Kendra and Joe Duggar 9: Garrett David Has Arrived

[JordynDarby5]

I borrowed the painting onesies idea from Lane's baby shower on Gilmore Girls when throwing my sister-in-law's baby shower. It was so much fun.  Plus those were some very unique onesies from a pirate boat to Beatles Abby Road album cover, guitar, a boat, monster truck, and solar system with nine planets. Others put fun sayings or sarcastic remarks.  

[Bethella]

41 minutes ago, JordynDarby5 said:

I borrowed the painting onesies idea from Lane's baby shower on Gilmore Girls when throwing my sister-in-law's baby shower. It was so much fun.  Plus those were some very unique onesies from a pirate boat to Beatles Abby Road album cover, guitar, a boat, monster truck, and solar system with nine planets. Others put fun sayings or sarcastic remarks.  

I've done an ABC book where each guest illustrates a letter. 

[just_ordinary]

10 hours ago, VineHeart137 said:

Haha my husband and I recently had a conversation about "gift opening etiquette" with his mom, and she feels the opposite. She's an old-school Caribbean lady and she will never open a gift in front of the gift giver. She was like "What if you don't really like what they gave and you accidentally make a face, or you're not good at pretending you like stuff??" According to her, you're supposed to thank the person, open the gift when they're not around, then  it is coming.

 [...]

That is what people do around here (or is it just my bubble?). You never open your presents in front of the crowd during a big party (wedding, birthday, shower). It is seen as an unnecessary break to the course of the party and kind of bragging (by the gift giver). Showers (baby & wedding) aren’t a thing here anyway. Thank God! But they becoming more popular...

I hate party games with a passion. I am not five anymore. The baby shower games are especially weird to me. Babies on a necklace, smeared food in diapers, feeding blindfolded (who the fuck feeds babies blindfolded???) - I don’t get it actually I am weirded out a bit.  Betting on the due date/sex might be the only thing I get, but that is not what I would call a game.

[Daisy0322]

I really wanted onesie ty-dyeing at my baby shower but we had too many people I was told (about 85) thankfully we didn't play games though. They had beer pong (which I RAN THAT TABLE ... with water lol) and yard games like giant janga and a bounce house. My family is in the party rental industry though so our party's are always over the top.

[mstee]

I’m having my baby shower tomorrow and it’s going to be pretty small. What I’m super excited for is the tie dye kit I bought (with tons of different sized onesies) and white bibs with fabric markers to decorate them. I think the host has some cheesy games set up as well- which I’m up for. @JordynDarby5 I got the idea from Gilmore girls as well! 

[amendgitan]

18 hours ago, AnnEggBlandHer? said:

I’ve been to showers where everyone was asked to either not wrap or wrap in clear cellophane (creating gift basket type setups) to help speed the process along. I thought it was a nice compromise so you can acknowledge the gift (and appease the people who expect gifts to be opened!) but people aren’t staring at you as you unwrap each item and reveal and ooh and ahh. It’s more like “Oh and here are our bath towels, thanks grandma, they look cozy!” Move along...

I was just thinking about a friend's shower a couple decades ago. Every present she opened from the registry she said, "Oh! It's my bibs! Oh look, my layette!" 

I thought that was the oddest thing. Never forgot it and I was thinking of it when you wrote. 

It also seems kind of rude. It's just so presumptuous. Like you pick out your own gifts, assume they're yours already and then barely acknowledge the gift giver's role. 

I don't care if people want to open gifts in front of everyone or not. That's a preference and both can be polite. But acting like it's no big deal that they just delivered your stuff you own is strange and rude to me! 

[AnnEggBlandHer?]

29 minutes ago, amendgitan said:

I was just thinking about a friend's shower a couple decades ago. Every present she opened from the registry she said, "Oh! It's my bibs! Oh look, my layette!" 

I thought that was the oddest thing. Never forgot it and I was thinking of it when you wrote. 

It also seems kind of rude. It's just so presumptuous. Like you pick out your own gifts, assume they're yours already and then barely acknowledge the gift giver's role. 

I don't care if people want to open gifts in front of everyone or not. That's a preference and both can be polite. But acting like it's no big deal that they just delivered your stuff you own is strange and rude to me! 

Different perspective I guess! I hadn’t thought of it that way before. In my mind, it’s silly to pretend that you didn’t pick out your own gifts (on a registry) and then act surprised every time you open something, like you’ve never seen it before. And ‘assume they’re yours already’...well...they are. It’s a gift. To me, saying “our” or “my” is kind of like, I already love it and I know right where it will go in my house and how we’ll use it for years to come. I like acknowledging the gift giver as I open a present, and then of course writing a personal thank you note later. 

[Daisy0322]

On opening gifts at showers:

i opened gifts with my husband but since there were 80+ people there most people were playing game or hanging out drinking mainly the older women and little girls watched me open presents lollist every one else just came over when we were opening their present. It seemed to work really well. We opened presents for 2 1/2 hours, as s guest i wouldn't want to sit through that.

[Mela99]

My shower was a few weeks ago and the best presents I got were lots of books - everyone picked their/their child’s favorite book for him - and a chocolate dinosaur egg with a chocolate dinosaur inside. SIL won the prize for best gift IMO 🤣

[just_ordinary]

9 hours ago, Mela99 said:

My shower was a few weeks ago and the best presents I got were lots of books - everyone picked their/their child’s favorite book for him - and a chocolate dinosaur egg with a chocolate dinosaur inside. SIL won the prize for best gift IMO 

Love the book idea!

[Nargus]

12 hours ago, just_ordinary said:

Love the book idea!

I saw a really sweet rhyme to put on a first birthday invitation on pinterest, can't remember it off the top of my head, but it was basically instead of a card and gift, please write your message inside your favorite kids book so it can be both.  I adored books and reading when I was young, so I'm hoping to encourage the same in all my future kids.

[AnnEggBlandHer?]

I received books instead of cards for my baby shower and while it is a sweet idea, writing in the books isn’t my favorite. I ended up with many many duplicates because people invariably get the ‘classic’ baby books and I feel bad having to choose which one to keep/display! I also wanted to donate some of the doubles and felt I couldn’t because they had nice notes in them, so they are sitting in a ‘duplicate box’ in a closet. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

1 hour ago, AnnEggBlandHer? said:

I also wanted to donate some of the doubles and felt I couldn’t because they had nice notes in them, so they are sitting in a ‘duplicate box’ in a closet. 

They're doing nothing but taking up space in your house (and your mind). Take them out of the box, remove the personalization (or black it out with a Sharpie) and donate them to a women's shelter, a children's hospital, or a local elementary school's library. The love for you and your baby represented in those books isn't tied to the physical book - let them go!

[feministxtian]

3 hours ago, AnnEggBlandHer? said:

I received books instead of cards for my baby shower and while it is a sweet idea, writing in the books isn’t my favorite. I ended up with many many duplicates because people invariably get the ‘classic’ baby books and I feel bad having to choose which one to keep/display! I also wanted to donate some of the doubles and felt I couldn’t because they had nice notes in them, so they are sitting in a ‘duplicate box’ in a closet. 

Take an Xacto knife and a straight edge. Pick one copy of the book to keep and paste the other pages in that book. That way you have all the well-wishes people wrote and only one copy of the book. Donate the rest. 

[Chewing Gum]

Or take pictures of the pages. 

[Nargus]

12 hours ago, AnnEggBlandHer? said:

I received books instead of cards for my baby shower and while it is a sweet idea, writing in the books isn’t my favorite. I ended up with many many duplicates because people invariably get the ‘classic’ baby books and I feel bad having to choose which one to keep/display! I also wanted to donate some of the doubles and felt I couldn’t because they had nice notes in them, so they are sitting in a ‘duplicate box’ in a closet. 

Aah, that's a good point...I actually hadn't thought of that factor...

[Meggo]

I kept all our duplicates because we could send one to grandma's, keep one in case someone chewed on the corner... 

But I don't know what to do with the ones that weren't the classics that we just don't need anymore but have "Welcome Baby Waffle - Love Auntie X and Uncle Y and Cousin Z!" 

 

[Ivycoveredtower]

Jinger and baby Kendra.  this is from the 2009 el Salvador trip

[candygirl200413]

Even though she looks young in general, kendra in that photo REALLY looks young (which obvious makes sense but still!)

[neurogirl]

I had my bridal shower last weekend and while it was a beautiful floral-themed brunch and lovely to see everyone and I was so honored people came...opening gifts was so uncomfortable! Especially since everyone sat in a circle silently while I opened every gift. And then of course you have to show authentic but equal excitement for every gift while not sounding like a robot!

We played one really fun game though- my aunt had put a bunch of herbs/spices in bags and we had to guess what each bag held. Smelling and tasting both allowed, but it was still pretty challenging!

[Jana814]

I went to a bridal shower back in February. The couple is getting married this Saturday. She didn't open her gifts. Their wasn't enough time. Also the couple lives in NYC so their apartment isn't big enough to keep the gifts in their place (they are at her parents house). 

[fluffernutter]

My best friend had a surprise baby a few years ago, even though we are in our 40's and thought we were long done with that stage. I threw her a shower because she didn't have anything left from when her teens were babies. We played a game that was a big hit- I had recorded 5-10 seconds of songs having the word "baby" in them. People had to guess the title and/or the singer, two points if they got both. It was fun and not so cutesy because there's a lot of songs with baby in them that have nothing to do with babies at all. 

[Jana814]

1 minute ago, fluffernutter said:

My best friend had a surprise baby a few years ago, even though we are in our 40's and thought we were long done with that stage. I threw her a shower because she didn't have anything left from when her teens were babies. We played a game that was a big hit- I had recorded 5-10 seconds of songs having the word "baby" in them. People had to guess the title and/or the singer, two points if they got both. It was fun and not so cutesy because there's a lot of songs with baby in them that have nothing to do with babies at all. 

What a wonderful idea!  I went to a baby shower back in January. The mother-to-be was on bedrest so she wasn't at her own shower. Her sister opened her gifts. We didn't play any games. They were going to mostly involved with the mother but since she couldn't be their they didn't. 

[TatiFish9]

On 4/14/2018 at 11:35 AM, amendgitan said:

[...]

I don't care if people want to open gifts in front of everyone or not. That's a preference and both can be polite. But acting like it's no big deal that they just delivered your stuff you own is strange and rude to me! 

I agree with you to a certain extent. I rarely buy off registries because they're poorly handled, in my opinion. I usually give a gift card and/or a signature gift.

Also, for my own events, I've never set up registries. I find people are annoyed by the absence of a registry. They're used to it. I was seen as being difficult.

If I should ever have use for another one, I may opt in. I don't want people all flustered in the knowledge that in this day and age, they may actually have to think of a gift to buy without the help of information I have provided.

[ihaveanexamintwodays]

i LOVE registries. while I enjoy gift shopping around the holidays and love the thrill of finding/making the PERFECT thing (and wrapping, and opening, and all the jazz, lol), if I am going to be purchasing a gift for a particular reason I want to actually be of use to the person I am gifting to, for that event. I think the younger generation of newlyweds/parents/whatnot always want to give a gift and support one another, but there is such demand on time and money that browsing and spending on something you aren't sure they'll need/want just isn't worth it. I particularly like being able to buy a gift my college friend who moved out of state but is about to have a baby, or my HS friend who I don't talk to super often but still love dearly whose marriage I'm ecstatic for, etc.