I Get By With a Little Love From My Friends

(Wow, for someone who claims to not be all gung ho on The Beatles, I sure have been taking liberties with their songs lately...)

Instead of continuing to rely on all of Brittney's fantastic posts about my baby sprinkle [If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to the PCM Facebook fan page], I decided to stop being lazy and actually write one myself. It's the very least I could do.

When Brittney first suggested throwing me a shower or sprinkle, I cried. I knew her motivations behind it. She knew my first one had sent me into tears (not of joy) and that this would be my last child. She didn't want that to be my only experience. In addition to the awesomeness of her wanting to throw a shower for me just to make me happy, I was also thrilled by the idea of seeing her again before our San Antonio trip in November. At the same time, though, the gesture was way too generous. I know she's on a tight budget, especially with our upcoming trips to San Antonio and Maine and her fourth baby on the way. Pop Culture Dad and I immediately started to feel guilty about the whole thing. "Tell her we can't let her do that," he said. And we did, but Brittney (and Andy) weren't having it.

Seeing Brittney's excitement over all the aspects of planning my sprinkle, I couldn't help but feel the guilt reside, even though it was most definitely still lingering a bit. Then, after Kat also started making plans to come out for the sprinkle, I couldn't contain my excitement anymore. Soon, it wasn't even so much about the sprinkle as it was seeing the two of them again.

Friday, the day I picked them up from the airport, I had already started having a bad morning. My grumpiness and sadness melted away as soon as I saw Kat sitting in baggage claim. Over the next day or so, I just enjoyed having them around as we bustled to get everything ready for the shower. It is unbelievable the amount of things Brittney was able to plan and do from Utah, and it is incredible the amount of things we (though, really, mostly Brittney and Kat, and to some extent Pop Culture Dad) were able to do in one day to get the house shower-ready.

On Sunday, everything went off without a hitch. My sprinkle was absolutely perfect. Even though Brittney hates baby shower games, she was able to find games that even she (and other women who I know to hate baby shower games) enjoyed. My GD dietician and nurse gave me a reprieve for the day, so that I was able to enjoy cake, cookies, punch and more. Lots of friends came out -- even Pop Culture Toddler had a friend show up. The decor was beautiful. Brittney went with a theme of green and white, and went all out. In fact, I have still left some of the decorations up, because everything was so elegant, that I can't bear to take it down. Also, as long as I can look at the gorgeous green and white centerpieces, it's almost like the sprinkle hasn't ended.

Taking Kat and Brittney home on Monday morning was bittersweet. I was happy they would be getting back to their dearly missed husbands and children, but I was also sad to see them go. You would think, considering how infrequently we actually see each other, it would  be easy. But it's hard seeing people you love so much just fly away. We have been joking this week about how it will all be better when we just move to the same state and build our compound with three houses that share a backyard. If only.

Words can't even begin to express my gratitude for this great gift that Brittney and Kat gave me. I feel loved. I feel how much my baby is loved. I honestly don't know what I would do without my fantastic friends who dropped everything to fly thousands of miles, just to see a smile on my face; but I don't plan on ever finding out what I'd have to do without them.

Love you gals!

Yes, the centerpiece is still up in my house. I am not kidding.

 A nice snack spread -- esp. for a woman on a one-day reprieve!



One of the games -- binkie spitting. It was a blast.

Pop Culture Toddler (r.) got to hang out with her best friend

I had my cake and *squee* got to eat it, too!

The ladies decorated bibs and onesies for Pop Culture Baby

This is the only picture of the three of us together the entire weekend. We were too busy just being (and cleaning and cooking and decorating) to remember to stop and take one. We will make up for it in November.

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Intelligender Provokes Not-so-Intelligent Ire

Like any pregnant woman, even one who has no plans of confirming via ultrasound what gender my fetus actually is, I love entertaining myself with the old wives' tales. I did the Chinese Gender Prediction chart -- got both results, depending on which website was used. I did various online tests, which analyzed whether I only will eat the heel of bread or refuse it altogether [uh.. neither. Who cares that much??] or whether I liked orange juice or sweets vs. sour, where I'm allegedly carrying, etc... These, too, came back with mixed results. So while at the grocery store one day in my first trimester, I gave into temptation and plunked down $25 for an Intelligender Gender Prediction Test Kit.

I have no more faith in the Intelligender test than I do my wedding ring hanging from a string of my hair turning circles or going back and forth in a straight line [for the record, it did both]. I took the test solely for fun. In fact, despite its false claims of accuracy, it even says right on the box and in the instructions "for entertainment purposes only." Let's face it, there are only two options for a single baby: you're either having a boy or a girl. That's it [okay, okay, in some extremely rare cases, you get the kid who has both]. You could have the same "accuracy" as Intelligender as you would flipping a coin. Therefore, anyone who puts all of their faith into this thing is just wasting their time. The only mostly accurate way of telling your baby's gender before birth is via ultrasound -- and even those aren't 100% accurate [just ask my friend who was told "girl" at two different ultrasounds, who ended up returning all of the pink baby gear she was given after her little "girl" was born with a penis]. So, outside of an ultrasound, seems like any rational person would take it all with a grain of salt, right?

Wrong.

If you read the reviews on Amazon.com, people are irate about the fact that the test incorrectly predicted one gender (usually a boy) while their bouncing bundle of joy was another. C'mon people. What did you really expect? Did you think that peeing into a little cup would seriously predict the gender of your child to the same extent and accuracy as an ultrasound? And can you really be that angry if the result comes up "boy" most of the time, even for women who aren't even pregnant? Apparently, yes, yes they can.

There are people like "tielde," who writes in her one-star review: "
I took one of these and it said it was a girl ... confirmation by 4 doctors - im high risk is a boy!! [sic] waste of money" and "crystal 'mommathaboss'": "i used the test n its not accurate at all.. im havin a girl n it said boy..i did it the right way n still the wrong result...waste of my money for sure... [sic x 100]". One one-star reviewer even stated that the "product should have some sort of disclaimer, or provide information on the test's accuracy so that shoppers can make a more informed decision on whether or not to buy this product." Oh! You mean like the one on the back of the box and in the instructions that says, "For entertainment purposes only"?? Yeah, they really need to make that more clear.

It's not just the one-star reviews that have taken this too seriously. There are several people who stated that since it was right for them, it was a fantastic product, it is totally accurate, and they'll use it for every pregnancy. One lady even went so far as to warn everyone that their false "boy" results were probably because they had sex within 48 hours of taking the test. Oh, I see... That's what went wrong.

Sigh...

This is an entertainment product. It should be used for entertainment purposes only. The reviews should be more about whether or not you had fun doing it. Personally, I had three-star fun -- fun and funny, but not exactly the highlight of my day. It told me I was having a boy, and to this day, I have no freaking idea (probably not, though). We'll know next month. Even if it turns out Pop Culture Baby is a boy, that won't change my fun from a three-star, "it was totally cute playing around and seeing what it said" into a five-star "OMG! This is awesome! Why ever wait for an ultrasound when you can just pee in a cup at home??" review. Likewise, if Pop Culture Baby is a girl, I'm not going to be so flaming mad that I have to write a one-star "OMG! Why do they even sell this on the market? It totally doesn't work!" review. It's all fun and games -- just like the Chinese Gender Prediction Tests that were all totally different. Any other reaction is, IMO, too much.

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"Why's everybody so mad at me??"
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