It Keeps Pouring

I've spent the last hour searching through my photos (non-digital ones) for pictures of the Baby Shower my mother-in-law gave me for Shelley (Kenz's mom) thirty years ago. I had one or two black and white's from a Polaroid, but I can't seem to find them. It doesn't really matter though, because I have them in a neat little folder in my memory. My hair was a much darker shade of blond than it is now and it was in ringlets. I remember spending that morning in curlers, the mint green plastic ones that had a piece that slipped over them to keep them in place. In one picture, I look huge, leaning over my big belly to survey a stack of presents which included a car seat with a big (it was yellow) bow on it. My MIL (mother-in-law) is standing next to me and she's smiling.

Yesterday afternoon I had a baby shower for my daughter-in-law Jodi. She is getting ready to meet her first baby in about six weeks. Thankfully, Jodi is having a super healthy pregnancy. She arrived to the shower with her long platinum blond hair straightened to perfection, as usual. Her friends came bearing gifts and stories about their baby showers, their in-laws, nursery's, etc. Jodi text messaged me last night after she was home with all the presents... We love the new stroller, thank you so much for the shower. Everything was perfect. My son had spoken to my husband earlier in the evening. We're taking inventory, he had told him.

When Kenz was eight months in utero, I had a baby shower for my daughter. That day Shelley's friends came and loaded her up with just about everything she had listed on the baby registry. Little did any of us know (or even guess) that a mere six years later Kenz would be attending a Baby Shower for a cousin to be. Happy helper, center-stage Kenz had ringlets in her golden blond hair. My daughter had spent part of the morning performing magic with a spiral curling iron.

Even though baby showers can be traditional and predictable (yes, we played measure mommy's belly and guess the number of blue M&M's in the bottle) they are still one of life's most memorable occasions. They are a delicious piece of the birthing experience, a colorful link in the transition from pre-baby me to parenthood. The parents-to-be have all this brand new stuff for a brand new person they have never met. Finally, it's coming down to the finish line, reality is setting in, life is going to change. (Like they could never have imagined.)

A baby shower is an outpouring of love and a forecast for the showers of love to come. And we're not talking sprinkles... we're talkin floods