It's a Jungle Out Here

My friend Jocelyn organized such a fun Jungle/Chinese themed baby shower for Little Tam this past weekend. Yes, jungle/chinese--it blended beautifully, that's how creative she is.

I have to say how amazed and grateful I am for the people out here who show generosity and love to us Tams. We just moved here such a little time ago, but already feel welcomed and supported. Thank you to everybody who made the baby shower a success, and to all the others who have been helpful to us during our entire adjustment to this new home. I feel especially secure in realizing my transition to motherhood will be aided by dozens of wise and experienced women who have proven themselves poised to assist where their talents can best be used. Speaking of talents, here are some artistic endeavors...We did a lot of games at the shower, most of which went beyond the typical ones. Pictured above is our winning face from the "make a baby" game. I loved this little face's spiky Asian hair and Chinese eyes. Can hardly wait to see what Little looks like in real life--but I bet this sculpture captures some of his key features. :)

Here is a pic that shows 5 of my favorite things from this shower: on the table, note origami animals (I am planning to string them on a garland for the nursery); a bag of bead binkies, which we guesstimated and counted for a game; a "sock rose" boquet, created by my crafty Young Women; a pile of socks on the floor; and crazily laughing women trying to match/wrestle over those socks in competition for a prize. Best game ever, and I am thrilled to note that Little now owns a bazillion pairs of socks, in every conceivable pattern and color. (yeah, he probably won't wear matching pairs very often).

Here I am folding the socks after the matching game, and also note in the background a lineup of bags which held the prizes. Jocelyn was so detail-oriented for this baby shower--I loved it! She wouldn't let herself be in any pictures, but this one has her arm in the corner, so haha, she is preserved for posterity anyway.

The take-home party favors had gorgeous fortune cookies and mini candy pacifiers for people to "suck" on, getting in touch with our inner child.

Happy chatting women. Here on the table is a better shot of the sock rose boquet created by the Young Women. I don't want to ever dissemble it, it looks so lovely.

The food! A few favorites were grog punch, cupcakes made from scratch (decorated to look like rattles) as well as Jocelyn's famous cheese balls. Those lovely tiered cakes were sculpted of diapers, of course, and were the best I have ever seen.

Here is a close-up of one of the diaper cakes. I loved the brown "grass" and velvety chocolate-colored burp cloths that lined this cake.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Little's nursery had no "theme" to it, but rather consisted of whatever random colors and objects we had acquired over the past few months. Jocelyn let me keep so many decorations from the shower, I now have enough jungly stuff to tie together the nursery! So fun. I will have to post pics when the room gets put together.

We now have just about everything we could ever want or need for this baby. Thanks again to all who have helped get us ready to go!