What a dog party!

This weekend, Billy's family threw us a baby shower.  It was such a great day.  There were almost fifty people there, including most of Billy's family members, Vickie and my Aunt Carrie, my closest and oldest Maryland friends, and friends of Billy's family.  There were so many delicious food options I could not even sample them all, the weather cooperated with plans for the men to play tailgating games in the yard, the Natty Boh was cold (I hear), and the company was perfect.

And there were gifts.  Lots, and lots, and lots of gifts.  I continue to struggle a bit with these occasions like bridal and baby showers because it makes me uncomfortable for people to give me things.  But the enthusiasm the guests showed in discussing Baby D and her impending arrival made it easy to keep in mind that participating in the shower of gifts was each person's way of saying, "I'm thrilled about the baby and I want her to have the very best."  As I opened everything, I was quite overwhelmed by the amount of thought, time, and expense that went into picking them.  People made sure we got what we needed by purchasing off the registry, found ways to incorporate our personal tastes, styles, and preferences in choosing the gifts they selected on their own, and drew from their own experiences with babies to give us things we didn't know we could use.  Billy and I are so thankful for all of these gifts and will do our best to put them all to good use.

Billy and I are also thankful for the various other ways people showed their love for the baby and for us.  Patti, Mary, Jacelyn, and Heather spent weeks planning and preparing for the shower.  Mary and Gary opened up their home to all the guests after they, along with Patti, Chuck, Brian, Jacelyn, and Allen, spent the entire day before getting the house and the food ready for the event.  Mommom and Kelly also helped to fill the table with food, and the Andersons traveled down from Pennsylvania for the day.  Carrie flew across the country right in the midst of her back-to-school routine at work to spend the weekend with us and attend the baby shower.  Despite a work schedule that called for Vickie to work something like 10 twelve hour shifts in 12 days, she spent her afternoon with us and helped things run smoothly before heading to the hospital to work from 7pm to 7am.  Amy, Brian, Katie, Jamie, Danielle, Anne-Marie, and Jon, as well as many of Patti's friends, traveled from places all around the Baltimore/DC metro area to help us celebrate.  In the middle of the party, Chuck stood off by himself along the side of the house grilling the chicken I'd requested.  Jacelyn dutifully wrote down everything we received, and Patti and Mary coordinated the games and gave out the Panera and Starbucks gift cards they'd purchased as prizes.  After the gifts were opened, Allen led the charge in loading all of them into the cars, and after the food was eaten, Heather coordinated the packing up of the leftovers.  Even our friends and family members that live out of town and could not attend, including Mom, Mimi and Papa, Nate, and Erin, remembered that the shower was happening that day and sent their best wishes for the event and for the baby.  I'm sure others did things I didn't notice, don't remember, or didn't know about.

All of this work meant that Billy and I got to spend the day chatting with the guests, sharing our excitement about the baby with them, and recognizing just how fortunate our little girl is already.  If the goal in life is to make it all the way around the baseball diamond, it feels to me like she's going to be born on second or third base.  One of the heartbreaking things about working with young people is seeing how many of them are born into less than ideal living situations, and having the privilege of education means realizing how many people around the world are born into even less fortunate circumstances.  This perspective, though, helps me to recognize and appreciate just how fortunate our daughter is.  I honestly cannot imagine that it is possible for a baby to be born into an environment which is more loving, enthusiastic, supportive, and fortunate than the one our baby will experience in a few weeks.  We want to thank all the people who have offered their support for her and joined us in our hopeful anticipation about her arrival.  We are grateful to you for feeling these ways about our child and for finding so many ways to make sure we know how well loved she is.  I am sure she can sense this love in some way already, and I hope we can teach her to fully appreciate her good fortune as she grows up.

While my inclination is to rely on the use of a lot of words and description to try to capture particular feelings, others have a better knack for saying what they want to say in fewer words, and often pictures do a better job at demonstrating sentiment, as well.  Our Dad's favorite children's book was Go, Dog, Go, and in the copy Vickie and Nate gifted the baby, Vickie wrote "We're so glad you joined our dog party!"  That party, which visually captures the breadth of excitement everyone has shared with us about our baby's arrival, looks like this.

Below are several of the pictures Carrie, Vickie, and Anne-Marie shared with me from the shower.  They got some fun ones and I'm hoping to have more to share from others in the weeks to come.

Billy, Katie, and Jamie are really excited about the miscellaneous baby necessities Billy's family clipped to this clothes line.  The shower planners did such a nice job of finding ways to add baby-centric touches that celebrated the baby while also accounting for the fact that almost all of the guests were adults.

I'm clearly very excited that Aunt Carrie gifted me the world's most beautiful, functional, and chic diaper bag.  It's named the "Elizabeth," and when it came out of the package, other guests said "It doesn't even look like a diaper bag!" and "That fits Liz's style exactly."  Precisely-- but it doesn't fit Liz's budget, so I will treat it with extra love and care for years.  I also can't resist pointing out that the way I'm holding it shows that I've moved up from 5lb bicep curls all the way to 12.5lb curls.  I'm hoping to get to 15 before the baby arrives, which will be good, since this bag can hold a lot of stuff.

Speaking of Aunt Carrie, I love how this photo Vickie took captures some kind of moment we were having.  It also begins to capture the mountain of gifts Baby D received.

Uncle Brian gave the baby a functional gift and a few funny ones.  The top bib reads "My uncle is hot and single," so I am glad to see that people are already thinking about how the baby can help enhance their lives, too. : )

Several guests even found ways to incorporate Billy's tastes in the gift giving.  Patti's friend Bev had this "I heart weather" onesie made, and Billy took a break from trash duty to open the backpack his parents got him to serve as Dad's diaper bag.

Though I look twice as wide as Vickie here, she confirmed that my belly is not quite that big when, during the "guess the belly size" game, the string she measured by wrapping it around her waist twice was several inches too long.  I also realized after seeing this photo that she's the only baby I've ever lived with before.  Back then, I got in trouble for kissing her too much when I held her, and I felt jealous when I realized my friends were coming over to see her instead of me, so I imagine that in these ways, having a baby daughter is similar to having a baby sister.  So now the pressure's on to try to make sure the baby daughter turns out to be somewhere near as kind, funny, and successful as the baby sister has.

There was plenty of fun competition during the baby-themed games.  Billy got plenty of laughs when his fill-in-the-blank answer for "Toddler" was "Toddlers and Tiaras."

While Katie, Anne-Marie, and I posed for this picture, I overheard someone say "Aren't those the girls from the clothes blog?" and someone else respond with something like "I can't tell, all her friends are dressed so nicely."  I'm thankful anytime people appreciate my taste in clothes, but it's even better when I have a chance to show off what good taste I have in picking friends.

But don't worry-- Baby D will be riding in style, too, thanks to so many generous gifts.  The BOB jogging stroller is courtesy of Mary, Gary, Jay, Allen, Heather, and Mommom, and it will allow Baby D to cruise along comfortably whenever her mom gets a chance to resume running.  I wish they made this stroller big enough to hold me so Billy could push me around for the next two months.  The Chicco carseat is courtesy of Patti and Chuck, and it will ensure that she rides safely and chic-ly in both the car and the BOB.  And then there are the clothes.  I have bought her only two outfits; the rest of these are gifts from the shower and hand-me-downs from her cousin Lily, who turns 1 next month.  These aren't all of them, either-- these are just the ones I don't need to wash yet because they are for 6 months and up.  While opening the clothes, I was so pleased and impressed that people picked so many things that I would have picked out myself.  One of the dresses she got nearly matches one I already own, and I would wear several of the others if they were blown up into my size.

I'm looking forward to spending the gift cards we received on a few more newborn outfits for the baby, and after that, we will officially have everything we need and everything we wanted to have before her birth.

I am so thankful that I continue to be welcomed so wholeheartedly as a member of Billy's family, that they are so welcoming to members of my family, and that the members of my family go to such great lengths to keep me involved in family life though I've chosen to live on the opposite coast.  Thank you so much for coming to stay with us, Aunt Carrie-- it was so great to have you, and it made the day feel more complete!

Oh, what a fantastic, big, fun dog party this baby will join, indeed.