This Week's Show & Tell: All About Telling

This week's Show & Tell falls just as we hit 11 weeks in this pregnancy. So perhaps I should finally get around to telling the story of how I told T. that we are pregnant.

Before I go into the story, I should mention that we went through a miscarriage two years ago, and T. was completely devestated by that experience. When we started trying again, I had decided that if I could protect him from that hurt again, I would. The cycle before this current pregnancy we had a chemical pregnancy. I didn't tell him about that pregnancy until after I was sure it was a chemical. So when we got pregnant the very next cycle, our third pregnancy, I waited until I had the results from two betas before I told him. If I could spare him any hurt at all, I was going to. Oh, and he was under the impression that we were already in the initial phases of an investigative cycle with the RE (we actually weren't yet, as I was still in the 2ww), and had no idea that we had a shot at pregnancy that cycle. So when the beta results were positive, FINALLY, I really wanted to tell him in a special way. I thought and thought about how I would break the news.

T. is a HUGE Harr.y Pot.ter fan. On long car rides, I usually read aloud to him in the car if I'm reading something good. On one trip a few years back, I read him a bit of HP, and he became hooked. We own all of the books and all of the movies, and are anxiously counting down to July 15, when the battle between good and evil will rage on in theaters nationwide.

I am also a big HP fan, and an even bigger fan of riddles. Every year for our anniversary, I torture T. with a bunch of riddles that lead to his anniversary present. Very conveniently, this year my uterus decided to coordinate with our anniversary. Our anniversary fell just after I got the results from my second beta.

So, what to do, how to tell? A Har.ry Pot.ter-esque anniversary riddle, of course!

For those of you who don't share our love of HP, it is worth knowing that in the novel Harr.y Pot.ter and the Gob.let of Fire, Harry was one of four young wizards competing in something called the Tri-Wiz.ard Tourn.ament. As part of the tournament, he had to secure a golden egg from the clutches of a dragon. And then, he had to figure out the secret that the golden egg held, in order to move on to the next stage of the tournament.

Im my travels across the internet, I found a site called Za.zzle where you can make your own custom-made items relatively inexpensively. I have used it several times before, and the results have always been quite good. They sell something called a morphing mug, which changes colors when you put something hot in it. Empty, it is a solid color, and appears innocuous enough. Full of hot liquid, it changes to a white mug, featuring whatever design you have put on it. Aha! I had my golden egg.



Blue Mug: Cold

White Mug with the big reveal: Hot

(wrapping around the mug, it says "Guess What?", then there's a picture of my positive pee stick, and then below it says "We're going to have to finish the renovations!* Happy 9th Anniversary!")

Then, I came up with a riddle:

When Harry saved the golden egg,
a mystery he had to peg.
And so you must do the same,
with this mug that here came.

Earth, wind, water, fire.
One of these you do desire.
Solve the riddle that is near
and the answer will appear.

Now, my thought process was that he would figure out that he needed water for the mug (because it's a mug), he would eventually figure out that the water needed to be hot, and he would then fill the mug with hot water. Presto! The picture of the positive pee stick would pop up, and he would be surprised and delighted.

Have I mentioned how differently T. and I think? Here was his thought process: Mug. Hmmm. If you put earth in it, you can put a seed in it and grow it. "You're pregnant!" Eyes full of tears, he was indeed both surprised and delighted.

Well, it got us there, even if it wasn't quite how I intended it.

Want to see what everyone else has brought for Show & Tell? Come join the fun, and while you're there , wish Mel a very happy blogoversary!

*We have been undergoing the world's longest-running renovations. I fully plan to tell people that I got pregnant solely in the hopes of causing my husband to finally finish our house.