Our Life Together

Surprise, Brad

"Honey, it's night time, you have to go to bed."  I lay Olivia back down in her bed for what feels like the hundredth time.  She's resisting sleep like it's going to kill her.

"Mommy sleep too!" She cries.  I lay down in her bed with her, hoping that she closes her eyes for more than 5 seconds.

"Night, night, baby."  I kiss her forehead, quietly walking out of her room after she finally fell asleep. 

I walk into the boys rooms to make sure that all of them are asleep before going back downstairs.  Brad is going to be home any minute and I need to get our dinner set up for my surprise that I hope he'll like.  I have no idea how he's going to react to this.

The sudden noise of the garage door opening forces me to work faster.  I quickly put our plates on the table and set the pasta between them.  I pour our drinks before returning to the counter to work on dessert.

"This smells amazing,"  Brad walks over to me with a beautiful bouquet "Who cooked?"

"I don't know."  I laugh, turning to kiss him "It's from a box."

I thank him for the flowers and place them in a vase on the counter.  He pulls me over to the table, telling me to sit across from him.

"You outdid yourself, I hope you know that."  He comments on the whole setup that I have "You could've thrown paper plates and juice cups on here and I would've appreciated it."

"I wanted it to be special for you.  I thought it would be a nice surprise."  I defend all my hard work. 

"Speaking of surprises,"  He states deeply into my eyes "What is all this about?  I love it, but you're kinda scaring me, Jen." 

I take a huge deep breath, trying to remain calm.  I don't know how to tell him. 

"Jen, what's wrong?"  He asks, much more serious this time "Are you okay?"

"Yeah,"  I reply quickly, trying to hide how I'm feeling "It's just... I'm pregnant, Brad." 

"What?"  He practically spits out his wine, finding this funny "You're joking, right?  You just did all this to be funny."

"If I was joking would I be drinking your daughters grape juice right now?"  I hand him my glass so I knows the truth "This is real, Brad." 

He takes a sip of my drink, and instantly turns white.

"When did you... when did you find out?  Why didn't you tell me before?"

"The day before we left for Disney."  I watch as he tries to hide the fact that he is probably pissed right now.  Neither one of us really expected this to happen "So, I guess I've know 2 weeks now.  I wanted to tell you when it was just us.  Please don't be mad."

"I'm not mad, Jen."  He replies instantly "I'm just surprised.  I mean, I didn't expect to ever hear you say that for real again."

"Yeah, well I didn't think it would happen again."  I admit "It's a good thing though, right?  Surprising, but good."

"Of course it is."  He walks over to me, sitting on the chair and wrapping me up in his arms "I love you and this family more than any of you will know.  This is just one more person to love." 

"We all love you too."  I look up to him, watching his expression change as he sees the ultrasound picture on the table.

"So how far are you?"  He stares at the picture with nothing but admiration and love "It looks like a little one eyed monster."

"It's a baby, of course it's a monster."  I laugh "At that time I was 4 weeks, so I guess I'm 6 now."

"I knew there was something different about you."  He looks back at me "I wouldn't have guessed this though."

"Really?  The constant vomiting and naps didn't tip you off?"  I get the cake from the counter and walk back to sit with him "I've lost more weight than I gained from being so sick."

"Well Liv had that stomach bug, so I just figured it was that."  He takes a fork and shoves a piece of the cake in my mouth "Don't worry, soon it'll be all my fault because you think you're fat.  You won't be sick the whole time."

"Thanks for reminding me." I take a few minutes to let everything sink in now that the hard part is done.  He was shocked, which I expected, but I'm glad now that he's happy and accepting.

"I still can't believe this.  It's just all so weird.  I never thought we would have 5 kids."

"I never thought we'd have Olivia."  He adds "I thought we'd be stuck with three boys and that's it.  I was really worried for you." 

"I'm more worried about this one being a boy.  I can't handle anymore boys than we have."  I know I could, but it would be nice to have another girl "Olivia needs a little sister anyway.  She'll never survive against all boys."

"You're right."  He agrees "She's a little wimp.  Still not sure how she's ours.  The only resemblance is your looks.  Otherwise I'd say she doesn't belong with us."

"Maybe she doesn't.  You don't know who her real father is.  Who says it's really you?"  I joke with him "She could be someone else's kid."

"Considering you blame me anytime she does something bad because she's my kid, I don't think I need to worry about that."  He stands up, carrying me with him. 

"Where are we going?"  I act like I don't ready know the answer "I wanted to eat that cake." 

He turns back around, picks up the cake, and hands it to me "It goes away when we get upstairs." 

"It still don't understand why you won't just let me eat it."

"Because,"  He places his hand on my stomach "We need to celebrate."