This post is only about a year late, but I thought it deserved a place on the blog. We originally decided not to have a gender reveal, but Xav was so excited about the baby. She was also very adamant that she wanted a sister and that a brother was not an option. I think she thought a sister would be a carbon copy of her. She would like the same things and want to play tea party, dolls and princess games. A brother was foreign to her. She thought he would be like the boys in her class and like what they liked. She was so put off the prospect of having a brother that she wouldn’t even listen to the mention of the b word. When we got the news from our doctor that we were having a boy, I knew I really needed to find a fun way to break the news to Xavier that would get her excited about the idea of a brother.
That’s how the idea of centring the gender reveal around Xav came about. This all happened around a Covid peak and after warnings from my doctor to avoid crowds, we decided to keep things simple and have our family join us on a Zoom call. I dressed up our dining room, made the whole fam put on matching outfits, got out a big surprise box and we had a little gender reveal party at home.
Now just because I wanted to keep things simple, didn’t mean I wanted things to be plain. Here’s how I threw together a special little family gender reveal.
I started by layered my daughter’s tables and chairs and filling it with some yummy treats. As the gender reveal zoom call with our family was scheduled for Sunday after lunch. I decided to pick up individual size treats from Pajamas & Jam for desert. I got their Turkish delight cheesecake, their caramel popcorn cheesecake and an apple crumble. Xav asked for cupcakes, so I picked up the mini ones from Woollies.
Xav and I got busy decorating these already gorgeous deserts. We added some sugared proteas to the Turkish delight cheesecake and some candy eyes and blue food glitter and Sprinkles to the popcorn cheesecake. We did the same for the cupcakes too and I made cake toppers for both the cheesecakes with my Cricut.
My Cricut got busy again to cut vinyl for the balloons and I topped up the table with confetti and flowers.
We tried to make the whole experience from beginning to end one that was filled with Xav’s favourite things. Above all we wanted her to get excited about the possibility of having a brother. She helped to decorate the cupcakes and set up everything.
The actual gender reveal box, was also aimed at putting her fears about having a brother at ease. I got a big box that I decorated and filled with surprises and toys for Xav and her brother. I told her it was a special surprise the baby had put together just for her and that she would have to guess if she was having a brother or a sister and then be a big girl and deliver the news to the family. Most things in the box were blue to help her make a quick guess.
The box was filled with matching tees, a sand castle set, bath toys, sweets, a baby on board sign for the car and other little toys.
Xav opened the box as our family watched on Zoom and proudly delivered the news that she was having a brother. She figured having a brother couldn’t be so bad if he could give her such an awesome gift.
It was a little unconventional but I am so glad we did things this way. Xav’s initial negativity towards having brother, gave me such anxiety. I worried about how they would get along. I worried that it would make the transition from only child status to sister an even harder one for Xav. Giving her the opportunity to be excited about having a brother, having the family cheer her on and tell her what an amazing sister she was going to be and giving her a box of things she could do with her brother, all these things helped her imagine what is would be like to have a baby brother and it wasn’t much different to the things she wanted to do with a sister.
Today, Xav has her little bro and she couldn’t be a prouder big sister. Baby Joel has already been introduced to all her favourite games and toys and he loves to play with her in his own baby way.
All the fears I had that Xav would have trouble accepting Joel, was put to rest the day Xavier met Joel. She pushed right past me to see him. Joel was HER brother and she had been waiting for him & loving him and finally he was here.
Until next time…
CREATIVE | MOM | TRAVELER | DIY ENTHUSIAST 