Boy or girl?

Ben, Roxy, Toby and I were able to go home (Marshall, TX) for the Christmas holidays for close to a week to spend time with family and friends. The day we left Baton Rouge, I had a scheduled doctor's appointment/check-up so we decided out of the blue to try and find out what the baby was so we could surprise our parents and grandparents with the news. I am not one for surprises (mom and dad - don't chime in!) so I knew if I had the sonogram planned I would spoil it!

I was 99% sure it was a boy so when the sonogram tech stated it was a girl I was completely shocked! We had so much picked out for a boy (after all, I'm always right and it was in fact GOING to be a boy!) - we loved "his" name and I had even started looking into boy bedding...I was ecstatic to hear it was a girl, but again, completely shocked. I just knew my Chinese Calendar was right and it stated there was supposed to be a boy in there, not a girl!

When we got in the car after the doctor's visit Ben stared at the sonogram pictures and started tearing up...he is so excited!

After leaving the doctor we went to the LSU store by Mike's habitat and bought a smocked LSU dress and "Eye of the Tiger" bloomers. Given this is the first grandhchild on both sides our thought was to have each of our parents and grandparents open the gift to unveil baby Ross' gender.

On our drive...the drive that felt like it took DAYS, we were debating on naming our new daughter Allie or Reagan. While I do love the name Reagan, I kept going back to how cute Allie Ross sounded so we ultimately decided on Allie Parker.

The most special person to open the dress was Ben's grandmother, Nanny. God love her, after several bouts of cancer, she is still with us today. She is by far one of the sweetest women you will ever meet and reminds me so much of my dad's mom, Mildred. Nanny's 85th birthday was December 24th and as always, the entire family gets together in Shreveport and does lunch on Christmas Eve. Given Nanny's kids are older, I don't quite think she understood the sonogram pictures...it was way too cute. Once she opened the dress she got it and said "it's a girl?" in her sweet, shaky voice. Nanny has two great-grandchildren already but this will be her first great-granddaughter.

The holidays were fun now that we knew exactly what baby Ross was going to be!