Moons and Showers
This morning the Pilot was admiring my growing (and now shaking and moving!) belly,
and told me โI canโt believe youโre 6 months already.โ
โUmโฆ Iโm pretty much 30 weeks.โ
โSo thatโs 7 1/2 months? Ok, I feel better now. Because your arms and legs are still tiny, but this belly is like WHOMPโ
This made me laugh. โYes, my belly is like WHOMPโ ๐
โOh my god, so we only have 10 weeks or maybe less until sheโs here. What else do we have to do?โ
I keep saying itโs going to fly by, but it really is, especially between holidays and events. The holiday season is always such a fun time, and weโll get the best gift of all when itโs all over.
Within the next few weeks, I have a couple of things that Iโm really excited about: babymoon and baby shower.
Weโve been talking about taking a babymoon for a while, but time hasnโt allowed it with moving into the new casa and our work schedules. The original plan was to stay at Canyon Ranch in Lennox for a week or so, but now that Iโm at the point where I canโt fly โtechnically I could, but Iโd rather not risk it. The thought of being in labor on a plane scares the bejeezus out of me- we picked somewhere drivable: San Diego.
[Just seeing the ocean makes me so happy]
You guys have already given me so many awesome suggestions for things to do and places to stay, so Iโm starting to plan out our trip per your recommendations. Itโs one of the places weโve both been to many times, but never together, and I know weโll have an amazing time. We took a mini-babymoon to Vegas when we first announced we were expecting,
but it will be nice to have one last hurrah with just the two of us.
As far as the baby shower goes, at first I wasnโt too stoked about it. I donโt like a lot of attention, which is why my wedding made me nervous โI used to be an extrovert but have turned into more of an introvert as time goes on- and baby showers and baby registries feel the same to me, like youโre asking people to buy you gifts. But, the closer we get to the shower, the more excited I am to spend the day surrounded with friends and family that I love so much. My family is HUGE, so getting them in the same place at the same time can be tricky. Iโm very lucky to be home in Tucson right now, and even though I miss my good friends in Valdosta, theyโll be there in spirit and have even been helping my family from afar with the planning process. My good friend Hayley is flying here from Atlanta for shower, and I canโt wait to see her.
My mom was asking me about any baby shower games that I liked, and I couldnโt think of very many. I tried to explain to her the one where they put melted chocolate bars in baby diapers and guests try to guess which candy it is. She said, โThatโs disgusting.โ Haha.
Did you go on a babymoon?
Whatโs the coolest/weirdest baby shower game youโve played?
Kind of a random question but where did you get your iPhone cover? I’ve been looking all over the internet & stores but can’t find one with polka dots quite like what I want and yours looks super cute!
Also, I swear you are the most adorable pregnant lady ever! You look absolutely radiant!
I have the same cover and I got mine at my Apple store. It’s one by Kate Spade, so you could probably also check her website. ๐
it’s from apple- kate spade. i’ve dropped my phone at least 40 times and the case is cracked, but the phone isn’t. it’s a winner ๐
thank you, lovely <3
You look gorge! (um, short for gorgeous. maybe that’s not a good abbreviation. lol)
I threw my best friend a baby shower a few years ago, and I actually had a lot of games. All of them were huge hits and hilarious.
It was actually a couple shower and the dynamic of men and women added to the fun.
Here’s what I remember:
* Guess the mama’s belly width with string
* Dump in the diaper game (the candy bar game you mentioned). It looked SOOO gross. But everyone got into it and some even tasted it!
* Guess the baby food game: One person of each couple is blindfolded and the other feeds the other babyfood and they have to guess.
* Baby bottle race. You fill very small baby bottles with juice and each person has to drink from it as fast as they can. The one to finish first is the winner. It sounds easy, but it’s not!
I think there was more, but I can’t seem to remember everything…
I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful shower. A special memory to treasure always. ๐
Can you write a post (or just reply to this comment) on how you ate healthfully throughout your pregnancy? You really look amazing at 7.5 months, and I’m hoping that when I get pregnant I will be able to continue to eat healthfully and not end up scarfing down unhealthy snacks just because of cravings. I would love to hear about your experience!
I haven’t played a whole lot of baby shower games but recently I saw this post and thought it sounded like such a good time! http://www.healthytippingpoint.com/2011/10/jens-ironbaby-shower.html
Whomp? That’s great. lol
We went on a Babymoon to Pebble beach in Carmel. We stayed on the 18th hole and my husband was in heaven. I just wanted to relax and listen to the waves, eat and watch movies so we were both stoked! As for shower games we didn’t do any really. I had a mixed boy/girl shower so it was more of a big party ๐ We did put out a baby bottle and fill it with candy and have ppl write their guesses but that’s pretty basic.
OH, I’ve been to many and have played the ‘guess the candy in a diaper’ game a lot.
Also:
– Guess the babyfood flavour (suprisingly difficult). Just dishes of babyfood, everyone tries and writes their guess down. The winner gets… chocolate or something like that.
– Baby animal names. A list of adult animals and you have to write down the baby version. Sheep = lamb, swan = cygnet and so on. Winner gets.. chocolate…
– timed diapering of baby dolls.
– the ‘string around the belly’ game, as mentioned by Suzanne.
Also, you should let your guests drink champagne in your honour. That always livens things up.. ๐
Haha, I totally did that game for my sis in law for her baby shower. We got lots of pictures of people sticking their noses in diapers–>hilarious. ๐ Another fun one is stringing up a clothes line and seeing how fast someone can hang “laundry” (you could do re-usable diapers, or towels) while holding a baby doll and talking on the telephone. Another game penalizes people who say “awww” or anything like that when you’re opening cute things, but I forgot how that goes. There’s also the clothespin game where you start with one, but if you cross your legs at all, anyone can steal your clothespins from you.
Hope you have lots of fun! and people love you and probably want to shower you with gifts anyway ๐
Your ‘awww’ comment reminded me. This is a good one. Everyone gets 6 clothes pegs when they come in and have to peg them to their clothes (or hair, or whatever). If you say a forbidden word (the forbidden words at the last babyshower were ‘baby’, ‘mother’ and ‘cute’) then you lose a peg to the first person that notices and mobs you for it. ๐ The winner is the one with the most pegs at the end. Good times.
Gina you look sooo gorgeous!! Your bump is absolutely adorable and I’m loving your hair lately…will you be doing a hot rollers tutorial soon??!!
Hubby and I got married at the Paradise Point Resort in San Diego – best.place.ever. You will have such a blast and I can’t wait for you to go! I recommend visiting Coronado beach and anywhere in the Gaslamp district is a blast. When I’m pregnant we’re already planning a babymoon there to relive where our love all began ๐
I second the hot rollers tutorial! ๐
yes i’m hoping to have it up this week! i filmed one last week and then the pilot saw it and said i should re-film. while i was rolling, i was rambling on and on about random stuff haha
haha I would have enjoyed the rambles! ๐
can’t wait for the tutorial, thanks Gina!!
You look beautiful, Gina! Any weight gain is ALL baby – you still look amazing!! ๐
thank you <3
Love your pic in this post ๐
I know you were looking for shower games to play, sorry I can’t think of any good ones off the top of my head, but did coincidentally stumble across this slide show on Shine and had to share, just for the laughs ๐
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/7-most-awkward-baby-shower-games-2595378/;_ylt=AjkP6OeYLOIghYk1fFkTAmNabqU5#photoViewer=1
amazing- thank you!!!
we’re hoping to go to san diego in february for our babymoon
can’t wait to hear what other suggest
we’ve also both been there but it will be a relaxing weekend away
Aww you’re adorable pregnant! And I can’t believe you’re 30 weeks, time is flying by for everyone in the preggo blog world, haha. Also, I felt the same ways about showers but ended up LOVING my two showers. I get awkward with attention too but knowing that everything was for my little baby and NOT for me made things so much more fun. It really is so much more amazing to receive gifts for someone else that you already love so much then for yourself ๐
hey! i just voted for you for the shape blogger award thingy. so far you’re in the lead:) have fun in san diego! i love my family and friends, but nothing beats a getaway with the husband:)
thank you so much for voting, chrissy!
I love baby showers! At one shower, we had mini folded up cloth diapers on pins made out of felt, then you opened your diaper and inside it said clean or dirty and if it was dirty you won a prize. Another game I’ve played that was really cute was everyone writes down their best parenting advice and the mom chooses her favorite. There is also the game where a bunch of baby supplies are bought from the store (when I played it was Target) and you have to guess the individual prices of all the items and whoever is closest to the real total wins. I hope that helps ๐
My friend just had a shower where everyone had little cards with fill in the blanks for keepsakes for the baby like:
I hope you never get tired of_______________.
May you grow up to be __________________.
And then the person signs it. It was a really sweet idea and one I hadn’t seen before. I’ve grown up with my friend since we were babies so doing this for her little boy to be was meaningful for me.
We did many mini-babymoons since our one big one to Puerto Rico got cancelled due to some preggo issues. 30 weeks is exciting and being pregnant is the most beautiful time of our lives!!
i LOVE this idea
we have a game in our family tht u take all the women out of the room and u blindfold them meanwhile in the main room u lay a towel/blanket down and u tell them to walk with their legs spread as if their walking to not touch the towel/blanket but really the baby daddy halfway thru them walking over the towel/blanket lies down on the towel and when the ladies know their done (you guide them) they turn around with blind fold off and they think the baby daddy has been there the whole time…..idk what the tie is to a baby shower is but hey were Hispanic we dnt need a reason
Why do I have so much in commo with you. I feel like every post is so relatable! I was the same way about both my wedding and baby shower. In high school I was friends with everyone and so extroverted. A true Leo. As I get older I am so so so shy. I hate attention on me and surround myself by people that like to be the center of attention ๐
Babymoon…didn’t take it. I regret it though. Your plans sound amazing. And you and your belly look awesome. Love it. Your arms and legs are so tiny still! You’re so lucky!!!
At my shower we played baby bingo. I love it because people actually are interested in playing it, it keeps people interested while you open gifts and gives them something to do. And it’s not corny or embarrassing for guests that are introverted. They sell the cards at party city…i have made them though for a friends wedding shower [bridal bingo].
awesome- thank you!
[i owe ya an email still!]
I had baby shower on Saturday and it was so fun. One game we played was guess what’s in the bag. We filled 5 bags with different substances and the people can’t open the ziploc bag or taste or smell. Only feel for it. We used five bags and had people right down the answer on a answer sheet. We used corn starch, salt, flour, sugar, and mashed potatoes. Another game: how well do u know the parents. A fill in the blank answer sheet using questions that u ask about the parents something not everyone would know. And my favorite was the rice game. We took a plastic Tupperware container and put small safety pins in it and filled it about halfway with regular long grain rice. The people had 30 seconds to find as many safety pins as possible while blindfolded. It is much harder than it looks. The winner only found 2 pins.
that’s awesome- happy late baby shower to you!!!
I totally would take a babymoon. I could go for ANY-moon right now (if it means ditching school and actually enjoying my time haha). My hubby works A LOT so I hope we can get away when we start trying. San Diego is such an awesome choice for a babymoon, especially since you guys haven’t been there together. I miss San Diego – it’s where my hubby and I honeymooned. So, definitely a good place for ‘mooning’ – and not that kind ๐ haha
glad to know it’s moon-worthy ๐
We played the diaper game and filled the diapers with baby food, and the guests could taste or smell it.
One game we really loved was a quiz, which you would create with the Pilot. So, ask some easy questions, like, “Where did Mommy and Daddy meet?” and then make some a little tougher, like where your first date was. And then ask some about the nugette, like what her name will be or the theme of the nursery ๐ We made ours multiple choice, and everyone had fun. Shows who’s really been paying attention!
The other super fun game was “My Water Broke!” We found tiny plastic babies and froze them into ice cubes, and all the guests had to melt them as fast as they could to see whose water would “break” first. No microwaving or anything like that. People were eating them, sitting on them, stuffing them down their shirts. A four-year old ended up winning and when she screamed that her water broke it was pretty much the funniest part of the night! Have fun!
omg that’s HILARIOUS
Can you write a post (or just reply to this comment) on how you ate healthfully throughout your pregnancy? You really look amazing at 7.5 months, and Iโm hoping that when I get pregnant I will be able to continue to eat healthfully and not end up scarfing down unhealthy snacks just because of cravings. I would love to hear about your experience!
thank you, whitney!
i’ve eaten pretty much the same way, but more chicken, more food in general and occasional treats. i’ve also been enjoying more healthy fats in the form of egg yolks, nuts and avocado (fish doesn’t sound as appealing to me right now). i really don’t think it’s too hard to avoid going crazy just because i’m “eating for two” (you really only need 300-500 extra calories a day). if i crave something unusual or unhealthy, i eat it, and go back to my normal eats for the next meal.
My mom told me of a shower game they played at her office where they froze those little plastic King’s cake babies in ice cubes, then the object of the game was to see who could hold the ice cub between their legs long enough for it to melt. “Water breaking” and all. I laughed so hard when she told me, but it actually seems pretty great, too!
We played most of the games mentioned but we also played a game where we handed everyone a pen and paper and then had me walk out of the room. Everyone had to write details that they could remember about my clothes, hair, jewelry etc. It was fun! And some of the answers were crazy!
That is an incredibly beautiful photo Gina! Wow, just wow. Your bump is rockin’.
I haven’t been to a baby shower yet, mine will be the first! So I will be watching yours keenly and scouting for ideas (love all the other comments!). For a babymoon, my husband and I are going to Rottnest, a little island off the coast of West Aus where we live (although a diver just got eaten by a shark off one of the beaches eep! Will be sticking close to shore). There’s hardly anything to do there except swim, snorkle, ride bikes, read books, eat and chill out… perfect for a babymoon I think!
One thing I absolutely loved that my friends did for my bridal shower, was a cookbook compiled of a favourite recipe from each of my friends/family that came along. This could be good for the baby’s first cookbook!
When you’re in San Diego you should check out a restaurant called Acqua al Due in the gaslight district downtown. It’s the sister restaurant of one of the best restaurants in Florence, Italy, and for my money it’s the best dinner in town. There’s a blueberry steak they make and a sampler of 5 different pastas that are both utterly life changing, and it’s not terribly expensive for a nice dinner.
http://www.acquaal2.com/
You look exactly what I think every woman wants to look like when they are pregnant! Absolutely gorgeous. You’re an inspiration, Gina ๐
If your guests don’t all know each other, a good ice breaker is to tape a celeb’s name to everyone’s back and have them to try to guess who they themselves are by asking questions about their celeb person of others in the room, as they mingle. I remember that from my shower.
I too felt bad basically asking for gifts, but my sister threw the shower and I was so glad. People love buying baby gifts and it’s a huge help to get so much.
Yeah, but the melted chocolate baby poo game is fun!!!
I love the Pilots reaction – and the fact that he forgot you’ve been preg for an extra month an d a half, ha
You guys will have an amazing time in SD. My sister used to live there and it’s a beautiful city.
I love your growing belly, i think you are very good at being pregnant. That might be something really weird to say/hear but I just realized that as I was typing it; you are so committed to health and wellness for the baby, and I think that’s wonderful, but you also still look amazing and seem to be enjoying this process, which is truly a gift in itself <3
Cutest baby belly ever. ๐ You look gorgeous, Gina!
thank you, friend <3
My friend had a game where we all had to guess the baby’s name. Whoever was right got a prize. It worked because she had thrown a few names out there, so we had an idea. It was also a super cute way to announce her baby’s name to her family and friends.
Wow. That picture of you in the black longsleeve is gorgeous! I aspire to stay in shape when I get pregnant & you’re an inspiration to me! It is possible! Haha. Have a lovely day <3
aww thank you paige!
We did go on a babymoon! We went to the OBX in North Carolina…a little sleepy town called Manteo and stayed in the best bed & breakfast. So so much fun. I suggest all moms and dads to be take one…because it was 5 years before the hubby & I got to go anywhere by ourselves again! ๐
Are you having a co-ed baby shower? If so, here’s one that’s strictly for the guys in attendance…give each guy a balloon (that’s not blown up yet) & tell them to untie their shoes. When you yell go, they have to blow up their balloon, tie it off, stick it under their shirts (like a mock pregnancy belly) and then re-tie their shoes keeping both feet on the floor. Whoever finishes first without popping the balloon is the winner. The ladies had a good laugh watching the men struggle through it!
ahhh i WISH we could have a co-ed shower, just to play that game!
You look amazing, you can tell that you are taking good care of yourself and baby. You’re inspiring me to keep up my healthy habits now that I’ve got a baby on board…only 13 weeks now but it’s already flown by.
thank you, megan! congrats to you on your bun in the oven!
I did baby bingo at mine. Each guest filled out a blank bingo card with items they thought I would get at the shower. their own gift was the “free space”. As I unwrapped gifts, I called out what it was so they could mark it off. When someone got a bingo, they got a small favor (candy or some such) and I got a small baby gift (trial size shampoo or some such). It was a great game because there was no “guess mommys weight” or “guess how big mommy’s belly is!”
another I wish I had gotten to do: everyone takes a marker and a paper plate, placing the plate on their head and tries to draw a baby without looking at it. the one that looks most like a baby (judged by you or popular vote) wins!
Ha, my sister’s baby shower is this weekend, and we are doing the candy bar in diaper game! We are also going to do trivia questions throughout the shower, baby scattergories, and a game where you match languages to the word “baby” in each language. Can’t wait, flying from southern California over to Florida for the shower (haven’t seen my sister in person in two years)!
aww that’s awesome you’re flying out for it! have so much fun ๐
You look so gorgeous!!! I like where all the guests write a message to the baby and create a little keepsake for them. One time the hostess had all the guests write something about the mom and dad… like “Listen to your mom…she’s always right” Or ” Your mom and dad are so excited to meet you”
We played the guess the baby food game, how fast can you cloth diaper a baby doll. And, diaper cakes are always amazing. ๐
plain cloth diapers with diaper pins*
You look AMAZING, Gina. Seriously. Pregnancy suits you! ๐
The husband has been racing as a professional cyclist for the last three years, and after all the travel, expense, and weeks away from home he wanted to give me a “real” vacation for putting up with his crazy career … so he took me to London for our babymoon! It was absolutely magical to see Buckingham Palace with my own prince ๐
I’ve only been to one baby shower, and it wasn’t a weird game but it was a hard one … guess the baby food, but you weren’t allowed to smell, touch or taste it. AND they had, like, three kinds of green food which made it nearly impossible! Boo on that.
Hi!
Just wanted to add this suggestion for a baby shower game – my friend had one recently and this was by far the sweetest and most fun game of the day!
The guests are to make a birthday card for the first – however many guests there are – brithday’s of her life. Everyone picks out a number (out of a hat or soemthing) and they have to make the birthday card for that year that they pick. You can supply a bunch of craft paper, ribbons, stickers, gorge pens etc etc for everyone to make awesome cards for the bub. Everyone should put their names on the back of the cards they make for later reference. And when you get one out for each year you can remember the baby shower and give a little story when she is older.
My friend ended up with some really gorgeous birthday cards for her little girl.
Have a fantastic shower whatever you do!
p.s
I LOVE your blog and read it everyday ๐ You and the pilot remind me so much of me and my hubby ๐
Wow Gina, you look absolutely radiant in that first picture! That top is also really flattering and cute!
*Guess the momma’s belly width with string
*Put xxx (usually the # of days you’re at the day of the shower) baby clothes pins in a jar and let guests guess how many are in there, but don’t tell them that’s what they’re guessing – see if they can figure that part out ๐
*Decorate a onesie or a headband and you choose your favorite design
*Give each guest a safety pin upon arrival with one mini plastic safety pin on it, then tell them they’re not allowed to cross their feet, ankles, or legs (since prego women can’t once they get far enough along) then anyone who spots someone doing it gets that person’s pin. Whoever has the most by a certain point at the shower wins a prize! Suprisingly harder than it sounds.