Best Birthday Present Ever

So...BREAKING NEWS: it's almost November.  I know, I was as shocked by this when I looked at my iPhone this morning as you are.  I suppose that means I should get to work on documenting October, eh?

Earlier this month, I hit the big 3-0.  Apparently I've been in mourning since, hence my lack of blogging.  I jest, I jest - I actually wasn't that phased by it.  For those of you weary of any impending life milestone - I have JUST the solution for you.  Get pregnant.  This year I truly looked at October 4th as the day that we got to see our little bean, not the day that I entered a new decade.  I guess it's hard to mourn the loss of your twenties when you know that your life is really just about to begin.  (Hallmark- did you get that?!)

Due to the proximity of little bean's gender ultrasound to my birthday, we decided that doing a mini-gender reveal with just the fam and a couple close friends would be a fun idea.  It happened to work out given Ryan's work schedule and mine that our actual ultrasound was the morning of my birthday, a Thursday.  Luckily, mini gender reveal/birthday fiesta was set for Saturday.  Which meant Ryan only had to hide the envelope from my prying eyes for a little over 48 hours.  Which, in case you're curious, is not nearly enough time to get suitable x-ray spy equipment shipped to you.  It IS, however, plenty of time to spend way too much energy and effort comparing your ultrasound picture to what little info you can find on the internet about the skull theory.

So Thursday morning we grabbed some Starbucks (ohhh I love you salted caramel hot chocolate with no whip) on the way to make sure that Baby Martin was appropriately jazzed and ready to flash the cameras.  (This is literally the only time you will find your father or I encouraging this type of behavior- so don't get any bright ideas, little one).  If you're thinking that since we didn't get to learn the gender ourselves that morning that we would be any less excited, you would be completely wrong.  It truly was the greatest birthday gift in my 30 years.  It was only our second ultrasound, and our first was 10.5 weeks earlier at 8 weeks.  It was so heartwarming to see how much our little one had grown and to hear his/her sweet little heartbeat.

Ryan kept our ultrasound tech suitably entertained with such insightful commentary as - "this has to be a boy, that's a huge dome," and later, "oh, I see a butt- I know that didn't come from me... so maybe it is a girl."  She read us very well because she quickly pegged us as the types who would cheat.  She made us turn around while she wrote down Baby Martin's gender and then proceeded to cover the golden ticket up with about 15 sticky notes.

Sweet baby Martin.

Little bean's monster feet.

So, after our ultrasound, I headed off to work, already feeling like I was on cloud 9.  When I walked in the door I was greeted with the most fabulously decorated cube in the history of office birthdays.  There were about 5 separate collections of 30s around my desk, beautiful flowers and a delicious cake.  I really do love my job and my co-workers.  The fact that they were able to lift my already soaring spirits even higher is a true testament to their awesome-ness... and how lucky I am.  Thank you all so very much for spoiling me to bits.

"Oh, is it your birthday?"

  Tea bags and thumb protectors.  There was no underlying message here, despite what it may seem.  And yes, there are 30 of each.

 Birthday tiara, cake & flowers.  Just another day at the office.

 30 paper clips and 30 random stamps.  Who needs party city when you have a supply closet?

 There are in fact 30 sticky note candles accompanying this happy birthday banner in french.  I know this because I audited it.  Also, it took a solid 2.5 weeks for that balloon to even begin to deflate.

Deeee-lish homemade cake courtesy of Miss Becca.  Are you shocked to learn this did not survive the day?

The icing on the cake (the pun never ends) for the day was that I finally revealed to the rest of my co-workers that I was pregnant.  I figured, sure- I might miss Q1, but who can be mad at me for that on my birthday?!  I was really touched by how excited and sweet everyone was about it.  I am a very, very lucky lady.

Oh, and then I had a wonderful dinner at Cheesecake Factory with my adorable BabyDaddy.  This birthday will most assuredly be my favorite of all time.  Unless I have another child with an ultrasound on my birthday... and even then, unless there's a 30 cake, it will still be a very close second.  ;c)  Thank you EVERYONE for everything on my birthday... you sure know how to make a girl blush.

Stay tuned for the actual gender reveal post (as if you didn't already see it on facebook).