Baby Shower Season has begun

I am happy to report that we not only survived, but thrived, on our first two baby showers. The first was at Beverly Spitzer's house, cohosted with Sharon Duggan. The Spitzers and Duggans are old friends of the Eberlys from the tennis club. The shower was lovely. Bev has a beautiful home, with a grand deck overlooking the Susquehanna River. You could almost imagine living in Pennsylvania, being on that deck. It's amazing. Bev is a beautiful painter, and threw a really nice shower. Tons of food, and this gorgeous pink cake that I got to cut. Ingrid made a toast that brought tears to my eyes, about how lucky we are to have so much love and support in our lives. There were about 30 or 35 people there. Everyone kept remarking about how nice it would have been to have a female partner with a newborn, and how great it is that you get to choose what last name the baby will have.

That night the Eberlys took us (Ingrid, my mom, Bean and me) to dinner at the fancy Hershey Hotel, with the Spitzers and Duggans, to say thank you. IS ordered champagne at the end. It was a really cute night. I sat next to Tita and Frank Duggan, this urologist who is 67 and had a TON of questions about being a lesbian family, and was rather endearing with his curiosity. I answered everything honestly and he seemed really happy to be educated from my perspective. He couldn't imagine how it wouldn't have been hard to come out as a lesbian when I was 19, and I told him it actually was very easy. I was excited to be honest about who I was and who I loved.

The next day Katie, Ing's best friend from high school, threw us a shower at her house in Camp Hill, PA. About ten women from Ing's high school/junior high days showed up. It was fun to see them all, but JESSICA A, where were you? We were bummed we missed you. Everyone was so complimentary, saying I looked great and teeny and all of that, which did make me feel good--especially after I reviewed the pictures. I look like a house, with skinny arms and skinny legs!

I heard some great labor stories. Some natural childbirths, some fast, some slow, no horror stories. It was really quite encouraging. I am happy that we are doing a natural childbirth class this month.

We got seven huge bags of loot from the parties. Everyone was incredibly generous. We got tons of adorable clothing, onesies, etc., lots of books, and some toys and some bigger stuff too. We got our first baby doll, from Rusty, Katie's Mom, and some great little shoes and so much really precious clothing. (And yes, a lot of pink. Which I am ok with.) Ingrid sorted out all the clothing by size and age, and sorted it in our new Ikea shelving units. Thanks everyone! I bought $75 worth of thank you notes at Papyrus this morning, just for these gifters.

Most beautiful surprises of all: Tita had the 1907 crib restored, that IS II (Ing's Granddad), and IS III (Ing's dad), and all three girls slept in. She assembled it and propped it with this incredible stork that she'd had leftover from her buying days at the Biddle's store. I got almost weepy when I saw it; it really is fabulous. Thanks Tita! Also, my mom got us an enormous bag of the most beautiful clothes from France. And together, the Grandmas got us the beautiful, Swedish SVAN high chair that we coveted at Christian and Alexa's. Baby Tiny will be high-rollin, Eberly style.