Baby Shower

Some of you have been following the saga of our pastor’s love life. (See these posts – one, two, and three – for the full story.) Mrs. Pastor is less than two weeks from having their first baby (a boy), and – as I like to joke – this is the most-anticipated baby in town.

Someone arranged a baby shower for Mrs. Pastor a couple weeks ago. In expectation of this event, I ordered what was, to me, the most useful reference book in the history of reference books for new parents. Appropriately named “The Baby Book,” it was my bible as a new mother. It’s never gone out of print, and has been revised and updated through the years. I was pleased to give a copy to Mrs. Pastor.

I wrapped it up for the baby shower.

The shower was held in the church basement and was well-attended.

Mrs. Pastor received many useful gifts, including some books.

As anticipated, she was given a lot of adorable baby clothes, including – comically – no fewer than about sixty onesies. Maybe more.

In addition to “The Baby Book,” we also wanted to get Mrs. Pastor a ring sling. We had these for our girls and they were absolute life-savers. The company that made our original sling had gone out of business, so I did some research and recommended Mr. and Mrs. Pastor use a Maya Wrap. I gave Mrs. Pastor the website and urged her to choose the style and color she preferred, and this was her choice:

The sling hasn’t arrived yet, but then neither has the baby. After he’s born and Pastor and Mrs. Pastor get used to using the sling, we’ve urged them to order a second (our gift) because it’s handy to have one to use and one to wash.

We may also get them a hand-crank baby-food grinder. We had this when our girls started eating solids. We – literally – never bought a single jar of commercial baby food, thanks to this little grinder.

The next step, of course, is the Big Event itself. Our poor pastor is as jumpy as any new father, with a suitcase packed and ready to go for when Mrs. Pastor goes into labor. Whee!