I have the most amazing friends in the whole world. Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, my very best friend, Laura, said she wanted to throw me a shower. I was a little uneasy about it, but since I was convinced that the baby was a girl, I thought it would be fun to have a baby girl clothes shower or something like that to help celebrate her arrival. Who doesn't love buying baby girl clothes anyway??
Fast forward a few months and we found out that we are having a little boy! We thought about a diaper shower, but I have BBZ's cloth ones that I plan to use right away this time. We talked about a shower at her house, but I was really against gift giving mostly because I don't need any stuff and also because people don't typically have a shower for the second baby.
So as we got closer, we decided to have a dinner at a restaurant to celebrate the future birth of our sweet LBZ. We chose a cute little place in one of the oldest parts of town that we had been to for Laura's birthday a few years back. Little did we know that the place closed down! We found out when we showed up on Saturday, but some quick thinking landed us at another nice place in the town where I grew up. Coincidentally, N and my parents met for the first time at this restaurant nearly 8 years ago.
Here are a few of us waiting for the others so we could caravan to the next restaurant.
Here is the group of us. Some of my favorite women in the whole world. I am so happy that they came out to celebrate LBZ!
My very best girlfriend, Laura. Man I love her!
It was such a lovely dinner. Laura cooked up a plan to gather some awesome coupons for me that included things like free meals, free babysitting of BBZ so N and I could have some time with the baby, a work of art from my friend Brooke, who is a very talented artist, some delicious home-made meals for the freezer, and a massage! I also got some yummy smelling bath soap and lotion that is safe for mama and baby. One friend who couldn't make it gave me a Pizza Hut gift card! Apparently I wasn't specific enough when I said no gifts as it was interpreted as no gifts for LBZ, but ones for me were ok. Miss Laura is so sneaky :)
Another sneaky surprise was some collaborating between my mom and Laura. My mom made a beautiful quilt for BBZ when I was pregnant...see!
She is so amazing! It's like a work of art on fabric. She even found this perfect tye-dye type material for the back of the blanket. It went perfectly in his little room, which was decked out with N's collection of Grateful Dead bears.
So I asked my mom to make one for LBZ so he would have something special just for him. His room doesn't really have a theme, but I liked the idea of a lake or pond scene with objects of nature. She and I looked over some sketches she made when she was last in town and she said that there was no way she could get it done before LBZ's arrival. That didn't make a bit of difference to me, as I knew that it was going to be beautiful and worth the wait. Well, she and Laura cooked up this plan for her to give it to me at my dinner shower. They are super sneaky!
Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?!
She even found this perfect fishy material for the back.
She did an amazing job, and the party was so much fun! I wanted to drink a glass of wine, but I was too embarrassed to order it at the restaurant. Laura took one for the team and ordered herself 2 glasses of 2 different red wines. One for me and one for her. She took some strange looks from the waiter, but I think he eventually figured out what we were up to.
I just can't believe how awesome my girlfriends are. It took me a long time to realize the importance of having girlfriends. It wasn't until well after college that I really began to appreciate how important those relationships are. I wish I had learned that earlier, but I do know now, and moments like these can only be appreciated and celebrated with the most important women in my life. If only my mom and sister could have been here! They were in spirit though, that's for sure :)
