And on that day, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Gratitude for the generosity of my friends and family. Gratitude for my mom and my friend Jenny for putting so much time and effort into organizing and planning things. And gratitude for being there-at MY baby shower. An experience I truly believed I would never get the chance to have.
Okay, now for some pictures!
This is my dear friend Veronica, who flew in all the way from Miami for the weekend so she could be here for the shower. She also gave Beastie the coolest baby clothes I've ever seen. More on that later.
These are the favors we gave to everyone. They are small ladybug magnets, and inside the netting is the story of the significance of the ladybugs during my IVF cycle (minus the details of Beastie being conceived in a petri dish in an egg lab at a fertility clinic to spare the sensitivities of my uber Catholic relations), and some chocolates, all wrapped up with ladybug ribbon.
And this is the cake. Possibly the best cake I've ever tasted. Our nursery theme is ducks, and of course we needed a few ladybugs thrown in there for good measure. I was so excited for everyone to taste this cake. Rich and I drove all the way out to east be-jezus to pick up the cake from this baker who makes all the cakes for special events at Rich's school. He's brought me home pieces of it in the past from his co-workers' birthday/retirement parties, and it was so good, I knew I wanted her to bake my shower cake. So when the serving staff was passing around the pieces, I was so annoyed to see that they cut slivers so thin, you could practically see through them. I was worried that the cake wasn't big enough-until the end of the shower when I saw they brought out this huge wrapped package for us to take home. Inside-almost half the cake!!! I have no idea why they didn't cut bigger pieces. Idiots.
My sister couldn't make it for the shower, but instead sent this lovely card, which she made, of course, an adorable outfit for Beastie, and a gigantic wrapped package (which you'll see down below) inside of which was the crib tent so that my cats don't jump into the crib and smother the baby. I registered for this particular item more to pacify my grandma, who is 100% convinced that my cats will cause the untimely death of Beastie, than my own fears of what they might do.
Here's me channeling my inner Veruca Salt (think Willy Wonka, not Seether). This is a gigantic bag from a certain online retailer that employs my sister. The crib tent came in this.
My mom and I spent all day yesterday washing, folding, and organizing baby clothes and blankets. We set up the downstairs changing table, and organized the nursery. Beastie arrives six weeks from today. Yikes.
*And thank you so much for all the good wishes for my blogaversary on Friday. I'm going to be working on answering all your questions very soon.
Awesomest baby clothes - ever! Way to go Veronica!
Those little ladybug magnets are on my fridge & they make me smile every day. ;-)
It was a very nice shower. I love your family! and you're one glowing momma-to-be!
Hey, more cake for you, huh? I thought my piece was the usual size -- they cut it like they cut a wedding cake. And tasty!
Great haul of stuff!! Woohoo! And the stuff just keeps on coming. Wait til the baby's actually here!! And then there's Christmas... birthdays... oy, oy. It's all good though!
Have fun playing with all the new gear!
What a fabulous party!! You look wonderful, by the way. And it's odd the way the servers always cut such small slices of cake--I don't get it. The favors are perfect, not just cute-- they have meaning. And that black onesie is too cool. I can't believe that you're due in 6 weeks! Wow!! The excitement grows.
YAY! and the onesie, so darned cute I can't stand it.
Party at the Beastie's Crib. 11:30 ;)
Sounds like a WONDERFUL time!
Congrats on all the loot! You look so cute and that baby will be dressed to the nines, as they say.
Your friends and family have fabulous taste in gifts pour la bebe. Lucky Beastie! And you should eat all that cake yourself. You did, after all, have to drive *all* that way.
Caryl-I will give the "keys to the kingdom" (so-to-speak) to one of my friends or to Rich, and he can break the news on the big day. Don't worry-I won't leave you hanging!
Karrie-Aww... good!
Marie-'Tis true. More cake for me. But I wanted everyone to have more cake!
Sher-Thank you! 6 weeks and counting...
Annelynn-I just ordered another cute onesie from that site. Too cute!
Christine-Let's make it 9:30, and pray for an early night. ;)
Beagle-I had a really great time!
Kenju-I think the baby has more clothes than both my husband and I do!
L-I never thought of that, but you're right! ;)
All the gratitude goes to your mom. My part was too easy!
I loved the favors also, and I had a good sized piece of cake (very tasty). I 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) the kudos to Veronica on finding the fun baby clothes. I think your cousins were born to be Vannas. Can't believe just 6 weeks left!
It seems to me like time is flying. I'm anxious to meet Beastie, but I feel like time really needs to slow down or before I know it you're gonna be blogging about Beastie learning to drive.