Nora, that sounds wonderful. I especially like your plan to take over food in a month or so, as I know I didn't have any trouble making food the first few weeks when the baby slept 90% of the day, but when he got more active but couldn't yet amuse himself it was really hard to make food.

Nicole, sounds like it's going around. We discovered we had a flat while trying to get to the airport to meet the crash investigators. The next day another friend's car died in a tight alleyway. (She then had to have it towed because "it won't come out of Park." It's not her first automatic, but she didn't know you had to have the brake engaged to shift the car out of park.)

billytea, you are indeed doomed.

Is "Wally made me do it!" a valid excuse, do you think?

Totally.

Nora, Deena's wording of the email for Tom is perfect, and he should send it. Also, the gift basket you put together sounds wonderful.

{{{Nicole}}} Not a good way to start your morning!

It's a jungle in the wet wipe world.

That's why I gave up. I figure maybe once I am over to visit I can do some recon.

Thanks for the validation; it just seemed like a... non-glamourous/non-cute kind of gift. So, I'm glad the practicality is actually... practical.

For the blueberry muffins alone, I would kiss you. The plan to take food over later is brilliant. When Aidan was born, our church brought dinner for a week. That second week was a bitch.

Nora, if you want something else (Note, I'm not saying you NEED anything else, I just got inspired by your idea and thought of this), you could add little coupons for things like running to Target for diapers, running to the store for milk, etc...little jobs that are a lot more complicated now that there is a baby.

oh! and I also included a card that said that if they needed a break, even to run to the store or 20 minutes to take a shower, just knock on our door and we could hold/watch/bounce/entertain the baby if we were home.

I'm sure that won't come into play for a month or so though.

cereal to say, I am so excited to have a baby in the house! Especially since it is not in MY part of the house! Bliss.

Many sympathies, Nicole.

Did I do OK?

Nora, what you did sounds like what my mother used to do for wedding showers. She'd buy a kitchen wastebasket and fill it with little kitchen necessaries -- a potato peeler, a paring knife, etc. In other words, stuff that you need if you're furnishing your first home, but nobody's going to buy as a gift because any one item on its own is a pretty cheap gift.

I've always thought it was a great idea.

I'm trying to find a couple baby gifts myself. There's this sense that we should send something Greek, but there's hardly any specifically Greek stuff for babies. I'm sending both babies these onesies or shirts I make, [link] but having trouble finding other stuff. I got the little boy some tiny athletic shoes that say "Hellas" on them, and I got the little girl days-of-the-week bibs in Greek, but I need a little more.

Nora, what you did sounds like what my mother used to do for wedding showers. She'd buy a kitchen wastebasket and fill it with little kitchen necessaries -- a potato peeler, a paring knife, etc. In other words, stuff that you need if you're furnishing your first home, but nobody's going to buy as a gift because any one item on its own is a pretty cheap gift.

I love these sorts of gifts. I'm big on them. For high school graduations I buy a laundry basket and fill it with Tide, Bounce, quarters, mac and cheese, Ramen, Mountain Dew, towels, and anything else I think the individual person might like. It's quite a fun gift, and very useful.