No More Baby Showers

After this weekend, I've resolved to only attend showers for very close relatives or friends. Like my grandchildren. That sounds about right.

We had some great showers for S. We had no showers for L. since she came along so quickly after S. So perhaps I'd forgotten how gruesome showers could be. The best shower for S. was thrown by my husband's co-workers, who had never been to a shower and had no preconceptions (so to speak). They googled "baby shower" and picked the games they found the funniest. The best one was a game where contestants put vaseline on their nose then stick their face in a bowl of cotton balls and try to see how many remain attached when they lift their head up. I don't know what it had to do with babies, but it was damn funny to watch. There is nothing like winning a prize because you have a dozen cotton balls stuck to your face with vaseline.

We also had a great shower thrown by my sister's mother-in-law and sister-in-law, where all the guests were good friends of mine and we had wonderful food and laughed a lot.

This shower Sunday was neither of those showers. It was a shower thrown for a woman in playgroup. I knew three people there, none well. No one introduced me to the other people, though the grandmoms were polite enough to introduce themselves. Discussion topics included:

1) How fast several of their labors were, and how they did not have time for an epidural. Since I had a c-section after 48+ hours of labor, I could not contribute to this discussion.

2) Home shopping parties they have known and loved, including the one with various mixes for speedy food, home clothing purchase, and of course Pampered Chef. I'm not big on home shopping parties, probably because I don't much like to shop. I like to buy quickly and move on.

3) How much they love their houses. Why their house is the perfect house for them and is their forever house. I like my house fine, but it is definitely our 5-to-7-year-house.

4) Why gambling is wonderful and how Vegas casinos are so much better than Riverboat casinos, which are smoky. Since I do not believe I can win at gambling, I do not gamble, so again I had nothing to contribute.

5) How cute the gifts were.

We moved in lock-step formation from the food to the games (the string game and one where you unscramble baby words, if you are interested) to the gifts to the cake. The invitation had specified 12:30 - 3:00 and at 3:00 the dogs were removed from the doors and we were dismissed.

My time away from the kids is so limited. Next time I'm just going to do some errands!