Imaginary Sally vs Reality

Suzy has been talking about wanting a sister for quite some time. She only talks about a sister. Never a brother. She also named her sister, Sally. We always picked at her and went along with her thoughts of having a sister, because most of the time it was very entertaining to hear her talk about their pretend adventures. We have also always picked at her about having a brother. She has never ever wanted anything to do with a brother….. At all.

"Sally" at 12 weeks and 2 days.

Over the summer, we went to Memphis and ran across a Babies R Us store. Suzy thought that it was where you could just go pick up a baby. I assume that she thought they were on display and you could pick whichever one you’d like. I guess I should have taken her in the store and showed her what it actually looked like. The rest of the summer if I dropped her off somewhere she would tell whomever she was with that I would be bringing her sister back. There were many times that I showed up without Sally and she threw a massive fit. Oh, if only having a baby were that easy…..

Suzy went to school in August and told all the teachers that she was going to have a sister named Sally. Emily, a friend of mine, teaches the 2 year old class at FBC. She sent me a text one day asking me if I had something to tell her. I didn’t. I was not pregnant, nor was I expecting to be. Suzy just made that little fib up and spread across the preschool campus.

Lake Life 2016

Since Suzy was so adamant about having a sister, we thought when we told her that I was pregnant she would be ecstatic. Boy were we wrong! When the day finally came to tell her she threw a fit. She cried, screamed, yelled, etc. She instantly changed her mind and decided she did not want a brother/sister. I suppose only imaginary Sally was okay to her. When it became reality she was not a fan. We dropped the conversation with her several times after the initial conversation. Finally, after a week or so she came around. She would talk about it without crying, and she started showing some excitement. But, she was only excited if you talked about a sister. Still to this day, we do not get a happy response from Suzy if we mention brother. She cries big huge alligator tears with the slight mention of a boy or she refuses to participate in the conversation. We are trying to prepare her for either gender, but gracious alive… I have to admit that I have been praying for a healthy baby girl for Suzy’s sake. I don’t know what she will do if she finds out it is seriously a boy! I obviously will be thrilled with either gender, but it sure would make things easier with Suzy if it were actually a Sally. Everyone tells me that Suzy will change her mind once she sees a brother, but that wasn’t the case with me… I had the same feeling she has when my brother was born. I wanted nothing to do with him. I didn’t even want to stay at the hospital and when people would visit after he was home I tried to send him home with them. Now, I admit, I do love my brother dearly….. But, it took a good 18 years for us to actually get along with one another. So, I am sure this baby will be a boy and give me major payback for all the hell I put my baby brother though…. I will get to see firsthand what my parents dealt with on a day to day basis.

Suzy says that if I have a boy she is going to name him Pops and send him to live with Pops and Gigi. She has also said maybe we could name him Flower Seed or Scott Junior… You can tell she is not very thrilled just by her choices of names, can’t you?