Gender Reveal: Popping Balloons For Baby #2

This past weekend was one we have been looking forward to since the day we found out we were pregnant. The gender reveal! Regardless of the gender, as long as the baby is healthy and happy, we will be happy… but it’s a wonderful feeling to finally be able to call the tiny babe a “he” or “she” instead of “it” or “the baby”. To us, it makes it so much more personal. Plus – now Mitch will entertain baby names with me!

We invited our family and friends out on Saturday and ordered this awesome exploding baseball to reveal the gender. The baseball came from a store on Etsy, and it was ordered as a ‘secret ball’ and a co-worker of mine e-mailed the company to tell them the gender, which he knew from an envelope we had gotten when we had the ultrasound done. The ball was supposed to explode with chalk in either pink or blue. Well – the weekend rolled around, and it turned out we had more to worry about than just a classic bad pitch or a swing and a miss reveal fail. The ball was still in the mail, so it was pretty hard to hit it with a bat while it was in a box at customs clearance. There goes $50, and my second order (out of only three) from Etsy that has not arrived in time for the occasion. Anyone else have this issue?

Fast forward to Saturday morning, where we were in ‘how do we reveal the gender’ mode. I decided we would just go to Party City in Peterborough and see what they had to offer – however neither of us knew the gender, and my co-worker had shredded the envelope after he e-mailed the Etsy seller (like a real secret-keeping pro!) – so we were relying on being able to get in touch with him while a the store. Luckily, he agreed to talk to the lovely lady at the counter who made us up two giant black balloons filled with confetti, and gave us a bag of confetti poppers to go along with it.

Does anyone know how stressful it is to travel with a baby, a dog, all of the ‘travel items’ for said baby and dog, a hot car, and two giant balloons that barely fit in the car…? VERY! We were both so nervous that Burke or Leo would pop the balloons, it would be too warm and they would explode, or they would be too restricted for space and touch something and pop before we even got to the party. Our biggest fear was us knowing after going through all the trouble of keeping it a surprise.

We finally got to Mitch’s dad’s place, which was where were having the party. They’ve got a beautiful set up – it really is a perfect spot for entertaining, and they are amazing hosts. We hid the balloons away from any heat, dogs, kids, and sharp objects, and got to setting up for guests to arrive. One by one our favourite humans showed up, and the excitement began to grow. We were finally going to find out!

It all seemed to happen so fast, the balloons popped in milliseconds, and all of a sudden there was blue confetti everywhere! BABY #2 IS A BOY! I think my favourite part of the actual reveal had to be Mitch’s face. Pure excitement, as you can probably see in the pictures! We had the best time, surrounded by the best people. We are so fortunate to have the family and friends that we do. We couldn’t have asked for a better gathering or a better surprise.

It’s so hard with larger events like this to be able to visit with everyone who comes. You get to say hey and thanks for coming, but to actually be able to sit a chat is hard – you want to be able to have meaningful conversations and to thank everyone personally for being part of the excitement, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen that way. You’re pulled in every direction every two minutes. But we want everyone to know how much it meant to us that they were there. We couldn’t have been happier to hear everyone’s cheering and excitement when those balloons popped and we found out Leo is going to have a BROTHER!

We started thinking about baby boy #2 on the way home, and it really started to sink in. Leo is going to have a brother. He’s going to have someone to share toys and clothes with, go to school with, they can play on the same sports teams together every other year (if they choose to play any), they can share / hand-me-down equipment (BIG money saver there!), maybe share a bedroom, they can share friends, and hopefully they will be best friends. There’s just so much to look forward to. We would like to have a big family, Mitch and I both love the thought of filling the house with kids and having an old-school mentality on raising them. We’re hoping to raise kids with strong morals and values, good work ethic, kind hearts, and old souls.

It's crazy to think that Leo will have no recollection of this day, or me being pregnant. He won't likely even realize the baby is his brother until he gets a bit older. This is something that will have such a huge impact on his life, and he's got no idea what he's in for! We're so happy to have them this close in age, but it is such a funny thing to think about him not being able to understand the fact that he's going to be a brother!

When you think about having a family, you never really know how many kids you will end up having or what their personalities will be, but you absolutely have high hopes. You never know how you’re going to feel when you finally are successful, or when that baby finally arrives, you just know you’ve never felt so much love before. It’s crazy to us to think that we went from no kids, to having Leo, and now we’re going to be the parents of two of the sweetest little boys. Life sure changes fast, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are beyond excited to be welcoming baby boy #2 in October!!

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