There's no faking here. I was completely in shock!
Here I am "practicing" with Serviam!'s baby (his wonderful wife was there to surprise me). What a dolly! I hope he didn't get sick from being out in the super cold, but it was so lovely to be able to hold him!
My sister, Anna made me a "diaper cake". It was hilarious! It was such a cute idea and very useful (can one ever have "too many diapers"?)!
Here I am with one of three of my old, school chums (we all went to parish school together all the way through high school!)that were at the party. Megan is a doll for taking all of these pictures and all of them are so wonderful to have come. I'm all verklempt even thinking about it!
Trine called me last week to organize that "one more girl's night" before I had the baby...little did I know that she had broken into my email account and sent e-invites to a bunch of my good buddies for this:
"SHHHHHHHH!! It's a Surprise! We are having a party to pamper Laura AND the baby. Baby Thomas is due to arrive within a few weeks. Please come and help us give Laura some special attention. It is hard to believe that although this is her 6th baby, Laura has never had a baby shower, or rather, her sisters have never given her one! So, to make up for it, we'd like you to help us give her the special treatment for one night before the baby arrives. Ideas of things for Laura would be anything personal: slippers, massages, girly things, you know--things to pamper her. And as for little Thomas, since Laura works at a children's clothing store, well, all he needs is ....Pampers! (or Huggies :) ) Please don't disclose this to Laura. She does not want to be the center of attention but I think she deserves to be. Please call Katrina if you have any questions or issues with directions"
You should have seen my face (I did, because Megan chronicled it all with her camera!) when I walked into Trine's house and all of those faces were there when I was only expecting 3! Trine and Anna had really gone all out (I'll post pictures later) and had a nice spread and even cool decorations and a cute bottle of Barefoot champagne with a blue footprint on the bottle! Oh my gosh, it was shocking! I don't deserve such wonderful, generous friends. I really don't. My friend, Jan was there and gave me a pedicure at the end of the party (many had to leave early because of children and the EXTREME COLD (Dangerous wind chills as low as -40F)! I felt like I was in some kind of dreamworld or someone else's life for a while there. I got so many, wonderful gifts! It's going to take me all day tomorrow to put them all in their places (LOT'S of bath products...YEAH, BABY!). I got a ton of diapers (sizes N-4!) and some baby clothes, pampering products, you know...stuff ladies get at BABY SHOWERS! What a hoot! I thought about it and I remembered that my work at the time I had Katrina (13 years ago!) always wanted an excuse to have parties in the boardroom. I was so embarrassed that they had a shower for me that I told my mom at the time that I did NOT WANT a baby shower for either side of the family (even though it was the first grandchild/great grandchild for my mom's side). People were so generous at that time anyway so I didn't want to oblige them only one year after my wedding showers. I guess my sisters and mom remember better than me that I never had a baby shower! I joked tonight, "Gee, every sixth kid I get a shower, huh? Good deal, I get another one in about 10 years or so then!" Hahahahaha!
I'm still quite stunned! It's almost 12:30am and I'm in shock. I'll post more later and some cool pictures of me in all my surprised fatness!
P.S. Butch got a flat tire on his way home around 5pm tonight from getting our taxes done (it was a nail, he was able to flop into a fixit shop and it was an easy fix). When he got home, his friend Tony was waiting for him in the garage. He visited for a while and went to pick up his daughter and, whaddya know? He had a flat in our driveway! My bro-in-law came over here to hide the kids for the party so he drove Tony home and on his way...HE got a flat (I still don't know how they resolved that one)! There's something WEIRD going on! I found out later that Tony actually had TWO flat tires (his car is still in the driveway...no one was fixing any tires on a night like tonight! I think they tried but it was futile. I wonder if the extreme cold had anything to do with it? Some kind of tire virus going around?
Good night!
