Setting the baby shower bar

Even though I’m more than 9 months pregnant, I’m still not what you might call baby crazy. So when my sister said she was going to throw me a baby shower, I must admit, I was skeptical.

First off, no one ever seems excited to go to a baby shower.

Secondly, I’ve heard horror stories about what goes on at these events. One friend told me about a shower game featuring diapers with a “guess the melted candy bar inside” motif. Ewwww!

Third off, I’m nearly 40. I feel bad having an event where my friends/family have to come and buy me stuff. “This baby isn’t a consumer event!” I thought — even though, so far, I’d say it kind of is.

“People want to celebrate your new baby,” friends told me.

Okay, fine.

So my sister started planning.
And planning.
And planning.

“What could she possibly be doing?” I wondered.

Here’s what she was doing:

Creating a theme
Knowing that I wouldn’t want anything that screamed BABY — she chose nests as a theme (egg 1) and thought of EVERYTHING. Gorgeous centerpieces with nests where you could place notes (see below), cards for conversation starting, even gift bags for people to carry home their goodies (I never would have thought of this).

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Gift eggs
Everyone who came got an egg box filled with cool nesting stuff (egg 2): a bird wine stopper, an egg/nest necklace (she made them all by hand — see egg 3), some vanilla bath salts in a hand-stamped pouch, and candy eggs.

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Cake topper
Seeing some birdy cake toppers on Etsy, my sister thought, “I can do that even better,” so she created two birds and a nest from Sculpey, using lollipop sticks for the legs (egg 4).

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Games?
There were games — but they were optional and innocuous, like guessing the candy eggs and/or diapers in the jar (egg 5).

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Conversation starters
In case people were struggling with conversation, she put facts about childbirth and questions about how we were raised on the table (i.e. The oldest woman to give birth was 63).

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Advice
She cut out little sheets of paper into the shape of birds (again, by hand) for people to give me advice — either from their own experience as a parent, or what their parents did that affected them positively. One of my faves: Liquidize tastyfood from an early age so they are not picky! P.S. Be prepared for excess gas and adult intestine problems.

The result, a beautiful event that even heavy downpours couldn’t dampen.

You’re amazing, Stephanie!!!

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