The necklace of fate

Two years ago, just before Christmas, I found a necklace I loved in a catalog. I circled the necklace and left the catalog on B's desk with a note saying, "This is what I want for Christmas." The necklace had a silver pea pod with tiny seed pearls in it, the idea being that you get one pearl for each child. I thought it was a sweet way to signify my three kids.

Christmas morning arrived, and I opened my gift from B to find this necklace -

You'll notice that it has four pearls, not three. Apparently, B didn't read the description of the necklace and missed the whole point of it. B, being B, ordered the one with four, "because it was the best." I laughed it off on Christmas morning, but I was a bit annoyed. I mean, how much easier could I have made buying my present for him? The store even wrapped the gift.

So I didn't wear the necklace very often, and when I did, I said that the four pearls represented the kids and my husband, who sometimes qualifies as another child.

Then, just over a year later, I found out I was pregnant with number 4. My good friend L claims that this baby is really all B's fault (obvious biology aside) because he gave me the necklace with four pearls in it. He was just tempting fate.

When I remember to accessorize, I wear the necklace. The first time I wore it after getting pregnant, B noticed I had it on and asked, "Am I not in trouble any more?" I told him he wasn't in trouble for the necklace, but he was still on the hook for the whole unexpected pregnancy thing.

I'm just grateful the catalog didn't have the option to order 5 peas - I'd be having twins.