Thanksgiving Pregnancy Bomb Drop

Today was the big day of our Thanksgiving pregnancy reveal. We'd been hiding for so long that I wanted everything to go smoothly, and I'd say it pretty much did.

We don't have Bud Select out west, as it is brewed for the Lou.

I set up a tripod with my phone on it to take a family photo, took a few, then I pretended like there was an issue and went to "check the camera". I then set it to video mode to capture everyone's reactions.

Lydia brought out a couple of pies she decorated and then all hell broke loose.

She ordered some custom paper plates to go with the set. There was some small confusion as to whether we were having twins since there were two pies. Luckily that was not the case. While we had already chosen the name Ernesto John we decided to keep that under our hat until he was born. Since it was a family name we were pretty set on our decision and so didn't really need or want anyone else's input on the matter. Plus I thought it would be fun to retain another little secret mystery since we let this huge one out of our grasp.

Lydia could finally stop hiding her little baby bump. That was nice.

Raisin Cane's is pretty much our go-to family meal these days. I do not know how my family made their gigantic Thanksgiving feasts for 40 people and I do not wish to know.

Lydia's brother Austin even made an appearance once he heard the big news.

Our friends Viry and Lolo made a later appearance and so got a little aftershock reveal. This is fun, I should have secret pregnancies more often.

I met up with Seago at the best restaurant in St. Louis: Bulrush. I gave him the distinct honor of telling him about the troll in person before letting loose the dogs of war on social media. It's funny these days everyone is running their own amateur public relations agency.

We then went to work eating our set menu while my phone caught actual fire with all of the lovely texts and messages from well wishers. This fun acorn dish contained honey roasted parsnip and pawpaw chile.

goat and caviar? What the hell do these titles even mean?

Venison and mushroom

collard greens and potato mousse.

Chef Rob Connoley was on hand as always to talk about the dishes and do some banter. He is such an interesting person that I wish I could hang out with him socially. It sounds like he goes out and forages a lot of the ingredients personally. We talked a bit about the movie "The Menu" which involves a fancy restaurant visit that goes awry and I encouraged him to go see it.

walleye and pumpkin

chestnut mousse and sorghum cake

For some after dinner drinks we go weird with it and headed to Clayton's Cafe Napoli. It was a breath of fresh air from going to Soulard or something for the 500th time. The clientele was a fun mix of fancy people and trashy people. Several who thought they were one were actually the other. The night ended with Seago throwing up all over the wall outside the Hi-Pointe Theatre which I consider a big win.

Belly Bumping

We had a plan to reveal that Ernie was on the way to our families in person on Thanksgiving, but that meant that we had to hide him from everyone else in the meantime. Lydia had to start getting creative to hide her little belly. Also not drinking at social events was another small wrinkle, but she could blame dieting or some other thing for that which people seemed to buy.

The Barnes & Noble in Bellevue was cute but kind of sad, because it was a quaint little shop with like skyscrapers next door and it seemed like surely the value of the land it sat on was such that it would not be long for this world. Sure enough we wandered in there one day and everything was on clearance because they were closing. I told our friends Gabby and Derek about the sale, and they ran over there and bought a bunch of stuff. Amusingly they bought a Back to the Future board game that I had been eying but decided against buying. So we invited them over to our place to play it. It was nice because it was a cooperative game. I get kind of salty when I lose so it's best that no one has to see me cry. Lydia made a nice charcuterie board for us to nosh on while saving the world.

Gender and Kraken Lack of Talent Revealed

Ultrasounds are fun because I get to see what's going on in there with the alleged Troll.

Very annoyingly the ultrasounds show as video but all they give you to take home are still pictures. I was going to just hold my phone up to the screen to take video but got scolded. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

I was so mad about that I started researching private ultrasound places that aren't scared of the exciting advances that have taken place in audio visual formats in the last 40 years.

We also picked up the baby's gender from a different office that does blood work. We didn't want to know the Troll's gender until we got genetic testing and some other testing done. I wanted to make sure it was a human baby and not like a rabbit or alligator or whatever. I'm not a doctor but I assume these things happen.

When we opened the envelope it was revealed that we weren't having a Troll at all but a baby boy named Ernie! What a relief. Ernesto is my great grandfather who left Italy for America, and I've been learning a lot about his life over the past few years while preparing my application for Italian citizenship. If everything goes according to plan Baby Ernie will be getting Italian citizenship too, so I thought naming them the same thing would be a fun source of future confusion.

Lydia suspiciously picked a hospital that is walking distance to her favorite ice cream place. What a coincidence. Salt & Straw had some very weird flavors on deck to celebrate Halloween.

Don Bugito’s Creepy Crawly Critters featured "chocolate-covered crickets and toffee-brittle mealworms."

Ernie has a lot of forest fires to look forward to.

At night we headed to Climate Pledge Arena where even some of the hardest working employees end up getting fired. Essentially my rule at this point is to go to every game in Seattle that features a St. Louis team.

The Seattle Kraken's opening show thing has evolved quite a bit since last season. There's even a neon tentacle thing that lowers from the ceiling.

 Recently retired Sue Bird was in attendance with her fiance Megan Rapinoe.

Ultimately St. Louis prevailed and sent the Seattle bums packing. Sad.

There's one less troll in my life now, but I'll always have Buoy.

My First Trip to the Gynecologist

We recently saw an ad for a local musical called Lydia and the Troll, and so naturally we are referring to our little pet as the Troll until he or she passes their genetic tests and makes it out of the miscarriage danger zone.

The ultrasound was cool. I got to see its little heart beat and it wiggle around. I wish they would have given me the videos. These still photos look like someone chopped an alien in half.

Lydia's been having a lot of weird aches and pains. She's been eating a lot of cheese and every morning almonds. Her strategy for not getting morning sickness is to constantly be snacking. Sometimes I help her eat the snacks.

Hiking Rainier National Park

We have visited Rainier National Park once before, when we were visiting Seattle for the first time, but it was covered in snow and we couldn't do much hiking.

We saw a few hoary marmots while hiking. They were very hungry little hippos.

We saw some people walking around with crazy shoes and big ice picks, which I guess are the implements you'd need to actually climb to the top of Mt. Rainier. I think that would be a pretty cool challenge for us to tackle someday. Lydia seems less enthused.

I think this speedy devil was a chipmunk.

We were back in Kirkland in time for one of my favorite activities: sunset over Lake Washington.

Lydia and I have been trying to construct a zygote for the last couple of months. I was mentally prepared for it to take a long time to happen or maybe never happen. Well apparently we are both in working order because Lydia handed me an open Amazon shipping bag and said something like "I accidentally opened this but it's for you." When I looked inside there was a little "positive" pregnancy test at the bottom of the bag. Let the games begin.