Friday, March 19, 2010

It's a BOY!

When I walked into the cozy Pauche Cafe I was looking for soup.  I came out with revelation that will, I am sure, change my life forever.

After three days of 60 degree weather, the snow, today, felt even colder than normal.  After my appointment at the hospital, I decided to warm up my heart with a visit to my youngest sister, who has been working in Salt Lake this week while she has a break from school.   After chatting with her for awhile, ordering half a dozen flower shaped sugar cookies (with cream cheese frosting, oooooh yeeeeahhh!) and then ordering half a dozen more, some customers came in and I headed next door for something that would not give me instant gestational diabetes.

Decorated with mismatched tea pots and saki sets, the little bistro was empty except for the two employees and The Man Blessed With the Gift.  I asked if they still had any soup this late in the afternoon and after receiving answer in the affirmative, I started exploring the small, but cute European-esque cafe.

The Man smiled at me.  I smiled back.
"How far along are you?"  He asked.
"61/2 months" I answered.
"You are having a boy." He asked.  Sort of.  It was more of a statement.
"Oh, I don't know, we want it to be a surprise!" I love people's reaction to this statement.  Usually it goes one of two ways.  Either they say 'oooh I LOVE that!  How exciting!' or they say 'I could NEVER do that, you are a crazy lady'.  My mother is of the latter opinion.  She even offered to call the doctor, find out the gender, and then not tell me.

The Man had a different reaction.  He simply looked at me right in the eyes, smiled and repeated, resolutely:
"You are having a boy."
"Oh, you can tell?"  I couldn't wait to hear his reasoning.  I was carrying high, I ordered a cream-based soup, my breasts are uneven,  I asked for butter for my bread, my skin is splotchy,  I do love a good wive's tale, especially when they are a little insulting.  Just yesterday, a woman in my ward predicted I was having a girl because "girls are all in your butt."  Cool.

"Yes.  I am Catholic, but my LDS friend has told me that I hold the gift of discernment anyway.  I am right 95% of the time."  I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that his tea leaves didn't spell out "M-A-L-E" when I walked in but this was still interesting.
"Oh, well I will tell my husband to start thinking of boy names, he is convinced it is a girl."
"No, no.  Definitely a boy."
My soup was ready.  I went back to the cookie shop to tell Tori my big news.

So, I am having a boy.  I guess I can finally put all of those girl clothes I have been hanging on to in to the 'give-away' pile.  I can't help but feel a little bad for The Man With the Gift, however.  Why he feels that being Catholic makes him fundamentally ineligible for discernment of prenatal gender is a little sad.  And if his Mormon pal holds such authority, then why doesn't The Man just convert?  What a tortured life he must lead.  At least he can find joy in resolutely ruining other people's intended surprises.

11 comments:

Brooke said...

That is great :) I really thought you were announcing something. That makes the birth day even MORE exciting, to see if that man really does have the gift.

Beth said...

Well if he is right Erin will be wrong again...she may get a little sad over this post. I love it. How some people just seem know everything.

Erin said...

I'm feeling as though Beth is taking a few stabs at me with her comment.

I think she is having a boy (still holding out). I think you are having a girl. OR maybe in the dream that is causing my family to doubt MY powers of discernment, Beth was simply handing me your baby boy.

(But I still think you're having a girl. And that The Man will be 94% correct.)

April and Jared Fenn said...

I love the way you told that cute story. You are awesome and I'm so HAPPY you are my friend. :) I hope you have a boy, but most of all, I hope you have a healthy baby.

love ya!

Russ said...

Haha- this is funny. When I was on my mission a lady told me, "you will fall in love someday, with a man that you don't know right now, it will be the first time you fall in love".

Angi said...

Well, he's got a 50% chance in any case. What I want to know is where to get those cookies and tea! What about Charlie?

If it IS a girl you can just use my code word for her name: doili--a lovely lacy creation that sits under lamps and dolls and always looks dingy with dust but with the totally cool "i" at the end just like I use ;)

Claudia said...

Why is it that men always feel they can make comments about pregnancies? All the wierdest comments I ever got when I was preggers was from men. I think it just comes from guys who are 95% jerks.

But if he does have 'the gift' then that is pretty cool.

Claud

P.S. I would move by you in a heartbeat. So I hope that by saying we would need an appropriate job for my mister in no way indicates my level of sincerity. My slightly melodramatic comment about being nostalgic about times gone by in my most recent blog post from the UT trip was written SOLELY with you in mind. I understand if you skip over my not-so-entertaining narrative, however, so if you dread going back to read my mush, just know that I loved our visit more than words can say.

Alyssa said...

dang it. i was so hoping for that pony...

momwouldgo said...

That was the best blog post I have read in along time. Love you!

Diane J. said...

You should have burst out crying and telling him how he ruined the surprise. Hee, hee, hee.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I never wanted to know either even when we were having twins. Apparently, I was the only one in the doctor's office that didn't want to know. They had it written on the front of the chart in Sharpie. When I would check in before they even grabbed my chart I would get "Oh, you're the one who doesn't want to know." Sheesh, if I'm going to work that hard and then redo it a few minutes later, I want surprises darn it.

Love your blog!

Unknown said...

That was awesome. We didn't find out for number 3 and this guy would have come in really handy. As for that girls are in your butt thing, I had a woman grab mine to guess what we were having. Mmm, not so fun.