Shower Time!

Last week my husband and I packed up our bags, hopped on a plane, and headed clear across the country to visit family and have our baby shower. Due to the distance we'd have to travel, we decided to do the shower early (28 weeks). When we'd picked the date weeks ago, we'd never in a million years figured that so many members of his very spread out immediate family would be able to attend. The visit turned into so much more than we'd planned.


In addition to the shower, we got to celebrate birthdays with two of our grandmothers and one of our nieces. We also got to meet two other nieces for the very first time, which was great. The only downfall to all the celebrations was that they were exhausting. We literally were being pulled in different directions pretty much every day that we were there. It also was really hot there. We went from 70 degree weather here in California to 95 degrees and humid on the East Coast. Lets just say that my cankles didn't appreciate that change very much and that I was very thankful I'd invested in a bathing suit before the trip.


Though it was warm the day of the shower, it was great to see everyone and I'm still amazed at how generous people were. Since we live so far away, we got a lot of gift cards that aren't pictured. We've already bought our pack n' play (see image at end of post) with them and plan on getting some other things, like perhaps a swing and/or a breast pump.


I'm not sure how well I captured it in pictures, but the shower had a retro theme. There were old fashioned toys, blocks, even toys from my childhood used as decorations. The giraffe in the photo below is mine from when I was a baby. I love the watermelon carriage as well.

Apparently when I'm opening gifts I'm the queen of making funny faces. Please pardon my expressions. The lady sitting next to me is my mother.

Just a few of the outfits we got. Surprisingly there were very few newborn sizes (the outfit I'm holding was the only one!). We didn't get a single receiving blanket either, which surprised me.

There were also several handmade gifts. This particular blanket was from my mother.

There were a LOT of little kids attending the shower. Here is one of my attempts to get a photo of some of them. As you can tell, getting a photo with them looking at the camera was kind of like trying to herd cats. Notice that they were enjoying some of the retro toys used as decorations. We got to pack those toys up and take them home with us!

Since I didn't get great photos of everything at the shower, I tried to do what I could to show you some of what we got as I was unpacking.

Some of the cute knick knacks we got as gifts. The turtle has a light in it and can show constellations on the ceiling. The pig is from my grandfather who loves both John Deere and pigs (very fitting gift, I laughed when I opened it). The 'first curl' and 'first tooth' vehicles are from my husbands aunt who is a hairdresser...also fitting.
Here are some of the outfits we got. (Please pardon the photo being sideways...it won't rotate no matter what I do)

This highchair was also a gift, though it was sent to our home (its the Graco Blossom 4-in-1 Highchair in Capri, image credit to Babies R Us).Here is the pack n'play we got with the gift cards. We intend to use it as our bassinet when the little guy is tiny. As with the high chair, this is the Graco Pack n'Play in Capri with the image courtesy of Babies R' Us. We'll likely be using some of the remaining gift cards to get things like this swing, the Fisher-Price Cradle Swing, My Little Snug-a-bunny. Image courtesy of Babies R' Us. One of my favorite features of this swing is that it has a plug in option. Score one for not having to use batteries!

I had a great time at the shower, even though it was hot as anything and I ended up changing into my bathing suit and hopping in the pool by the end of it (there was a pool right outside where we were seated to open gifts). It was awesome to finally get to have the baby shower I never thought I'd get and all those that put it together and attended really made the day special. I can't believe the change in the amount of baby stuff we have at our house now. Its really starting to become real that we will (hopefully) have a take-home baby in about 11 weeks.