Shower Happenings: Erik Hailed as "Baby Celebrity" Expert

Sjolseth's Baby Shower

The baby shower, held at the Hughes' Home on the sunny day of August 19th, was a smashing success!

Sheila, doing her best to look demure from a chair she didn't move from for hours, enjoyed the festivities and seeing her friends-some who traveled quite a distance to join the fun.

Erik, in attendance, wowed the audience with his charming looks and ever growing vocabulary about all things baby.

The shower started with yummy food and lots of chatting. The real momentum picked up when the group played "Baby Jeopardy" . . . yellow against green . . . Sheila's team against Erik's team. After several strategic offensive moves by Sheila's team to get 5 slots in a row were blocked by some stunner takes from Erik's team, the official decision was made that whoever had the most points would win. (Otherwise, "Cat" would be the winner.)

Report is that Erik played with precision, answering questions no one else knew . . . including the fact that Sheila's favorite pregnancy food is popsicles, as well as many "celebrity" tidbits about babies born to those "rich and famous" parents. Though competition was fierce with cheering fueled by "So Big" gestures from Eva Hughes along with her cute 2-year old clapping, the green team (Erik's team) won the ever-coveted package of Baby Ruth bars. Several participants witnessed sharing all around of the spoils no matter the team color.

The gift opening resulted in a catch of the cutest "neutral" clothes, stylish bath accessories, and latest must-have baby gear. Teethers were a favorite choice, and Erik plans to put all 10 in strategic locations through the house along with his *favorite* choice of baby "mess" cleaner, Kleenex. (One must note that he'll probably need about 30 boxes of tissue to cover the house.)

The festivities ended with a splendid show of a very creative dessert: ice cream in small flower pots adorned with white chocolate flowers spryly rising from Oreo dirt layered on top of the ice cream, with a very large gummy worm investigating that topsoil. Additionally, Sheila's favorite quotes about sisterhood were tied to the flowers. Sheila, sources say, has not eaten her chocolate flowers in order to prolong the experience. No doubt that pregnancy cravings will take care of that leftover shower favor before long.

Baby S Profile-Week 24

Palatial Accomodations

Erik transformed the guest bedroom into a nursery with a crib, changing table, and refurbished picture frames and dresser.

COOL NOTE: The dresser can now hold magnets as it was primed with a metallic paint.

The trained eye will note that the picture frames are empty. Yeah, that means that we need pictures from you to put inside. (landscape form) We want our baby to daily see pictures of those relatives and friends that we don't see way out on the East Coast.

Changing Table with Cool Magnetic Dresser

Puppets with empty picture frames.

Week 27: Baby S Countdown

August 18, 2006

Typically, the “week” countdown in a pregnancy is exciting and a way to mark milestones. Recently, for us, each week is an additional reason to celebrate as it means we've been able to keep the tyke inside Mom to develop his lungs a week longer. (No, we don't know that it is a boy.)

The baby weighs a bit more than average, and we are hoping that will work to his advantage if he does come early. We are doing every thing in our "power" to make his arrival later rather than sooner.

Though Sheila is still on restricted activities and is working from home 1-2 days a week, she is compulsively trying to get done all those things she won't be able to when the doctor put her on what he calls "imminent bed rest."


This week we were able to finish out the nursery. Erik is so excited about this accomplishment that he invites everyone and anyone he knows for a viewing of our arriving baby's palatial accommodations.

Baby Data:
The latest sonogram showed that Baby S is well over 2 pounds and 12 inches long. When viewing the profile, the sonographer said, "Wow, what a schnowzer!" That cracked Sheila up, but Erik wasn't so thrilled to hear her say that.

The attached pictures are of Week 24 and Week 27.