Number 4

Well, I was right. Number 4 is on his or her way. Yippee!!!! We are all very excited about this. Four sounds just right to me.

Already the humor has begun. When we told the kids, J's little mouth hung open in a gaping smile...apparently another sibling was not on his radar. E asked how I knew there was a baby in my tummy. "I peed on a stick," I answered (clearly without forethought). I could just see the little wheels turning in their minds thinking about all the sticks they've peed on and wondering why they've never found out they had babies in their tummies. I showed them the stick to clear up the confusion. All that week E kept coming up to me and asking, "Mom, why did you pee on a stick and God put a baby in your tummy?" J wanted to know if there were four lines if it meant there were two babies. Good logic.

And now the quest for an in-utero name for #4. This is very important to me. My parents named me before I was born. Bozo. Yup. Bozo was my first name. They thought I was a boy and apparently The Bozo Show was big at the time. What the heck?! Oh well, it was the 70's--what can you expect? When I was born (a girl!) my nickname became Bozie, which I was called affectionately, well into my teens. My little brother was Bombo. My baby sister Bobie. It was good to have a name to call the baby before it came.

So...J was Fluffy. Both B and I have tons of hair, so we kind of expected our first to come out resembling Ronald McDonald. E was Slurpee. I love Slurpees, it was a cute name, and there was an anteater on Zoboomafoo called Slurpee. K was Bun-Bun, as in "there's a bun in the oven". The boys called her Bun-Bun more than her real name for her first few months!

What will we call this baby? It takes time to come up with a name that is satisfactorily gender-neutral and cute. This is why I have rejected some of my boys' suggestions. The first suggestion out of J's mouth was "Zurg". Others to follow were "Buzz Droid", "Obi-Wan Kenobi", and "Mrs. Potato Head". B made his contribution, "how 'bout 'Spud'"? At least that one meets the requirements (sort of), but I just can't bring myself to name my unborn child after a tuber or one of Brandy's canines. Although, come to think of it, "Frito" would be kind of cute! Hmmm...I'll have to think about that one.

Meanwhile, the search continues...