Telling Sam

"Ewwwwww", followed by, "gross". Over and over again. In a restaurant. Crowded with people. Those would be two direct quotes from Samantha when she found out she was going to be a sister.

We knew it was time to tell Samantha. We both knew that telling Sam could be both fun and complicated. Fun, because, well, we all have a good sense of humor and Lisa and I were looking forward to the look on Sam's face. Complicated, because Sam has been my only child for 9 years. She has been our only child for 2 1/2 years and has never had to compete for attention or affection - and now she is not going to be the only one, and because she does not live here full time she has voiced concerns of being "forgotten".

Friday night we went to dinner and Lisa and I were giddy with telling Sam. We told her we had big news and that she could guess it. She looked thoughtfully for a moment at the ceiling and said, "Lisa is pregnant." When we told her she guessed correctly she had to be convinced that we weren't playing a joke on her.

Once she realized that we weren't joking she blurted, "ewwww," for the next five minutes. So clearly, in telling her we found out that she knows how babies are made. And better yet, she thinks its "nasty" and "gross". We also found out that she doesn't really understand the process yet because a few minutes later she said that we must have made the baby the night before (Thursday) because we didn't tell her on Wednesday when she was over last.

Sam is excited. She is looking forward to being part of the process and even wants to be in the delivery room. Sam is afraid. She is scared of being left out of the "full time" family while she is living in Ithaca. Sam is anxious. You can see that she really wants to be a big sister, one with almost a decade of experience over her sibling but nervous that she will be considered more of an adult than a child from now on.

Through all of these initial emotions, one thing is clear in her head: Samantha wants a sister.