When Parents Become Grandparents

In our 2019 Recap post, we eluded to the fact that we discovered we had a niece right as the new year (2019) was set to begin. Wait. "Does that mean your brother found out he had a kid AFTER the fact?" Yes, yes he did - about 9 months into his daughter Sophie's life he found out he was a father! And indeed, it did start off feeling like a Maury episode. Cue the surprise Facebook message, a paternity test, the beautiful tearful introduction... the works.

Life has never been the same since, and we couldn't feel more blessed to have Princess Sophia May in our lives. She has grown so much since we got to meet her nearly 1.5 years ago, and lemme tell you - I was definitely always meant to be an aunt. I'm obsessed, and so is Ryan!

Not only did my brother become a father overnight, and Ryan & I become a surprise aunt/uncle, but my parents also suddently found themselves to be GRANDPARENTS! Usually you have more time to process all of these new titles coming at you for the first time, but nope. Not in this family!

Luckily, my parents flocked to the promotion naturally, and it has been such a joy watching them with Sophie.

All that being said, they didn't get the "normal" experience of finding out and becoming grandparents. There was no role for them in the pregnancy; they weren't part of her birth or her first 9 months out of the womb because they simply didn't know about her yet! So, it was important for Ryan and I to involve them in our pregnancy journey early on so they could be as involved as possible.

We did keep the news of our growing family to ourselves for a few days (which my mom has given me guff for a TON!), but we planned out how to tell them in a special way the weekend after we found out.

Every weekend during football season, we go over to their house to watch the Kansas City Chiefs Game (Chieeeeeefs), and that weekend was no different. We sat through the ENTIRE playoff game with our news acting like nothing was any different. All the while hoping we wouldn't lose the game so that my dad in particular wasn't bummed out when we announced, haha! Obviously, we won (Hey, Superbowl Champs!), so everyone was in a great mood when we headed up to the kitchen for what would be the unveiling.

I got them in place, and told them Ryan and I had finally decided what we were getting ourselves for our joint 30th birthday and that we were being a little "extra" about it, so we needed to record their reaction.

Enjoy the video (it was SO perfect that Sophie got to be involved, too!), and let me know how quickly you notice my dad catching on as compared to my mom! :D You can also hear my brother's reaction in the background.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d493df_59263baa9d384aa4a4d01d34886e2ce8/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Obviously, we are pretty family-centric, if you couldn't tell. We were just as extra when we told Ryan's siblings the news as well, but we sadly didn't get videos. They each got a bottle of wine with a label that read "On Loan until September, Baby Newton is Coming" - which was fun.

Are we being obnoxious about being pregnant? Yep. Are we going to stop? Of course not. Hopefully you continue to enjoy our journey. It's a fun one!

Until next time,

Rachel