Ending the Battle

We have been lucky so far and we have the same number of boys as girls in our family, 2 of each, nice and tidy.  So when we told the kids we were having one more baby, a battle ensued.  The girls wanted a girl and the boys wanted a boy.  And since this is the end, the odds will forever be favored towards either boys or girls.  Scot and I spent 3 months mediating the fights, especially between Emma and Ben.  But even Spencer was insisting that we were having a boy.  The girls nicknamed the baby Sparkles, but Ben thought that was too girly so he nicknamed the baby Sparky.  I kind of thought it might be fun to not find out yet, but I knew that that would just make the battle last longer and be more painful in the end for the losing party. Clearly they were going to need some time to work through the final result.

Scot and I decided to find out, but not to tell them until we could all be together and they could figure it out.  So I filled this jar with colored jelly beans.  More blue meant boy and more pink meant girl.  Even that day while they waited for Scot to get home they were arguing about which it was and begging me to tell them, but I told them they were just going to have to wait.  And I reminded them, that no matter what the baby was going to be part of our family and boy or girl we would love it just the same.  Emma assured me that it was impossible for her to love a boy as much as a girl.
The moment arrived when they got to count the jelly beans.  Lucy helped sort, Spencer just wanted to eat them.  Emma and Ben divided them into piles of 25.  Soon they figured out that there were more blues than pinks.  Ben and Spencer were thrilled!  Lucy easily jumped to the boy side, but Emma was very distraught.  She decided her life was ending and would never be the same again.  She was seriously  holding back tears. (Fortunately now, a few weeks later, she has adjusted to the idea and seems ok with it.)  Then we called and texted our families to announce the good news.  Emma didn't want to talk to any of them, but Ben was happy to share with everyone.
Now our only problem is coming up with a name.  We had lots of girl names we liked, but not boy names.  So that could be interesting.  Scot and I throw out names all the time, but so far none of them are winners.  Hopefully we can come up with one we like in the next few months.  For now he is still baby Sparky.