Baby Shower #2

I almost don't want to post this and I wouldn't if it weren't for the fact that I want it documented for myself and I know my mom will want to read about it.  

This afternoon was our baby shower at Keith's office.  These people absolutely spoil us rotten.  They did it when we got married, they did it again when we were expecting Garrett, and they've done it yet again with Cooper.  Keith has worked for the same CPA firm for the past 10 years and knows pretty much everyone.  While he's probably not the easiest person to work with (total speculation on my part), he's definitely a hard worker and pulls much more than his share of the load.  I know he's also pretty patient with his staff and does his best to train them well so they can do a good job.  I say all of this to say that seeing everything we were given yet again, they obviously do care about him.  That's always really cool to learn about your husband and his coworkers.  

A few weeks ago, Keith told me that I needed to go do a baby registry because the women doing a baby shower for us wanted one.  I really didn't want to do one.  I felt odd seeing as how we already have one child.  But she insisted, so I sucked up my pride and headed to Babies R Us.  I only registered for about 30 things, mostly items that we borrowed from my sister and sister in law when we had Garrett and were going to have to buy at some point because we won't be able to borrow them this time.  I did not expect to get even half of the items off the registry, even though they bought us a ton of stuff when we were expecting Garrett, I just wasn't expecting that much for boy #2.  

I obviously set my expectations really low.  I probably have about 5 items left on my registry after this baby shower.  Seriously, they almost completely bought us everything we registered for.  The way his office does baby showers is that all the employees who are interested contribute money to one pot and then the hostess/hostesses go out and buy as much as they can with the money contributed.  Occasionally there will be a few people who will buy items on their own, and we had 2 people at today's shower who had purchased their own gifts to give us, both of which were personalized and so awesome and sweet.

So a quick rundown of the shower.  I hope this doesn't come across as bragging or whatever the case may be.  I'm just seriously in shock from their generosity.  The cake was very cute, it was a bunch of cupcakes that were all iced to look like the sky with a stork on it and Cooper's name across the top.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, our digital camera totally died on us, so I only took a couple of pictures with the cell phone, one was not of the cake.  But I know at least one digital camera was present at the shower, so hopefully they will share their pictures.  We also had yummy punch.  Garrett inhaled his cupcake and punch and was chomping at the bit to start opening presents.  I had explained to him what kind of presents we would be opening, so he was prepared for the fact that nothing would be overly exciting for him, he was just thrilled to be able to open presents.  The first one that he opened was a package of diapers and he said "Yay diapers!"  He was genuinely excited, so that was a good sign.  The drawback to having your 3 year old help you open shower gifts is that it only takes about 5 minutes because he tore into them like it was Christmas morning.  Keith and I kept trying to slow him down without evoking a huge tantrum, but that didn't really work.  I just methodically made my way through each gift in order to show it to everyone as well as express my appreciation for each item.  But I think we were done opening presents in 15 minutes or less and there was a lot of presents to be opened.  

The rundown of gifts included:

a baby bath tub

a bouncer chair

an exersaucer

3 packages of diapers

a big box of wipes

many pacifiers

bibs

burp rags

a baby monitor

a backpack carrier where you can carry the baby in front of you or behind you

a boppy pillow

sippy cups

a couple of outfits

an Elmo hooded towel (so cute!)

2 crib sheets

a handmade baby quilt with a baby pillow that has "Cooper" embroidered on it!  Totally awesome

a diaper bag with "Cooper" monogrammed on it-also awesome!

a $50 gift card

I hope I'm not forgetting anything.  I really was surprised and so thankful for all the gifts and the fun time we had seeing Keith's coworkers.  Garrett hadn't been to his office in a couple of years, so it was like a brand new place to him.  Keith's office has one wall that is entirely floor to ceiling windows that look over the plaza where there are a lot of shops and restaurants and an ice skating rink.  I stay far away from these windows, but Garrett apparently has not inherited my fear of heights because he immediately went right up to the windows and pressed his forehead to them in order to look directly down the 11 stories.  It makes my stomach churn just thinking about it.  He said he wanted to jump into the pool (ice skating rink.  It looks like a pool from that high.)  Keith's boss's office has the same view except he also has a door that opens onto a balcony that overlooks the same area.  Thankfully he did not let Garrett go out there because that boy would have given me a heart attack.

Unfortunately Keith had to stay at work after the shower because he's swamped with the current project he's working on, but he helped wheel all the gifts on a big cart from their office down to our SUV.  I waited at the curb with the gifts while he brought the vehicle down from the parking garage (city life is just so different than what I'm used to).  Once Garrett goes to bed, I'm going to take some time sort through all the gifts and catalog them all in Cooper's baby book.  I brought a notebook to the shower in order to write down all the gifts and their givers, but seeing as how the majority of the gifts were from the group, it will be easy to sort through everything for thank you notes.  

If by some random chance, one of Keith's coworkers is reading this, thank you so very much for your generosity!  You have no idea how much it means to us and we really are appreciative.  And I promise I'll get that thank you note in the mail to you ASAP.