Where I Ramble and May or May Not Have a Point.

We'll start this post with a picture of some pretty flowers. Because one of the many things I love about summer is having fresh flowers around the house. Rich and the girls went out to a friend's house yesterday and came home with these flowers for me. I have no idea what they are, but they make me happy.

We'll then move onto the rambling part of this post. I've been sort of mulling the seed of this post since we first told someone we were expecting a fourth child. Rich and I usually keep a pregnancy quiet for the first three months or so. With this pregnancy we each told a close friend here. I told Amy, because I had to explain why I was turning down her offers to go out for a girls' night out. Amy responded with, "Congratulations!" Rich told Pete, who has been one of his best friends since they were teenagers. Pete responded with, "Are you f**king serious?"

Over the last few months, I've noticed that when people discover I'm expecting number four, the responses seem to fall into either the "Congratulations" category or the "Are you f**king serious?" category. Rambling forward to last night. Rich and I went out to dinner, without children. After a lovely dinner, as we were heading out, Rich saw an acquaintance in the bar section of the restaurant. I was waiting by the exit, ready to leave. The acquaintance asked how Rich and the kids were doing, and Rich mentioned we were expecting number four. At which point, the woman seated with acquaintance, a complete stranger, says, "Don't you know what causes that?"

Now, a few points in the interest of fairness. First, Rich found it amusing and laughed. He was not offended at all. Secondly, she had had a few cocktails. I've discovered over the course of three and a half pregnancies a little information about people who have been drinking. It turns out that they are not nearly as witty or amusing as they think they are when you haven't been drinking. [I don't think this revelation applies to me when I've been drinking though. I'm pretty sure I'm every bit as pretty and amusing as I think I am. ] Thirdly, I'm a bit flush with hormones right now. I am willing to admit I might be a bit more sensitive than I would otherwise be. However, all those points aside, I found I was not amused. I was not amused at all.

So the summary of all this rambling, I guess, is this: When someone tells you they are expecting another family member, the appropriate response is ALWAYS, "Congratulations."

This has been a Gettysburg Family etiquette lesson. Next week we'll cover no elbows on the table or speaking with your mouth full. Please feel free to discuss amongst yourselves.