Temptation and the Breaking of Secrets

J & I agreed early on that we will not share the news of our pregnancy outside the circle of people closest to us until I am a little farther along. You know, other than the entire Internet. But you, Internet, don't know where we live or have to see us every day.

Anyway, I just want to explain a little more about our thought process. We have a close circle of family and friends. These are all people I wanted to tell in person (or by sending a text message picture of a pregnancy test). I want these people to know before we break the secret wide open and allow people to tell whomever they want to.

Next week we are going to the beach with my family, so I'm waiting until we are all together down there to tell everyone. Since there is only one other great-grandchild to my grandparents, the news will be especially meaningful to my family. I fully expect them to completely freak out. J's extended family already has a gazillion kids, so one more, while joyous, is not an OMG-kind of a reaction.

So, my sister-in-law/best friend told her parents. That's okay. I consider them in the inner circle and I am fine with that. Then she told another of our friends. That's okay too. This friend happens to be my massage therapist and she would have found out this week anyway.

My mother-in-law told her sister that we barely know.

Wait just a minute. This person gets to know before my family whom we are close to? I accepted her explanation through clenched teeth, but I have been silently fuming - blame that partially on hormones - ever since.

Why did she tell? "Oh, it's so exciting." Yes, it is super-exciting. NO ONE is more excited than J & I. But that's really not why she told. See, this aunt we don't really know called to tell my mother-in-law that her son who just got married, like, last year, is having a baby due April 4th. So, my mother-in-law used our unborn child to one-up her.

And although I barely know this aunt, I DO know that she is a gossip. So lots of other people will know before my beloved family.

Silly, right? I'll get over it. I'll be over it as soon as I get that OMG reaction from my family next week.