Halfway into our first pregnancy, my husband and I were completely divided as to whether to find out our baby’s gender. I was dying of curiosity, and Rob wanted to keep it a surprise. I tried every way that I knew how to convince him to join my side of the fence, and failed miserably in every attempt. Finally, in a last ditch effort to get my way, I reluctantly agreed to a match of Rock Paper Scissors. (I say reluctantly, because I always lose Rock Paper Scissors to Rob; however, I figured this was the only way that we were going to solve this). Best 3 out of 5, and yes, we had witnesses.
I lost all 3 times.
After a few people laughed at our resolution to this problem (and probably still are laughing), I needed a slightly better story to tell our firstborn than “mom lost Rock Paper Scissors to dad, so we were going to keep your gender a surprise.” Okay. It’s not just about the story that we get to tell our baby one day, it’s about a couple of other things:
1. I am the “host” of the baby right now. I should get my way since I’m the host, right?
2. Boys names, in my opinion, are ridiculously easy. Girls names, not so much. Choosing a name for a girl will take at least 4 months–and that’s about all the time we have left.
3. There is ALWAYS a compromise to ANY situation. There has to be.
After explaining this dilemma to our neighbour Andreas before our impending 19-week ultrasound, he pitched us with a great idea:
“Get the technician to write down the baby’s gender in an envelope, seal the envelope, and give it to Maria (Andreas’ wife)…she will make cupcakes filled with pink or blue icing and that way it can still be a surprise.”
Now, I had heard variations of this idea before (i.e.: give the envelope to a baker, who bakes a cake), but THIS idea was amazing to me on many levels:
1. We happen to live next door to not only some of the nicest people we could ask to live next door to, but their creative and culinary skills are unmatched. The potential of sharing this surprise with Maria felt much more personal than giving an envelope to a “baker.” Maria had already made the AWESOME chocolate truffles for our wedding, so this felt like a natural progression.
2. CUPCAKES! I’ve heard of gender-reveal cakes, where the surprise is found out by one person cutting into the cake filled with pink or blue icing, but imagine having your closest family members all biting into a cupcake at the same time and seeing the surprise at the same time. That’s just as good as the surprise at birth, is it not?
3. It’s just plain fun–why not!
Even bigger score–Rob liked this idea too. Compromise idea a success!
So here we go….check out the photos of the big event:
The “before” picture. Seriously. Dying. Of. Curiosity. (Here’s hoping that our child will get Rob’s patience and not mine).
Can you see what colour the cupcake filling is yet??!!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!?? So it’s a GIRL??!! What an incredible surprise. If we put a Vegas-odds bet onto this, we all would have lost miserably. (Myself included). We were ALL convinced this would be a boy. Of course we are thrilled and excited to find out we are having a little girl.
My nephew, Nick, checks out the pink icing.
Proud parents-to-be of a little girl. Unbelievable.
So what’s the verdict? The cupcakes were delicious and Maria has yet again outdone herself (they lasted less than 5 minutes before they were all gone). Both Rob and I were glad we did this–what a great way to keep the surprise as a “surprise,” and still something that you can share with your family as a special moment. So, for anyone out there with the same dilemma, I HIGHLY recommend this solution as a compromise.
For those of you in the Toronto area, Maria’s Sweet Treats make a great choice for any of life’s special occasions. Check out Maria’s blog for photos of her creations and contact information:
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