Baby Showers

In a land where I don't have many friends and can't communicate with the ones I do have, I have been fortunate enough to have two baby showers thrown in my honor.
Lucy (at the cyber cafe) told me she was going to host a baby shower. At first, I thought she was joking. I mean...who would come?! One day when I came to use the internet, I found her making decorations for the shower. That's when it finally hit me that she was serious. She had made about 50 of these decorations to hang from the ceiling.Lucy had invited several people from her family for the shower. I had met them all before...mostly at the parties Javier (her husband) hosts each month when he is in town. But, I figured there was no way they would come...and bring gifts! But, they did!

We got off to a bit of a rocky start. Lucy told me the shower would start at 2pm. So, I arrived at 2pm. The only person at the house was Lucy's mom. I sat with her and chatted (ha!) for awhile. About 20 minutes later, Mayra (Lucy's sister) arrived. At about 2:45pm, Lucy finally arrived. A few more guests continued to trickle in. At one point, Lucy went to look for her mom and couldn't find her anywhere. Someone said she had gone home. Gone home?! She wanted to shower before the party and thought she would have time before the rest of the guests arrived. One step forward, two steps back. Finally, the last guest arrived at 3:30pm and the fun could begin.The first game was "Guess the Size of Jessica's Belly."

How big is her belly?

This big!

Bigger...

Bigger...

Not that big!

Pretty close!

We played a few more games and then it was present time. I got some great stuff...a mattress for the crib (strangely, we had a crib but no mattress), a canopy for the crib to keep mosquitoes out, some clothes and other fun stuff. Of course, Susan (Lucy's daughter) had to help open everything!

And then...we got to the best part...cake! Oh my...five layers of chocolate goodness! It was heaven! :)


I should also mention the other food that we had at the party. While we were waiting for all the guests to arrive, Lucy offered everyone Jello. Jello? Strange party food. But sure! Mind you...I make Jello all the time (Hugo loves the stuff). I use little cups to make individual portions...like a half cup each. Lucy brought out 10 ounce styrofoam cups of Jello. That is a lot of Jello! Pair that with a five layer cake and I ingested enough sugar to last a life time!

Some of the party guests. Behind the camera, some people were popping balloons. Susan didn't like the sound. :)

Over all, it was a great day.

On to baby shower number two...

A couple of ladies from church approached us about hosting a baby shower. I was a bit nervous. Hanging out at Lucy's house with a small crowd of people was one thing. Attending a formal shower at the church with a bunch of people I didn't know well was another. I asked if Hugo could come...if I had a translator, I would feel much better about the whole thing. Luckily, the ladies were all for it.

Party hosts...Eva, Flor, and Melany. Eva is Nicole's mom (the little girl I used to nanny for). Flor is a doctor who has lived in the US. Melany is the pastor's wife and I attended the baby shower for her and her daughter a few months before. Note...my hair was really cute earlier in the day. But after walking a half mile to the church in 90+ degree weather, I was far from cute.

The second baby shower was very different from the first. The church shower was very organized. They had everything planned out and it flowed perfectly. First, we played some games. The first was "See Who Can Drink From a Bottle The Fastest." We nominated Hugo's mom as one of the participants. She didn't look too happy...

Obviously, Margoth was not the winner!

The next game was "Who Can Find the Passage in the Bible Fastest." Pretty intense party games!


The next game was "Name that Woman From the Bible."

Margarita (the lady in the center) dominated the game with 7 points. Zoila (on the left) got two points. The lady on the right (I don't know her name, but she always calls me Princess) kept getting her answers disqualified because she forgot to raise her hand. She would have only gotten two points though.

After the games, things got a bit serious. The pastor's wife read the Bible story of Elizabeth and John. She gave a little mini sermon after.

My gosh my belly is huge!

Finally, we got to the fun stuff...presents and cake! We got some more really great presents. Considering things like registries don't exist here, it was amazing that we didn't get doubles of anything. Pretty cool.

El Rosario is a very popular bakery here and they make some fabulous cakes. The most popular cake is a three layer white cake with a pudding-like substance between the layers. The cake is covered in whip cream frosting and fruits (usually strawberries and peaches). Cake is cake...and I'll never complain. But, that isn't my favorite cake in the world. The pudding substance kind of freaks me out. Magically, the party planning ladies remembered I have a thing for chocolate and got me my own chocolate cake! How great is that?! Plus, I got to keep the left overs. True or false...when we got home, I sat on the couch with the box of cake in my lap and a fork. Hugo thought I was nuts. Oh well. I mean...I offered him a fork too.

As the party wound down, I got up to say a thank you to everyone. Hugo had to translate for me...there was no way I was going to try to say everything in Spanish. I kind of forgot that Hugo was going to have to translate and just started rambling. Finally, he waved his hands around to get me to stop. He said he couldn't remember everything to translate. The ladies thought that was real funny.

Anyway...moral of the story...I feel very loved! :)