In October 2021 I was one of three people who held the answer to mystery of the gender of my sister’s baby. She was pregnant with her first child and, aside from the ultrasound technician, my mom and I were the only two people who knew whether she was having a girl or boy. Two days later, our family gathered at my house for a whirlwind of excitement to discover this crucial piece of information. Little did they know, my goal was to safely create so much safe excitement that my sister would safely be forced to safely go into early labor…safely!
What better way to infuse some excitement than to send the pregnant gal and her husband on a scavenger hunt around my house?! To kick things off, I handed my sister a box that said, “Baby Jesus is sending a gift for you two, and you’ll find out the gender if you follow these clues.” This note started the journey through the previously unexplored areas of my home. Each box they discovered contained a baby gift and a note, with each note reading:
- Could the baby be a boy? Oh, that would be fun! You can take him to play in the mud or the sun! (Open the box under the TV)
- He’ll search and destroy nearly all that he sees, but you’ll love your sweet boy, ‘cause he’ll be the bees knees! (Open the box under the bathroom sink)
- But perhaps it’s a girl with such sparkly eyes that you won’t be so mad when she eats all your fries! (Open the box in the foyer closet)
- She’ll play make-believe and be the queen of the land, as she builds a small castle while playing with sand! (Open the box in the microwave)
- In the end it won’t matter, ‘cause we’ll all be glad…because you’re able to find out that you’re gonna have! (Go to the dining room)
If my plan succeeded she would have to be safely rushed to the hospital, where we could have witnessed the baby and its gender before us, but it didn’t. Instead, we all gathered in the dining room where a cookie cake held the answer. The giant cookie had a smaller cookie in the middle that hid icing under the cookie. When she pressed the cookie, the blue icing revealed that she was having a baby boy!
A few months later, my first nephew was born and proved to be the most incredible tiny human ever. The best part of being an uncle is that you can enjoy the fun moments and return-to-sender the child for the moments that you’d prefer to skip. I get to experience the joy of giving him 195 Black Forest Organic Gummy Bears without having to experience the ensuing hyperactivity, purchase a drum set without hearing the loud banging of him playing, and I can sleep soundly at night without having to wake up at 3am if he wants to get up and scream. Life is good.
Now, two years after the gender reveal excitement, Noah is a strong, tall, fast, intelligent little 17 month old that amazes most people who meet him. Little do they know, all of these attributes might be because I sent his pregnant mom on a wild goose chase under my bathroom sink in search of a box of answers. Or maybe, it’s because he’s a naturally gifted genius who is destined to change the world, one diaper change at a time!