Baby Shower

Thursday, March 13th, 2008 | The Daily Special

This past weekend my sister held a baby shower for me at her house. She did a really good job and ElleBee has noted, was able to complete the shower without any embarrassing to me or gross games. She provided nice springy flower prizes and my aunt Diane provided cute favors with seeds and trowels in them.

Honestly, I was hoping to avoid the whole baby shower thing entirely, since I’m not really all that excited to be the center of attention, and certainly not now, when I feel like a bloated whale.

But my sister convinced me it was a good thing to have a shower and that I needed to suck it up. I ended up being a lot more comfortable than I thought I would be, mostly because of the kind selection of games my sister provided, and the fact that my friend Kristen brought her adorable 8 month old, who provided plenty of distraction.

My mom was unable to attend (she’s not able to walk much these days), which sucked, but at least she had escaped from the hospital the day before – I’m willing to take that sort of progress over having her still in the hospital for the shower.

The mini Munhall now has plenty of blankets, bibs, bodysuits and some other fun things and thanks to my sister, the thank-you notes will be easier than usual since she provided the notes and had everyone address theirs. What an awesome idea!

My sister had a great idea and had everyone fill out prediction sheets about what they thought the baby would be, what we would name the baby, when it would come, what it’s favorite sport and book would be and any advice that they would like to offer. I provided the baby’s initials, ALM, which should be noted is based on the guesses of the ultrasound techs from the one ultrasound we have had (don’t get me started on the fact that my insurance company won’t pay for any ultrasounds).

We counted up the answers in the end and according to predictions we will be having a boy on April 19th named Alexander Liam who will like hockey/soccer (there was a tie there) and who will favor Goodnight Moon.

There was some great advice as well. My aunt suggested “Give each other a hug and a kiss every day to remind yourselves that you are more than parents.” Another suggestion was “Don’t listen to unwanted advice.” And the most amusing advice was from Laura who said, “Don’t let the kid near us until you are ready for it to curse and drink heavily.”

This prediction stuff was the most amusing part of the shower for me, the person who *thinks* that I know what’s coming. A few weeks ago while my mom was still in the hospital and not speaking, the only smile we got out of her was suggesting that the baby would be named things like “Aloysius”. Only a little better than Zephod…