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Baby stats:
Current size: 2.5cm
Look: Considerably more human
Mobility: Arms and legs wiggle
Aimee's condition: Occasionally shows signs of life
Developed this week: It's hair and elbow week! Hair and elbows all around!
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Kevin's thoughts:
This week's announcement marks the third time we've been able to genuinely, pleasantly surprise our friends
and family, and man, is that ever fun.
The first time was when we came back to Thunder Bay for Christmas during the Roadtrip.
We told them all we'd be spending the December holidays bathed in the warm electric glow of Las Vegas, when
in reality we were phoning them from the white wastes of Fargo, ND on our way home. That was nice.
The second time was when we got married in Australia without
telling anybody. Aimee's dad's visit to Western Australia coincided with the big day, and not even he had a
clue what we were up to. That was nice too.
And this is the third. Surprise! A baby!
I think I've located the key element in a good surprise. It's got very little to do with the unexpected,
or the unknown, or even the improbable. Sure, those definitely help in the process, but to put a
REAL surprise into total mind-blowing lockdown, you just need everyone around you to completely
give up hope.
Take the wedding, for example. We'd been together 10 years at that point, a ridiculously long period of
time. Couple that with the fact that we are absolute anti-traditionalists, AND that we didn't tie the
knot in Vegas, and just like that, the world of
Beimers collectively said to themselves, "Well, if they haven't done it by now, it'll probably
never happen."
And then SLABAM! About a year later, once we'd ground all traces of other people's hope
into the ground, we get hitched. Surprise! Whee! See? It worked!
The baby thing worked pretty much the same way. When we told everyone over the phone, we got our
share of surprised congratulations, a small handful of I-knew-its, but enough I-was-starting-to-think-something-was-wrong-but-was-afraid-to-asks
to make a note of it.
You see, we love kids. And kids love us. We attract strangers' kids at public events. Babies stare at us, and
not because we're funny looking. When we went to our nephew Presley's 11th birthday party, we were
the only people of parental age who were bowling, eating pizza and hanging at the kids table.
We always intended to have kids, but until now we've never been in any one place long enough for it to be,
well, convenient. That's really the only reason we're 30 and childless. Now we're settled, with jobs, in
a city we love, with no return flight and a residency permit valid until 2011. The timing is perfect!
The epitome of planned parenthood.
So, to all of you who may have been the least bit worried about us, worry no longer! The time is now, the
place is here. Just like Gandalf (or maybe it was Baron Munchausen), this baby isn't late... it's arriving
precisely when it intends to.
Surprise!
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Aimee's thoughts:
"We were just calling to find out if you wanted to be called Grandpa or Pake*?"
That was how we started our conversation with Kev's Dad - he was the first to hear to good news! How exciting to finally be able to start telling people! Not that it was easy getting all of our families on the other end of a phone line on the same day. Kev's Dad lives in Indonesia, his Mom in Canada (but recently returned from Mexico and possibly out at camp for the weekend), and his brother in Stratford. My family is no better - my brother is in Ottawa, my sister in Thunder Bay and my Dad is usually in the middle of the Canadian wilderness completely out of touch.
YET, we knew that despite these differences, the intercontinental grapevine is strong enough that we had to tell them all on the same day or else they would hear it from someone who heard it from someone who saw one of them at Walmart or something ridiculous like that.
It's fantastic to finally be able to share our news. This has been the hardest secret to keep EVER. We've had so many conversations about how people will react when we tell them. And in most cases, we were pretty bang on. Frank was very surprised and really happy. We told him first, since when we got married he was so difficult to get in touch with that he didn't hear about it for days afterwards.
Next it was on to Kev's mom. When we told her, there was a slight pause, and a confident "I knew it"... She suspected that we might have some special news to share when she clued into the fact that we told many different people we were calling them on Saturday, which is completely out of character for us since we absolutely avoid using the telephone whenever possible.
But just because she was clued in didn't mean she was any less excited! This is her first grandchild and I think she's already got plans for the first visit over here to begin the spoiling process, as grandparents do.
My family was next - I told my brother over MSN, since he's just as rubbish as I am in a phone conversation. He was thrilled with the news and we got a resounding 'AWESOME'. Then, it was on to my Dad and sister, which were luckily in the same house at the time but unluckily not really early birds today. Or perhaps they were late birds last night. Whatever the case, there seemed to be a lot of confusion and sleepy congrats on the Lingman end of things.
My Dad even went so far as to tell me that he already has enough grandchildren - perhaps a result of living with three of them? They started to come around in the end though, with a few sleepy tears of joy from my sister and yet another "So when are you coming home?" from my brother-in-law Scott.
The only person left to tell was Kevin's brother Chris. And talk about saving the best for last. I swear, Chris was so excited he was shaking. I've never heard anybody so thrilled to hear anything in their lives. Which is exactly the kind of reaction we needed to end a perfect day of telling everyone the best news we've had to share in years!
*By the way, Pake is pronounced 'Paka' and it's Freisian for Grandpa, in case you were curious. And If you're curious about the answer, he hasn't decided yet. I think he's still adjusting to the overall concept of grandparenthood.
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Did you know? |
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By now, baby's got a bit of room to swim around, which means that tail might just
come in handy. However, rumour has it that every time Aimee takes a breath,
the baby is rocked in the amniotic fluid!
And if you think that's interesting, amniotic fluid can be rearranged to
form the words caution if mild. I guess that's why Aimee's been so sick; her
amniotic fluid's been anything but mild.
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People in the know |
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Everybody knows! YAY!
Which, in afterthought, pretty much makes this section of the site redundant. Um, so... look for something
new and exciting in this space next week! Yay!
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Aimee's cravings |
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Fruit salad in the morning
Greek salad in the evening
I suppose she should be commended on such decent cravings. There are
worse things she could be yearning for than fresh fruit and vegetables.
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Kevin's Book of the Week |
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 Dead Famous
By Ben Elton
Aimee's too sick this week to do one of these writeups, so I'll tell you all about the book I just finished.
Had nothing to do with pregnancy, but man, what a good read. Had me hooked.
It's
about a murder that takes place in the Big Brother house (the Peeping Tom house, actually), and even
with 40 cameras going 24 hours a day, nobody can work out the killer. It's for lovers and haters of the
reality TV genre, since the characters are realistically displayed in all their shallow, self-absorbed glory.
By the way, if you're looking for preggy books, Ben Elton also did one called Inconceivable. I didn't
read it, but Aimee thought it was pretty good.
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It's week 9, and you know what that means... Baby can wiggle those little legs and arms!
I'd say that's a mighty fine achievement, don't you? Why don't you write a congratulatory letter?
We guarantee delivery at the earliest possible convenience.
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