Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Sibling Reaction

For the past couple of years we've been periodically asking the kids what they thought about adding another baby to our family.  We wanted to test their openness to it, and maybe we hoped for some sort of confirmation one way or the other through their childish reflections :)  Their responses were varied - often they said that our family needed another girl to make things even, or Micah's common response was, "Well, if God wants us to!"  (Wise words from a child...)

Several months ago Micah announced to me in the van that he would indeed like to have another sibling.  When he expanded on it, he explained that, "Well, it would be really nice for Keziah to have a baby.  She would love that."  (Such a sweet brother...)  I told him that maybe he could help me pray that God would give us a baby.  

Fast forward to early December and I was "testing the waters" again, asking the kids what they thought about having another baby.  This time Micah's response was, "No.  I decided I don't want any more kids in our family."  At this point, of course, it was much too late.  So, I was curious as to how the kids would react to the big news.

We decided to tell them about the baby shortly before Christmas.  We were planning to announce it to our families over the holidays and we wanted the kids to hear it from us first.  So, we told them we had an early Christmas gift to to give them...


Erik stopped filming right before Micah announced (again) that he had decided that he didn't want another baby...  We explained that, at this point, it was coming whether he liked it or not :)

Thankfully the shock passed quickly and now the kids are very excited and inquisitive about everything.  They named their sibling "Baby Blue" since it was about the size of a blueberry when we first told them.  And Micah had a grand time announcing to my family at Christmas that "Mommy's pregnant!"  Silas loves scrolling through the in-utero pictures in the pregnancy app on my iphone - always proclaiming when he gets to the week where baby "opens her eyes!"  Keziah writes to me about the baby in our Mommy-Daughter journal and tells me that she is most excited to hold it.

As for gender, Micah and Keziah are quite set on having a girl - Keziah, for obvious reasons, and Micah, simply because it makes practical sense :)  Silas wants it to be a boy (and yet always seems to refer to it as she/her).  So, I think this time we're going to try to find out the gender, in the hopes that it will prepare all of us for what's coming in 6 months!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love the video. Mom

KDees said...

That is awesome! So great that you decided to video the moment! I LOVE Erik's laugh behind the camera:) Hasn't changed a bit!! Thanks for sharing!

kelly ens said...

that is AWESOME!!!! Seriously, great way to reveal it to them, and fantastic responses!!! :)

Laura said...

Loved your unwrapping idea! And the responses were priceless... seriously so great!!!

rachel joy said...

oh man! The suspense! The tension! Very creative way to share the news, and I'm glad that they've all agreed it's good news. :)

Jen Glen said...

Agreed on the laugh! Craig watched with me and he just kept saying, "Oh, Eric!" Loved Silas response, "I'm just not keeping it!"

Anonymous said...

James and I just rewatched the video - Silas' reaction is James' favourite. Happy birthday Silas!