Lucy’s Blog

My shower was amazing.

I show up and my friends and family are there (I missed those who couldn’t make it!) and it looks beautiful and everyone is giving me hugs and there’s food EVERYWHERE:

There were homemade bagels, to-die-for homemade croissants, egg pie, a ricotta thing that people raved about, cheese platters, lunch meat, the list could go on and on. Plus A-MAZE-ING homemade cookies and my favorite cupcakes that had little baby carriages on them and booties and said “Oh Baby” that my Mom ordered. Seriously too cute. The chefs were: Adrienne (OMG those croissants), Jocelyn (best cookies EVER), Nina (Egg Pie with Heirloom tomatoes), Elaina (Hostess de Jour), and I feel like I’m missing one person. Seriously wonderful food and if I forgot you, I suck!

We all sat and ate-the weather was perfect-warm but just right in the shade With chairs transported by Amanda-among the thousands of other things she did for the shower.

After eating, we moved to the shade and played a game of baby pictionary-SO.MUCH.FUN. The “tie breaker” was that I had to draw something and whichever team guessed first won. I picked a hard clue and it was “Lactation Room” Ummm…how do you draw that? I drew big boobies with milk coming out of them-someone got lactation! And then a picture of a square with a door. A team got it and I’d say within the 1 minute time limit. It was a scream and SO MUCH FUN. My sister asked who I knew with boobs as big as I drew them and I said “Um…ME!!!” But we won’t get into that.

Then it was time to open presents. Seriously people-there were a lot of presents! And? All of them amazing. They always tell you that you’ll have to take stuff back and you’ll get duplicates and that people will shop for whatever they want and won’t look at your registry. Um no. There were all sizes up to 2 years of clothing, I didn’t register for clothes and I still got the essentials, plus darling things, all the gear was from the registry, and I’d say almost every other gift was handmade. And the cards-I cried about 10 times. And the paper that everything was wrapped in-so precious. I also got tons of books-which makes me about the happiest girl alive. I books and Shaun hasn’t been letting me buy any. So now Lucy has quite the start of a library. I don’t have pictures of the presents yet, but I’ll take some

What was the handmade stuff you ask? There was a “quillow” which is a quilt that folds into a pillow but it’s made out of all Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric-the theme of the nursery. It’s so amazing that I’m going to hang it above the crib-that was from my friend from college Sharlene. My aunt made a flannel rag quilt and changing pad that it so soft and so pretty. My friend from the knit shop, Pat, who is covering my glider for me-gift enough! made me the cutest one-of-kind onsies, my other friend from the knit shop, Jocelyn, made booties and a sweater in the most perfect yarn. The first pair of socks that I made for myself are those same colors , Adrienne, my very very good friend (and knitter) made Lucy a crocheted blanket with all the colors from her nursery and she made ME the prettiest cardigan that will be perfect for the fall and nursing. It’s awesome. Again, I think that was all the handmade things (not to mention all the other thoughtful and amazing thing) If I missed something, I’ll be back to update since I plan on taking pictures of everything. It was overwhelming-let me tell you!

One gift made me exclaim “YES!” and I want to explain for those of you that were there because it wasn’t like this gift was SO much better than the other ones and I felt bad as soon as it escaped my mouth. Here’s the back story: Shaun is a VERY practical person who doesn’t like “stuff”. He hates it in fact (Yes a baby is going to be a BIG adjustment!). I knew that we had to get a carseat, a pack ‘n play, and a mattress. Those are all essentials that we need and I would not get a fight out of him. An essential that I think we need but I know he would never let me buy was the swing. If we had to buy that ourselves, we would have never gotten one (unless I went to the store by myself and bought it and put it together and threw away the receipt and got in really big trouble). Well, when I opened the swing from Nina and Adam I was totally excited. That and the bouncer (which Sarah and Todd got us-THANK YOU) were the 2 things that I really thought were essentials and I knew my husband would never agree to buying them (well maybe until we had a screaming baby on our hands). So the fact that I got it made me SO EXCITED! Everything else, from the Boppy to the baby positioner, to the bag of every mom needs it (complete with haiku), to the froggy for the bath, the actual bath , the towels, the clothes, ummm everything was so needed and appreciated and just perfect. Thank you everyone!!!

The best gift? Well besides all my friends and family being there to celebrate the birth of my baby-and I mean that honestly-that was the best part of the shower…anyway, the best gift? Came from my Mom. My Mom has a tendency to go overboard and this was no exception. You know those beautiful pima cotton smocked baby dresses that a little girl is lucky to get just one of? I think she got Lucy about 6 of them-all with matching leather shoes-white patent leather, pink sandles, etc. and bonnets and bows but NO that was not the best gift. Nor the baby Ugg-like boots and soft soft SOFT pink furry jacket (with ears!), nor the HUGE tu-tu-seriously I need a picture of this-with the most adorable satin and leather ballet shoes. Nope not that. Or even the robe and pink Ugg slippers for me. Nope not even that. (And yes, all of these things that I just listed came from my mother).

The best gift was something that made me sob in the middle of my shower. I mean SOB in front of all my friends. I’m just getting teary eyed thinking about it. It was a book of pictures of my family. My great grandparents are in there, my grandparents, my parents (including baby pictures), my siblings baby pictures and then just page after page of me with all these people and me by myself and me being nursed by my mother (one of the only picture in existence of my mother and me when I was a baby I think!), me with all of my grandparents, my sister, my brothers, my first birthday party. The reason this is so special and make me so emotional is that I’ve been asking for pictures of me as a child for about 5 years and my Mom couldn’t find them, I thought they were lost and gone-she always assured me they weren’t but I didn’t believe her (me of little faith). There were pictures of my older siblings but it was like a black hole of Chelsea (and really Jake-the brother that is 2 years older) pictures. I thought they had gotten destroyed in the garage or lost in the move and I thought I’d never see them again. Plus being the youngest of four, I was SPOILED, but, my Mom was (understandably) busy. So there was never a baby book or picture album of me. My older brother and sister each had one but my brother and I didn’t and I always wanted one.

My Mom (and I’m sure my Dad) put so much effort into that book. The book is amazing and I will cherish it forever. She wasn’t quite done with it and wanted to take it home and I wouldn’t let her. That thing is not leaving my possession-NO WAY. Take away every single thing I got yesterday and if I only got that book I would be the happiest girl alive.

Okay, I have to stop writing about it because I want to stop crying!

In between all of that gift opening, we played 2 more games: unwrap the parcel, and then they had to cut yarn that they thought was as big around as me. Some of those pieces were 4 times the size of me! My knitting friends Jocelyn and Pat’s were the exact.same.length and about an inch bigger than I am right now, so they won the prizes . For the record, I’m up 14 inches to 41 inches around! We also stopped for dessert amidst all that present opening YOM.

And then I got to take pictures with people-YAY! Unfortunately, the picture of my Mom and me didn’t turn out. We even took 2 but both are pretty horrible I think she has some of us on her camera that are good (or someone does), plus I’m going down there next week to go to a wedding and I’ll take some more because I really want a picture with me and my belly and my Mom. My Dad is good at getting my Mom to take good pictures so I’ll make him do it

In the meantime-Pictures!

2 preggers sisters and their baby bellies!

This one is my favorite of the bellies:

And just in case you didn’t see:

My sisters (SIL, Me, Sister):

My aunt Marci and me:

Friend pictures (I didn’t get to take pictures with everybody or get a picture of everybody but hopefully someone got a picture of us sitting in the shade together):

Amy and me:

Amanda, me, Sharlene:

Adrienne and me:

Elaina and me:

It was an amazing day. Shaun, Lucy and I are such a lucky people to have so many amazing and wonderful people in our lives. Thank you.