The beginnings

I have laughed myself silly over talking about pregnancy and childbirth and babies with McKenna these past few years. She never really babysat as a teenager so her experience with infants and now toddlers has been with her niece, Samantha. And now? Now, my baby is pregnant with their first child. Words escape me regarding the joys that being a grandparent has given me. Dave and McKenna are giving all of us a blessing now. This blog that I will be writing will contain pictures and descriptions of events that they are going through. This will not be a daily journal of her pregnancy but more of a timeline journal. I'm writing this before any of you know about it and will be published only when they say 'ok, time to let the cat out of the bag'. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

In early May of this year, they took a brief trip to Vancouver, Canada. They fell in love with the city and it's environs. Hiking, relaxing, dining, exploring, getting pregnant, it all happened here. Many of you will wonder, 'were they trying to get pregnant?' The answer is that they were not not trying, as McKenna expertly sidetracks the question each and every time. Their c'est la vie attitude was refreshing in that they didn't stress over it each month. If it happens, it happens. And 'it' did. She sent me these photos of their trip once they knew they were pregnant and had told us all about it. She wants these photos always to be a part of their pregnancy photos. These mean a lot to her.

After taking a pregnancy test, how was she to tell Dave of their pending parentdom? Well, several years ago, all six of us went on a birthday trip to Napa to do some wine tasting. While we there, we visited a great winery called Reverie. It was a beautiful winery up in the side mountains of northern Napa. They offered many different types of wine, and we ended up really liking two of them, both reds. In fact, we liked them so much we ended up buying two cases of them. The folks at the winery called the Merlot by a special nickname, "Panty dropper". Each time Dave and McKenna came over, we made sure that we served them that wine. Why? Well, six months later they became engaged. The second wine, the Cabernet Sauvignon, was called "Baby Maker". Why? Well, one year later after serving McKenna's brother Chris and his wife Shaina that each time they came over, we now have Samantha as our first grandchild. Now we only refer to those wines with those nicknames. On with the story. Dave called McKenna on the way home from work and said that he'd like to share a bottle of wine with her that evening. "Ah Ha!", she thought. "I'll get out our bottle of Baby Maker." She went to the store for a Father's Day card and a little book called "A Father's Legacy". She also bought some hamburger buns. She put one BUN IN THE OVEN along with the little book, put the Father's Day card up with the wine glasses and set out the bottle of wine. When Dave got home, he greeted her and saw the bottle ready to be opened. She told him to grab the wine glasses (in the cabinet above the oven) but something caught his eye while grabbing for the glasses. "What's this? Why do we have a hamburger bun here?" McKenna told him again, a bit more firmly, "Get the GLASSES!" He closed the oven door, reached for the wine glasses, and saw the card. In the card, she had written, "Look in the oven". His face was indescribable when he saw the book and then realized they had a BUN IN THE OVEN....he was in shock, but then so was she!

Now the question was, 'how do we tell our parents?'. Fast forward to Father's Day AND her Dad's birthday bbq dinner. All of us were there, including McKenna's sole grandparent, Gramma Jeanne. We all passed the pre-requisite cards over to Bob for opening. One by one, he read them and then McKenna handed their birthday card over for him to open. He read it slowly, tears gathering in his eyes and asked, 'Does your mom know?'

'Know WHAT?' I asked, startled by his tears, by Dave clicking photos from his camera phone, and McKenna's quivering smile as well. I stared at her willing her to say the words out loud when Bob handed me the card to read. [tearing up here writing this, folks] As I read their words to him, my heart flipped over because she wrote,

"Well, Dad, it's Father's Day, too and since you've been a wonderful Dad to me and wonderful Grumpa to Sammy, Dave and I both know you will be a wonderful Grumpa to our little one. Congratulations, you have a second grandchild on the way!"

Christopher had my camera so he was unaware of the importance of Bob reading the card but caught on immediately so that when I started reading the card he was shooting away. Blurry, but I think you understand...

All hell broke loose by now, everyone screaming, asking questions, congratulating them...oh me, oh my. They were only too happy to answer all of our questions. To this day, I'm still in shock, trying to wrap my head around the fact the Kenna is pregnant.

Which brings us now to how she is feeling. Well, that all depends on the day and time of day. First thing in the morning, not so good. But I have stressed that I learned the hard way in my pregnancies. If you don't keep something on your stomach, you're gonna hurl. So she has been keeping Wheat Thins handy. I was very ill with both of my kids and I was hoping that McKenna would take after Bob's side of the family without having the morning sickness. No such luck.

They have interviewed/visited with their brand new obstetrician and like him very much. He has answered the first barrage of questions they had for him and most importantly, saw the heartbeat. And now you will understand the meaning behind this blog title. They are calling their 6.44cm bundle of joy Peanut for the time being. Take a look. Can you tell what side of the family it favors?