//it's a boy! — mia lauren

I cannot believe it's been a week and a half since we found out we are having a baby boy! I cannot wait to welcome Dresden Zane into this world.

First & foremost, I would like to say that I don't think I can ever handle that kind of anticipation, ever again. We had the ultrasound very early for two reasons:

Gabriel wanted to be present & was about to leave for a two week underway (he was out to sea).
I needed time to order my beloved balloon that I couldn't wait to pop.

Let me just say....having that orange envelope labeled "Baby Gender Inside - NO PEEKING!" sitting on my coffee table for 14 or some odd days...WAS TORTUOUS! I kid you not, I had a full on battle with myself one night...standing in my dark hallway staring into the living room at an envelope that seemed to glow in the dark...

"No one would ever know..."
"Seriously, it's just you and Stella, and the dog isn't going to tell"
"Come on, you're here, you're alone, you're carrying this baby - you DESERVE to know"

I'm telling you, tortuous. In the end, my dedication to honesty (or maybe the fact that I'm a terrible liar, but we will go with the good morals) won out, and I let the envelope be. But, it was hard. And I hate surprises, so I'm not quite sure why I thought this would be a good idea to begin with. I mean, just because everyone is doing it, does not mean that everyone should do it! And I can say with much earnest, I probably won't do this for any subsequent children, haha!

However, I knew that I wanted this gender reveal to be different.
Everyone does the typical blue and pink, and I didn't want to do that. Pinterest being my best friend, I set out on a mission to get inspiration from other reveals, and decided to do peach & mint, alongside the theme of bows & arrows!

To be entirely honest, I thought I was going to be revealing a "bows" balloon. If you look at my picture with the "Old Wives' Tales" that I put up on the table, almost every one pointed to a baby girl! I was never a person to crave sweet things, but the moment I got pregnant, all I wanted was candy! I'm normally more of a chips, salsa, and guac girl, but at this point nothing but Ben & Jerry's, Snickers, & Sour Patch Kids hits the spot! That could potentially be the underlying reason for the pregnancy acne....another old wives' tales that points to baby girls "steal your beauty". The only prediction that said boy was the Chinese Calendar, so I guess that's the most accurate! But hey, they all have a 50/50 chance right?

The morning of the reveal I had, true to nature, left everything last minute and while running errands, ended up getting into a fender bender. It was the last thing I needed to deal with, and it pushed everything so behind, but thankfully I was able to put everything up in about 45 minutes, thanks to the dear ol' hubby and friends! I was a tad late to my own party...but hey, it looked good.

And can we talk about the peonies for a second?! I had envisioned peonies for this event, and I did not realize how dang expensive they are! Flower shops were going to charge me $35 for 5 flowers!! Thankfully, a friend told me Trader Joe's has them this time of year...I was able to get 5 flowers for $6.99!! I had wanted all white, but these were pink and pink/white, and I was happy with that for the price tag. The buds were really tight, but I read online to put them in warm water and they should bloom quickly....thankfully, it worked and they opened beautifully. I sprayed them with gold spray paint since they weren't the color I wanted, and I liked the overall end product.

Back to the party. I was so nervous the entire time! I was so confident it was a girl, and then the ultrasound pictures kind of looked like a boy....and then when I was getting the balloon blown up, I could have sworn I saw pink confetti. So, when Gabriel and I popped the balloon, and it was blue, I can genuinely say I was shocked! It took a few days to process- holy cow, I'm gonna be a boy mama!!

I can't wait to experience the world with a little boy by my side.