Chapter 2, The Reveal
January 26, 2002
I had a pretty Christmas and New Year, and it’s finally the weekend! Today is the gender reveal party for my younger sibling. Me, Lorenzo, and Brenden have been wondering if our new sibling is going to be a girl or a boy; which is going to be solved today. We had a lot of family members show up, we had aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas, grandpas, and family friends at the house for this party. In the living room, by the tv and fireplace; there’s a table which holds a box containing a balloon which according to my parents could either be blue or pink. I played with my cousins outside on the patio, as my parents didn’t allow us to stay in our room for the entire party. We played with Alfredo and Giacchino, who are our twin cousins. Each of us was racing a Hot Wheels car, while we played I asked the question.
“You think our baby sibling will be a girl or a boy?”
Alfredo responds with, “Definitely a boy! Since you are all boys! That’s how it works, right?”
Lorenzo, being his normal self of the annoying smart one responds with, “Well Alfredo, it’s technically 50 percent that it can be a boy, no matter what!”
“What exactly is a percent?” I respond, I’m not a math guy as you can tell.
“Well basically, it-” Lorenzo was about to explain before being cut off.
“It’s the weekend! We don’t need math during the weekend!” Brenden replied, much to the annoyance of Lorenzo.
“You know, it’ll be cool if we can have another boy, we can have another person to play hot wheels with!” Giacchino says.
I agree with Giacchino’s statement. It’ll be fun to have another brother to play games with!
“But what exactly would we do if it’s a girl?” Alfredo says breaking the silence, we took to pondering.
“I mean we can still invite her to play hot wheels, right?” When I respond, I get curious about Alfredo’s statement; an idea which I’ve thought about for the past few months. What exactly would we do with a baby sister? Of course we’ll still invite her to play since it’s the right thing to do, but would she approve of our boyish play? Would we have to accept what the baby sister, whatever my parents decide to call her, would want to play with? I think about that until I hear my parents clink the glass, it’s time for the speech which they’re going to make before the reveal.
We all went into the living room, I was lucky enough to be able to fit in the living room; my aunts, uncles, and some older cousins had to stand in the kitchen instead. My heart is pounding, I can't see what gender the baby is. Whether they’re a boy or a girl, they’re starting to grow in my mom’s belly. It's like she eats 3 tubs of ice cream with my dad whenever they watch that grown up show called “Los Romanos” while me, Brenden, and Lorenzo sleep. My mom makes the speech:
“Welcome the combined Pop and Parisi family to this very special event, and I promise it’s the last one!”
My aunts, uncles, and grandparents laugh at the joke, one which I didn’t get, I thought my birthday was a special event!
“In just a few moments, we will reveal to you what the gender of our 4th and final child is.” My dad adds in.
They go on a speech which lasts a couple moments. I would have fallen asleep if it wasn’t for Brenden or Lorenzo waking me up a couple of times. Finally, after a bit of waiting, it’s time. My parents went over to the table near the fireplace, bringing it over to the center of the living room so that all of the family could see it. I get super excited, would I get a baby brother or a baby sister? My parents tell my family to start the countdown
“10, 9, 8, 7!” My family starts to say, the tenson starts to build
“6, 5, 4, 3!” I can’t wait for the reveal, hopefully it’s a brother!
“2, 1!” And finally the box is revealed, balloons start to fly out the box. These balloons are pink. My family starts to cheer, I do too, but I feel a little sad. I wanted a brother but it turned out to be a sister. I mean I would still treat her like how I’ll treat everyone else, though would she accept our boyish interests? I guess I’ll have to wait and see.
Later in the day, we watch a basketball game on the tv with Brenden, Lorenzo, Alfredo, and Giacchino. I ask the question,
“Hey, so we’re gonna have a baby sister”
Giacchino responds with, “Well good for you guys, girl or boy you just have to let them play with the hot wheels”
“Well I told you Alfredo! Just because me, Brenden, and Ken are boys doesn’t mean that our baby sibling would be a boy!” Smarty Pants Lorenzo response with.
“Be quiet, smarty pants!” Brenden shouts, causing Lorezno to roll his eyes.
We returned to being quiet, watching the game, only stopping to say goodbye to a family member who was about to leave. After a while, the house was back to just being me, my brothers, and my parents. Me and my siblings start to prepare to go to sleep, though I still feel a little bummed out over having a baby sister. Though I think it is just boy me not knowing girl stuff, which I should fix if I want to be a good older brother. As Ms. Hanna told me a couple of months ago, “I know you can do it!” I put on my PJs, I’ve already brushed my teeth, I’m just waiting for Lorezno to finish so we can sleep as he sleeps in my room with me. When he enters the room, I ask him a question
“Hey Lorenzo?”
“Yeah Little Kenny?” He replies with.
“What do you think about our future younger sibling being a girl?” I say.
“Well, I’m just a little bit upset like you are; but I know it’s better to just accept the truth.” He says, “Well Ken, we should say our prayers and fall asleep.”
I enter the lower bunk, and we start to say some prayers in Italian; which is something our parents want us to do before we sleep. After a few minutes, my dad opens the door.
“Buona Notte Lorenzo and Ken!”
“Buona Notte!” We both reply, an Italian phrase which means ‘Good night.’
Before I begin to fall asleep, I think about how I can accept this new sibling, which finally gives me a few ideas. Can a girl basically be a boy? I mean I think it’s possible, there’s some characters in the cartoons I watch which are girls that kinda act like boys. What are we going to name the sibling? I mean my parents might keep it a secret until the day of her birth, but maybe if I ask nicely we will get an answer. I start to fall asleep, probably dreaming about being a superhero, though I don’t know since I don’t remember what I dream of anyways. Whatever it was, it was one night of sleep closer to finally meeting my baby sister.