He Shoots, She Scores

“Mom,” Carrie spoke with now seasoned precision of reasoning during an argument, something learned after 3 kids “I have 3 children, I do not need a baby shower I have a crib, I have baby monitors I have everything I need I have 3 kids”
“Carolyn, please let me have my fun! With Abby, Nate went all out and bought everything furnishing the nursery in one day and left nothing for anyone to buy and you begged then for no baby shower. Then with Maddie being born during hockey season you were too busy for a baby shower and Emmy was born out of state. You are going to have a baby shower I am going to throw it and it will be fun”
“Mom I don’t”
“I don’t care what you do or do not need Carrie, you’ve never had the fun that is a baby shower thrown for you”
“I hate baby showers”
“Fine just crush my dreams of throwing my little girl a baby shower”
The sigh that escaped Carrie’s mouth next could have emptied an entire arena of oxygen “Fine Mom, throw the shower. But make sure they all know I do NOT need any of the big items just diapers and onesies and maybe some bibs and bottles but really nothing else”
“I’m calling Lacey’s mom now. Oh we can have so much fun we’ll make it a double shower, I know you girls wanted to surprised the boys with the sex of the babies we can do it with tinted cake”
“Nate and Tyler, at a baby shower?”
“How else will they cut the cake?”
“You talk to your son-in-law on that one” Carrie says and leaves the room leaving her mother with her cell phone glued to her ear talking to Lacey’s mom
Two weeks later Carrie is sitting on her porch enjoying the sunshine and mildly warm summer day
“So” Lacey says collapsing onto a porch chair next to Carrie “Shower’s in an hour, how’s 6 months feeling to you cause to be honest its killing my back, and I carried twins”
“6 months is making me feel bloated all the time, oh and my lovely child really likes to kick me in the ribs”
“Maybe I’m being kicked in the spine” Carrie laughed taking a drink out of her water
“Last night I got kicked so hard it woke Nate up, he thought I hit him and then by the look on my face he was sure I went into labor early. Needless to say you would think after 3 children my husband would be able to handle labor like it was nothing”
“No?”
“He tripped over Cash, then the rug, put on my sweatpants and then proceeded to try to exit our house through the bathroom. All before realizing I said I had gotten kicked not this is it”
Lacey was about doubled over with laughter at her friend when she sat up straight with pain on her face “Oo why would you make me laugh like that, babies do not like belly laughter when they are the belly”
The girls sat and talked for a few minutes more before their kids and husbands exited the house
“Ready?”Nate asks sticking his hand out and helping Carrie out of the chair
“I guess so, girls are you ready to open presents for mommy?” The 3 of them nodded
“Oo, if my boys wouldn’t make a mess out of it I’d let them open mine. However, I don’t think anyone within 10 miles would want to clean up after them”
“Mommy, do we have to go, there’s gonna be girls there” Jason asks looking up at Lacey with his father’s eyes almost swaying her opinion
“Honey, Mrs. Gerbe’s girls are going too you like playing with Abby, Maddie and Emmy any other day”
“But Mommy, old ladies always try to kiss me, its gross they smell funny”
Lacey almost couldn’t contain her laughter “Don’t worry honey no one is going to try to kiss you today I promise”
They all piled into their separate vans and headed towards the banquet hall. The room was covered in pink and blue balloons a banner strung over the gift table read “One is Pink one is Blue later on we’ll find out who” below it half the table was covered in all blue with mounds of gifts spilling off the top, the other half was the mirror image covered in pink
“So much for not going overboard huh?” Carrie asks and Lacey shakes her head
The head table was covered with a question mark table cloth and every other place setting was pink or blue
“Mommy” Emmy whined
“What baby”
“I don’t wanna blue one” she whines pointing to her plate
“Here Em” Nate says switching his pink with his daughters
“Thank you Daddy” she says with a huge smile and Nate only nods
“Spoiling her” Carrie jokes in a sing song voice kissing the top of his head
“it’s a daddy thing” he sings back
“Dad! Mines pink”
“Really Jason, you were fine with it until Emmy compla- Oh just give it here” Tyler says talking the plate from his son
“This is life as parents, this is what we have become a bunch of plate swapping booger wiping parents” Lacey says wiping Michael’s nose
Carrie only shrugged and reached over Abby to swat Maddie’s hand away from the centerpiece
After eating a simple lunch and playing the mandatory baby games the girls sat down on chairs in front of the mounds of presents
“So since who is having which baby will not be revealed until after the presents each one of the girls will open a gift from each table and then switch” Lacey’s mom says
A couple of the women sitting around the tables mutter how cute of an idea that is, as Lacey, Carrie, and their children start to open the presents. About the 5th present it a purple bag sat right in the middle of the table gets handed to the girls
“This one says for you to open it together apparently it’s a matching set” Carrie’s mom says
Both girls reach into the bag Lacey pulling out a blue onesie and Carrie pulling out a pink one
“What’s it say?” Someone at the back yells
“My daddy’s a hockey player, someday I’m going to follow in his footsteps” Carrie reads below the embroidery there was a picture of a man in hockey gear with a small child behind him swallowed up in a helmet and jersey way too big for them
“This is the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life” Lacey says reading the card “Carrie, these were handmade, Thank you so much”
The girls make their way through the rest of the presents keeping the boys and girls stuff separate. After thanking everyone multiple times Carrie and Lacey’s moms bring out the cake, behind them comes Tyler and Nate’s moms with question mark plates
“Ok, boys” Nate’s mom starts “The cake has been cut for you so the crumbs won’t give away the color on the first cut, so all you have to do is lift the cake up to see the color okay?” Nate and Tyler nod taking their place behind the cakes with the cake servers in hand
“In all my years playing hockey, and even with the birth of 3 children I have never been this nervous” Nate says his hand shaking slightly
“I think game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals in quadruple overtime would be less stressful” Tyler says taking a deep breath
“Ok” Lacey and Carrie say in unison “On 3” they both push record on their phones camera “1, 2, 3” Nate and Tyler lift the pieces of cake with smiles on their faces quickly turning to jaw drops.
Both of them look between the cake in their hand, their last name sprawled on the top of the cake on the table and their wives
“It’s blue” Nate says quietly “It’s blue, oh my God it’s a blue, I mean it’s a baby blue, a baby blue… we are having a boy” He drops the cake back to the table kissing his wife as the women in the room aww
Tyler just stands there staring at the pink piece of cake in his hand his jaw almost on the floor
“Tyler, babe, you ok?” Lacey says waving her hand in front of his face “Tyler”
“Huh?”
“You ok?”
“We’re having a girl”
“Yeah we’re having a girl”
“You’re sure?” Lacey only nods suddenly nervous Tyler bends at the waist kissing Lacey’s belly “Hi princess, I’ve been waiting for you for a while now, don’t you worry I’ve already started training your brothers how to fight for you”
Lacey started crying as Tyler smiled and talked to their daughter
“What’s wrong Lacey?” Tyler says looking at her in concern, she just shakes her head he looks around the room seeing a few teary eyed women including his mother, mother-in-law, Carrie and Nate’s moms and Carrie “Did I do something wrong?”
“Yeah, you out sweeted me” Nate says with a chuckle
A month and a half later in the midst of the August humidity Carried made her way across the 2 driveways and small patch of grass separating her front door from Lacey’s, she opened the door to see Lacey sunken into the couch enjoying the air conditioning and fan
“I’m missing a child” Carrie says nonchalantly
“He’s still baking”
“Not that one, is Emmy here?”
“No, Maddie is”
“Yeah that one, oh my God it’s so hot out can I join you?”
“If you want to not be able to get up sure”
“Mmm that’s almost tempting, but I really just wanted to know where my kid was, what is she doing here anyway?”
“Teaching Jason how to take the proper slap shot in my basement” Carrie raised an eyebrow at her friend who shrugged “Either your kid is better at hockey than my husband or you have a future teacher on your hands”
They talked for a while quietly enjoying the cool air
“Seven and a half down Carrie, you guys thought of any names?”
“Yes and no, Nate keeps picking out cute names but they are names already in the family like Noah, or James, Stephen they’re cute but still. Anything for you guys yet?”
“Well her middle name is Anne”
“That’s a lot further than we are”
“Ya know when we name our kids somehow there is some sort of conflict, with Jason I thought Tyler was going to blow a gasket”
“Why?”
“Do you remember Derek Roy and all the trouble he caused and Tyler thought I would cheat on him with Jason Pominville, well he thought that’s why I wanted to name our first son Jason. Needless to say I’m pretty sure he slept on the porch that night because I literally locked him out. Then with the twins he wanted to do Alexander James and Michael Ryan and couldn’t figure out why I was laughing hysterically”
“He played with Mike Ryan how did he not see that?”
“I don’t know but we argued about that for 2 days before I finally said fine we will name one of our sons completely after another hockey player. When I said that he changed his mind and that’s how we got Michael James and Ryan Alexander”
“Honestly I like that better anyway”
Lacey nodded “How did you and Nate name your girls”
“Well when I found out Abby was a girl I looked at Nate and said I want to name her Abigale and Nate asked if he could chose her middle name I said yes and he thought about it for like 2 weeks before he came back with Elizabeth. Then when we found out Maddie was a girl he blurted out Madison as soon as the doctor said girl and I came up with Nicole”
“Team work”
“Until we got to Emerson” Lacey raised and eye brow at her friend and Carrie laughed “Well you see Nate does this incredibly cute thing where when he thinks I’m not awake he talks to the baby. We had found out we were having another girl and I really wanted a boy, ya know so Nate could have his hockey buddy, so I was really kind of bummed about a 3rd girl. Well one morning after weeks of failed attempts to name her I woke up to Nate talking to the baby and he was saying something and she kicked me really hard and Nate reprimanded her and just called her Emerson Ashly and that’s where we got her name”
“I just love that name” Carrie nodded in thank you “Ya know what other name I love Isabella, it’s so pretty”
“I love the name Jeremiah, I don’t know what about it I like I just do, I like the name Nicholas too it sounds sturdy”
“Jeremiah Nicholas, it kinda goes together doesn’t it” Lacey points out and Carrie nods “So does Isabella Anne. Carrie I think we just named our kids”
“I, I think we might have. This is why we are best friends our brains work well together. Do you want help off the couch?” Lacey nods and Carrie pulls her up “I need my kid, Nate’s parents want to take them to Fantasy Island”
“I’ll go get her”