Karim’s Crescendo: Unicorn onesies and pink booties
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Cole and I knew since the beginning of May that it was going to be a girl. We kept mum about it because we were cooking up a surprise for Karim. He thought that we were going to see the doctor together to find out the baby's gender right after he'd get back from his three-week trip to London. So everytime he'd call it was a challenge not to say anything about it and Cole would constantly tease me about ruining the surprise. We were alone in the house and picking on a very pregnant woman, I imagine, was very amusing. To complement that, I was such a wet blanket. But Cole did stick to his promise of making it a wonderful surprise for his Papa. We worked on our artworks for a week (with long breaks every afternoon to squeeze in my random writing and Cole’s time with Phineas and Ferb) using sandpaper posters and oil pastels. When we were finally done, we decorated the baby’s nook in the master’s bedroom. The posters said: Your wish came true (poster created by Cole) and It’s a Girl (by 146-lb me). We made sure they screamed in bright colors because Karim secretly has purblind vision. In my current size, I sometimes have to wave both arms to his face when we’re in a public place for him to see it’s me. Blame it on 20 years of editorial work.
There was a downpour the night Karim got home. He was soaking wet so the surprise had to wait a little longer. Our gifts were pulled out from many different compartments from his luggage but Cole and I were just so eager to get him upstairs that we kept urging him to get out of his wet clothes. Another 4o minutes passed and he was still taking stuff out from his bags, checking if the important documents he had there did not get wet in the rain. When he finally got upstairs, he went straight to check the veranda for puddles of water and whatnot. When the boy scout’s duty was done, that was when he noticed the onesies, booties, caps and all. He adored each tiny piece as Cole and I sat back waiting for the eventful reaction from him. We waited for him to scream back at the wall but nothing of that sort happened.
When he saw the ultrasound printout, that was when a reaction started happening-- in a crescendo. He noticed the three arrows pointing at something that looked like a crack in a dark wall. A graffiti. And the graffiti said: GIRL. Ten seconds of silence and the words spilled out: “Are you sure?!” in the very tone that Cole and I were waiting to hear. A huge smile brightened up his entire face.
Then came the other questions, “How does the doctor know it’s a girl?”, “How sure can the doctor be?”
“Well,” I said, “That crack on the dark wall you’re looking at is a vagina. If it’s a boy we’d be looking at a hook on that dark wall instead of a crack. That one’s undeniably a crack.”
At this point, he finally looked at the wall and that’s when he took notice of the laborious work Cole and I had done. There was no shrieking like a school girl but it was the crescendo in his reaction that made it music for the three of us in the room. A baby girl’s coming. The three of us held each other tight smiling, wondering what she’s going to look like.
And then I asked him, “Did you think I’d let a baby boy wear ballerina and unicorn onesies?”
The rain suddenly stopped.
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