I went to a baby shower last weekend. My nephew S is about to be a father. He and H are having a boy. My niece P is also expecting another little boy any minute now. My niece E is having a girl this winter, right about the time Katie’s girls are due. We’ll be inundated with babies. 2016: Best Year Ever!
Pat and Frank’s great grandchildren are starting to come in waves. Big waves! They had 24 grandchildren and I’ve lost count of the greats but that number is growing exponentially and I love it! It’s official: they started a Dynasty.
When I started dating Jay, back in the early eighties, the family had lots of little kids. We joined the fray and added our bit and time went by…little kids became big kids and then, for a few years there were almost no kids at all. The two older nieces moved to Arizona before starting their large families so for a few years, Josie and Carolyn were the only minors at family gatherings.
But then the big kids became adults, weddings started taking place and babies started showing up. When she was a toddler, Sophie, now middle school, was the only child at the family Christmas party but by next year there will be over a dozen little cousins younger than her.
The shower last weekend was fun, as those events always are.
We played shower games. For the first one, Pam handed out sheets with a list of about 50 animals on it. The game was to name the babies. Example: Horse; foal, cow; calf, lion; cub etc.
I misunderstood and named them as if they were my pets: Harry the horse, Bessie the cow, Simba the lion, etc.
I scored 0.
But I’ll go to my grave believing that “Mulder” is the best name anyone could give a baby fox.
I redeemed myself by getting a nearly perfect score on the next game, which was to answer questions about a few dozen classic nursery rhymes. I say ‘nearly’ perfect because I misread one of the questions, which was What were the three men in a tub? I thought it asked how many men were in the tub, so I didn’t write “butcher, baker, candlestick maker”. Doh!
Turns out most of the family doesn’t know the old nursery rhymes, which really surprised me. I mean, come on, we’re not a bunch of illiterates! These should have all been no brainers!
My daughter and daughter in law came in second and third.
I'm going to throw a shower for Katie and the games are all going to be based on the soundtrack to Hamilton. Sample: finish the line..."I'm in the cabinet, I am complicit in watching him_______" Answer: "...grabbin' at power and kissin' it."
Better bone up, ladies.
H got lots of lovely gifts for her new little guy. Babalouie is going to have so many cousins! They’ll be able to field a basketball team as soon as the two new ones can walk!
Megan brought the kids along and Babydoll and her brother behaved beautifully. After the gifts had been opened and everyone had something to eat, I took the kids outside to play. Babalouie found a plastic baseball and bat so I pitched to him while Babydoll rode circles around us on the antique peddle tractor Pam has.
He’s two and a half and he can hit the ball! I pitched to him for about 15 minutes. In that time, he connected 5 times, including two that he launched right over my head! Yes, I’m his Nana and I was throwing watermelons but still: how many two year olds can even hit watermelons?
My grandkids continue to impress me.
The next day, I drove up to Katie’s and I got started on painting the non wallpapered walls of the nursery while she cleaned out her closet. We got a lot of work done before I packed up my brushes and came home.
Jay was fixing Cornish game hens for dinner. I showered up, put my jammies on and collapsed in front of the TV, only moving to shovel my dinner into my face (which included a glass of wine) when it was ready.
It was a fabulous weekend.