Shower Power

As I write this, I am sitting in my apartment gazing at baby stuff galore. My two showers were incredible - my friends and co-workers were so incredibly generous that we emerged with practically nothing left to buy for baby. I am endlessly thankful (and writing the 55 thank-yous to prove it did seem pretty endless).

First, my work shower - a few weeks ago I got an Outlook invitation for an afternoon meeting, and thought little of it. I was briefly concerned that perhaps our president had decided to take all the money out of our budgets, leaving me with nothing to spend for the upcoming sweep period, which would be a dire fate indeed. However, this was merely a fleeting paranoia, and when two co-workers came over to my desk at 4pm to join me on our walk to the meeting, I wasn't suspicious at all.

Cut to the conference room, where I walked into a baby shower extravaganza, bedecked with confetti, banners, gifts, and about 30 co-workers.

Everyone knows me for my love of cupcakes, so there they were:

There were plenty of goodies to eat and drink, and countless presents to open. Between them, my co-workers had bought almost everything on my baby registry. I was truly spoiled, and I have the awesome lady in pink (below) to thank for arranging it all.


Only a few short days later, my mother flew down for the weekend for my actual shower. We spent that Friday (one of my summer days - thank you, work benefits!) going downtown to the garment district to buy fabric for curtains and pillows for the nursery. I'll post photos as soon as they're completed by my crafty friend N (yes, I am also thankful that I have the good fortune to have friends who are far craftier than I).

The shower was incredible - I couldn't have asked for a lovelier day. N and C did a beautiful job - they served a variety of tea sandwiches (my favorite, by special request, were the PB&J - yes, I am five), salads (my mom made an incredible fruit salad in a bowl carved from a watermelon, and my mother- and sister-in-law brought lentil and orzo salads - yum), and yes, more cupcakes (there are never enough). Games were played (none of which were embarrassing or disgusting, like the "diaper full of snickers bars" game, which is foul), and mommy-talk was rampant. Basically, Little Draitser's many aunts spoiled the crap out of the kid.

With a few of my favorite ladies, on shower day:


The invitation said "Please bring a used book for the baby's library," so my mom regifted my old childhood favorite, "The Teddy Bears' Picnic," full of 25-year-old Paige illustrations:






My mom accidentally switched her camera to black & white mode at some point during the shower, leaving me with lots of artsy shots.



The two tired almost-parents, at the end of a long, celebratory day: