Birth Announcement Breeds Confusion, Resentment

My friend Geri, who I see and talk too far less often than I should, called yesterday.

Geri: “Okay, so first off I have to say that when I got this red envelope in the mail from you I thought, ‘Oh God, she’s already sent out her Christmas cards. And it’s just days after Halloween.’ “

Me: “And you were disgusted by what a super organized stay-at-home mom I’d become? You were ready to totally write me off as a friend?”

Geri: “Well, not quite write you off… That’s a bit extreme.”

Me: “But then you opened it? And realized it was just a really really late birth announcement?”

Geri: “Exactly. And my faith in you was restored.”

Yes, last week, just days after our beloved newborn Paige turned, well, nine months old, we popped her birth announcement into the mail.

We figured that years from now, when she and Kate are in their thirties and looking through old shoeboxes of family photos and memorabilia, Paige will care more about ever having had a birth announcement than she will about the fact that we got around to sending it out so bloody late. In fact, if she doesn’t look too hard at how very large she was in the pictures, perhaps she’ll never even make the connection.

Speaking of lost connections, on an online video chat with my Dad and Joan last week, I mentioned that they’d be getting a birth announcement in the mail from us soon, “just in case you were wondering if I was still pregnant.” Which caused my dad to lean distortingly close to his computer video lens and say, “What’s that? You’re pregnant?!“

Ah dear. Perhaps sending this card out now did more harm than good.

Well, despite what anyone else says, we still want to shout it from the rooftops:
“Paige Victoria McClusky is here! She is a supreme addition to our family, and we love love love her more than you’d ever know!”

Take that! We’ve announced it. Even if she did make her entrance nearly a year ago.