Last night I zipped home from work and wolfed down dinner, and then grabbed one of the baby blankets I've been working on these last few months, found an appropriate gift bag, signed my name on a card, and dashed off to the first baby shower of the weekend. Our church, this year, is having quite a pile of babies - one born in January, one born in February, three within days of each other in April, and one more in May. And that's just the ones we know about, since that would only take us through the first half of the year. It's going to be babypalooza come summer, and baby showerpalooza kicked off on Friday night.

The mom-to-be's house was overfull of women, and the noise level was a little overwhelming. We all had to pick nametags (I decided to be 'Diaper Genie') to play a variation on the clothespin game - instead of worrying about not crossing your legs, we had to instead remember to all people by their nametag moniker instead of their real name. Not so much a problem for me, since I didn't know most of the other attendees there, and not so much a problem for most of the rest of the crowd, since it was so crowded and loud you could barely hear a conversation anyway. The congestion did make the second game of the evening a bit more participatory, since I'm not sure we were supposed to be discussing it amongst ourselves, but really there was no choice. They passed out 6 diapers, into which some enterprising person has melted six different chocolate bars. By smell and sight we were then to identify the mangled treats cradled carefully within the cushy padding of the diaper. After correctly identifying the Mr. Good Bar I gave up, if only because that one was a little too realistic for my tired brain to handle, and I found an empty seat in the living room near a few people I knew. Turns out it was the right spot to sit, since once the present opening began we were right next to the mom-to-be and actually got to see all the cute little things she was given.

Today was the second baby shower - held this time in the social hall at the church so there was a little more room to maneuver. This friend knows she's having a girl (the one last night wants to be surprised) so there were oodles of adorable little dresses and booties and accessories in pink and purple and pastels. At one point she opened a present and pulled out a dress in pastel plaid and I think every single woman in that room immediately demanded to know if they made it in adult sizes because it was just the perfect ageless sundress for spring.

The baby born in January was there, being just as cute as he could possibly be. At one point I 'stole' him from his mother (by asking if she might like to actually eat her lunch with both hands instead of balancing a baby with one and trying to juggle a fork with the other), and we all had fun merrily ignoring the guest of honor and the party games and focusing on a chubby cheeked, dimpled little boy who is just getting old enough to figure out how best to charm everyone he meets.