We’re having our third baby soon(ish), and we recently found out gender! We’ve announced gender in the same way for all three of our kids, and that is by building a boy or girl animal at Build-a-Bear Workshop.
There are so many ways to announce gender, but I’m kind of surprised that I’ve never seen anyone else announce their baby’s gender in this way, because I think it is such a perfect way!
The gender announcement is in the clothing the animals wear. This one feels a little trickier to me lately, as I know that not ONLY girls wear dresses and not ONLY boys wear blue etc., but I suppose we just go with the traditional norms for our announcements.
Besides that one tricky bit, I love this gender announcement for a few reasons.
1. Fun for my kids! (and me 🙃)
I always wanted to build a bear and dress it up when I was a kid. I did do it once for a birthday, but only once. As far as stuffed animals go, they’re expensive! So I think it has to be a special occasion to make one, and adding a baby to the family is definitely special! I love that the girls get to help stuff the animal and put a heart in and everything :)
Ada’s gender announcement
2. Documenting!
I am a HUGE documenter — I have scrapbooks that date back to 2006 (with plans to go back further eventually), and in the last few years I’ve been making more and more family home videos. I’ve made “baby’s first year” photo books for both of my girls, and I plan to make them for any other kids we have. One thing I do during Baby’s first year is take a monthly photo of her/him, and the animal we make for the gender announcement is the perfect size reference for these photos! I then use these photos on the cover of the books (and inside them, too).
I’m not a super sentimental person, but I hope that these animals will be a sentimental piece of my kids’ childhoods that they’ll be happy to take with them when they leave home! :)
I recently announced that baby #3 is a boy, so we finally got to dress an animal as a boy! Russ has always loved flying, and he even has his private pilot’s license, so it felt fitting to dress our little boy animal up like a pilot.
Pro tip, the website has a LOT more clothing and animal options than the in-person stores, so for two of my kids, I’ve ordered the animal (unstuffed) and outfit online and then taken it into the store to build it. It’s not quiiiiite as fun as picking it out in store, but like I said, you get more options.
So what do you think? Have I convinced you that this is the BEST way to announce gender? 😉