Adventures of a first-time father to be...

After the fun I had with my posts on becoming a homeowner for the first time last year (parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), it seems only natural that a post on the trials and tribulations of becoming a dad for the first time should merit it's own series of posts as well. It's a far more momentous and important life moment than buying a house, and involves far funnier stories. While I only announced here that my wife was pregnant a couple weeks ago, we had known since just before Easter. In fact, my wife told me she was pregnant by surprising me with a little gift while we were out to dinner with her step family one night a day or two before Easter. It's was in a little gift bag, with lots of tissue paper, and when I reached in I pulled out a little pen box. Since my wife's a sales rep, I immediately recognized the pen box as the case for a laser pointer pen that had been popular with the doctors, so I immediately say, "Aw babe, thanks for the pen," and go to toss it back in the bag. She says, "Uh, you may want to check that pen," and it turns out it was the positive pregnancy test. We were of course thrilled, we had actually decided to start trying to get pregnant a week earlier (oddly enough "we were trying to get pregnant" seems to be the accepted phrasing for this sort of thing. I guess "knocked her up" just doesn't sound right for some reason). We certainly didn't waste any time... Well, now there's a bunch of people we need to tell. After dinner we call her dad and practically demand that he and his fiancee stop by the house to pick up their Easter present early. We were going to my parent's for Easter, so we wanted to make sure her dad found out before we left. We ended up pulling the same "pen gift" idea to spill the beans. So her dad and his fiancee come over, and we give him the gift. He opens it up and looks at the positive test and has absolutely zero clue what he's looking at. Once we explained what it was, he nearly jumped off the couch with excitement. Over the past couple years he'd been the parent that asked us every time he saw us if we were knocked up yet (see just doesn't sound right...). He's been looking forward to another grandchild forever. For the weekend, we head to my parents' and surprise them with the news with a little gift, this time a little baby bib that's got a cute grandma saying on it, and my parents are happy and excited for us. We tell a few more family members that weekend, but decide to wait for a little while longer before announcing it to the whole world (literally...) Anyway, after an Easter brunch with my family, we head back towards home and stop by the fetching Mrs. Wookie's step family's for Easter dinner. Now, my wife had been experiencing some pregnancy symptoms for a little while before this, so we had a clue she was pregnant. She was a little nauseous and was extremely sensitive to smells. When we got to her step fmaily's house, they were still cooking the turkey and the smell gave the fetching Mrs. Wookie fits; she nearly puked right there. We ended up staying for only 5 minutes. We got home, ate some leftovers, and fiddled around the house. We were watching TV a few hours later and my wife turns to me and says she's hungry. I say, what do you want? She says cereal. I say we're out of milk; want oatmeal instead? She says no, I want cereal. I say how about something else. Grilled cheese, quesadilla, soup... All of a sudden I get a scream, "I WANT CEREAL!!!" She bolts from the couch, grabs her keys, and peels out of the garage on her way to the store. I'm still standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what just happened. She comes back more than 30 minutes later. Now she didn't just go get the milk and Honey Nut Cheerios she wanted. She went grocery shopping. Eggs, bacon, bottled water, soda, cheese, apples, bread, peanut butter, etc... All she brings in from the car is the milk and cereal. I'm still standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what just happened. and I try to say something as she comes in and she yells, "DON'T TALK!!!" She rips open the cereal, pours herself a bowl, goes into our living room in the dark to eat, and starts to cry. I'm still standing in the kitchen trying to figure out what just happened. After eating she totally returns to normal. She apologizes for losing it over cereal, but I'm sure not going to question a craving again. I also thought I'd share this. Our friends are having fun with the fact that we're knocked up (that still doesn't sound right...).