, we spent months talking it up. We involved them in the process, though only Thomas was really able to grasp the idea of moving to England. I even think hard about how and when to tell them we're having visitors.

So when the news was a little brother or sister, I was practically paralyzed. How should we tell them? What might they ask? How on earth would I answer those questions? In the end, we decided that it would be best to wait until we had an ultrasound picture. Something to look at, we reasoned, would help make the idea more real. (It certainly did for me: I was in such a state of disbelief over the news that I was actually a little surprised to see the unmistakable movement of a tiny heart beating.)

Picture in hand, I sat everyone down at the table. We showed them the picture of Iain at 5 months gestation, and explained what it was. Then--the moment of truth--we showed them the picture of baby-to-be. 'Who do you think this is?' we asked.

'Iain?' Thomas guessed. Anna and Iain weren't much interested in either of the fuzzy black and white photos. The one of Iain was slightly more interesting, because it was more clearly a baby. After we got the point across that the new picture was of their baby sister or brother (once again, Anna hopes for a sister...), we expected a reaction. Iain exclaimed, 'A baby sister!' with amazing certainty, then changed the subject. Anna continued chewing her bagel, thoughtfully.

Thomas looked a little disappointed. I think he thought we were going to tell him that we were taking him to a Chelsea match at the weekend.