The Stork is Getting Closer!

Nana knitted this dress for Tracy and Hua's little girl!

Go Vols! No wearing red in Boston!

Smells so........

I'm not looking! I'm just smelling!

With the help of friends, I hosted a shower for my "adopted daughter," Tracy. It was held next door in Nana’s apartment. We all had a great time. In China, it is not customary for a mother-to-be to receive gifts prior to baby’s arrival. Gifts are given to a newborn at around one month and it is customarily cash gifts. Tracy, however, had a wonderful experience with her American baby shower. We played two games, even though folks balked a little at my second game (I wonder why). Okay, maybe the second game was a little "gross" in theory, but in reality we had some fun with it. Surely you’ve heard of the Poopy Diaper game! You melt half of six different candy bars in the microwave and then plop each one down in the middle of a clean disposable diaper. Label the diapers from 1 to 6 and you’ve got yourself a very funny baby shower game. Folks had to smell each diaper and try to identify which popular candy bar it was. The Reese’s Cup and the York Peppermint Patty were the easiest. And let me tell you something. A Hershey’s bar with almonds is not a pretty sight when viewed melted in a diaper. It is, quite frankly, far too realistic! Well, now that I’ve left you with some fine mental images on this Tuesday morning, I’ll leave the matter of the Poopey Diaper game. But I’m just sayin’......my son’s future wife has a lot of fun to look forward to. On the other hand, he probably won’t allow me to host a baby shower after reading this.
Tracy received many nice gifts. Her husband, Hua, has already moved to Boston where he is working at a prestigious university. He will miss the birth (as I may have said earlier, fathers are not present at births...in fact, only medical personnel are allowed at hospital births). Tracy and I have been attending birthing classes together and she is doing just great. We toured the hospital last night with our class and took some photos of the rooms where Tracy will be. She was very, very interested in everything. What have I learned from going through birthing classes after 22 years? Things haven’t changed much. Deep breath, push, push, push!