Baby Showers, Advice and Learning the Lingo

This past weekend I flew back to Ohio for my 'hometown' baby shower. It was a blast! My sister, Maya, and my mom outdid themselves putting this day together for me. There were awesome games, there was great food, and best of all, there were all of the family and friends I haven't seen in over a year -  it's been even longer than that for some of them!

It was a BaByQ theme...

 

...with great food...

...highly competitive games with awesome prizes...

...and excited family and friends...

...there to celebrate new arrivals...

 

...plus amazing and adorable gifts like this! 

It wasn't just fun, games, and socializing, though. I learned some great things at the shower, too. Among the game station tables, there was an 'Advice for the New Parents' table where we got A LOT of funny and useful tips. Some of my favorites are below:

• "Get sleep now while you can!" or "Sleep when the baby sleeps." (Almost every card had some variation of this.)
• "Enjoy every second as time flies!" (Lots of these too.)
• "Be sure to smell the baby's head - they smell so sweet! It doesn't last long, only newborns!"
• "You got this! Trust your instincts. Parent with ABSOLUTE courage!"
• "Babies cry. This doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong or that you aren't enough. She's a baby. Remember that!"
• "If you need to poop in the delivery room, POOP!" (I nearly fell out of my chair laughing on this one.)
• "Babies like to get into stuff. That's what they do. So if you got any cool stuff you don't want broken, give it to your cousins!" (Gotta love it right?)
• "Quit jumping while pregnant! You're scaring your mom!!" (My absolute favorite one, lol)

When it came time to open presents, in addition to being overwhelmed with the amount of cuteness I am going to be bringing home for baby Evelyn, I learned that I am no longer up to date on the baby lingo. At one point after opening a teething key-ring, I held it up to show everyone and referred to it as a chew toy. Oops! Apparently I still have a bit of transitioning to do from being a furbaby momma! Some other flubs were calling:

• leggings > pants (now really aren't those the same thing? But the moms in the crowd made sure I knew I was saying it wrong.)
• bibs > well actually I had a pregnancy brain moment and couldn't for the life of my remember what these were called at all! 

I knew what onsies were though so I guess I can't be too bad :)

I didn't get a chance to overly embarrass myself as most people gave gift cards instead of baby gadgets since I will only be able to take home what fits in my suitcase. I do have another shower planned for me back home in California come October, so it may be a good idea for me to do some research before people bring any newfangled gadgets to that one. *Said like the old lady I sometimes channel* Back in my babysitting day all babies needed were a blanket, a bottle, and a chew toy! Err, I mean teething ring.

Seriously though, this weekend has shown me how blessed I am to have such great family and friends in my life. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and our friend who we chose to be the godmother even drove 5 hours to make it for the day! Everyone is so excited for our new addition and I really don't believe this baby will ever be able to fully understand how much she is already loved!