The Tummy Teller

If you haven't read Austin's Movie Maestro review of The Tummy Teller, it really sets the stage for today's blog entry.  It was as if he wrote the story into life.  The "movie" follows an African woman who travels from village to village to determine the gender of soon-to-be-born children with alarming accuracy.  When the woman becomes pregnant and cannot tell the gender of her own fetus, mild chaos ensues.  In the end, her gift is validated because she has twins: a boy and a girl.

Our lives track this character's life on two fronts.  First, Austin has a still-developing passion to become a doula so that he can help women through a process that he will never actually encounter himself.  He is hoping to build a team of brute, handsome midwives and brand their services MANDOULA(tm).  Second, we are also having a boy and a girl.

This past Monday, we visited our friendly spectrogramographer and sent ultrasounds blasting and echoing through Anna's paunch.  For the sake of our children's modesty, we won't post pictures, but we can assure you that the boy is a boy (Dad Note: "Fo' sho!") and the girl is a girl.  For you twin-o-philes (which sounds pretty creepy and will not be used again on this blog), Baby A (the baby closest to the cervix), also known as "Biscuits," is the girl, and Baby B, or "Gravy," is the boy.

Next up, the so-called Naming Summit, where Austin and Anna will compete in a series of physical and mental challenges to determine the name of each child.  Then, we shall all visit the Sorting Hat to determine which house each child will belong to.

Family Discussion Questions:  How do you think you could tell the gender of a fetus without an ultrasound?  Can you truly give names to people without meeting them outside the womb?  Can you imagine the weight of the responsibility in naming someone when he or she will likely outlive you?