Portland Baby Shower

This past weekend, I was blessed to have a baby shower with some of my dear friends in the Portland area. We had good weather (which in Oregon in April is a relative term) and good food and I'm lucky to know these women and be able to call them my friends. Plus, they brought me gifts...well, some forgot their gifts on their kitchen table on the way to the shower, but I made sure they suffered for it.

We started off the day with some coffee in the park and a little round of celebrity baby name trivia. At this point, I realized most of my friends were celebrity baby illiterate and I was slightly impressed that they don't read Hollywood gossip as much as I do offended by some of their answers.


Only Hillary proved to know her famous babies and was rewarded for her E!News browsing. Sometimes it pays to read People Magazine and keep up on the Hollywood gossip (that's why I follow Hillary Duff on Instagram).

We had brunch at The Veritable Quandary and while the atmosphere was lovely...the food. Oh my, the food. I must remember to go back and order all the things from the menu.



My baby was spoiled with some lovely presents. My friend Sally gifted me this beautiful handmade baby quilt.



And Karyn remembered that I loved this Pottery Barn mobile, of which she was far more impressed than I was.



J/k...I was super excited.



I received some homemade burp cloths, an umbrella stroller, lots of great books for the baby, trendy-but-not-too-trendy clothes, swaddling blankets, bath gear, and other necessary and cute things the baby needed.

My friends also gambled on my due date.



To which I want to add that all these June people are dead to me. Only Kari is my real friend who believes the baby will come early...who consequently is the same person who forgot her baby shower gift to me. So I guess we'll call it even.

Clearly I am a pregnant optimist and predicted my due date to be 10 days early. But let the record state that I do believe the baby will come early. So when I'm 42 weeks pregnant and still haven't gone into labor, no one remind me of that prediction.

There were also some funny and adorable advice cards that were filled out.
 

The most common advice seemed to involve saying goodbye to sleeping and hello to a lot of coffee. People also consistently told the baby that they hoped he received his father's brains and my skin tone. I mean, I get that Andrew's SAT/GRE scores were genius level...but it's not like I'm an illiterate sunbather who can only offer the baby my tan skin as compensation for all my intellectual deficiencies. I'm sorry -- do I not have a brain too? I think people just misread the questions and they really do hope the baby gets my brains and Andrew's pale skin.

My sister's card -- who believes I will be a "terrifying" mother. Thank you.

Kari wins a few more points back for her comment about Andrew's wife-choosing abilities.

After some final bacon eating and baby name suggestions (people seemed keen on Mandy's idea of "Light" for a first name), we ventured out for some final photos.


Also, literally half the people at my shower were pregnant. The beautiful thunder stealers, in order of their due dates:



Thankful for the family who was also able to be there, including Andrew's aunt Kathy and cousin Molly.



And my sister, whom I made the mistake of telling that no one had made me feel uncomfortable by touching my stomach during my pregnancy. This is no longer true.



My bff Karyn made a lovely hostess and for once we managed to take a non-awkward pregnancy photo together.



Because, seriously, it's hard.



Basically, I had a lovely time and I am grateful for these people and was so blessed by their company.

As of the day of my shower, I was officially 35 weeks and starting to feel it. But I survived wearing heels the whole day and it felt nice to get dressed up and not just wear the same 4 maternity shirts that currently fit me.

I'm in the home stretch now, and can deliver at the birth center as early as this weekend. I'm hoping the baby holds off just a few weeks longer, though, in time for us to actually finalize a name and get him a crib mattress to sleep on.



Cheers to new babies and old friends!