where did all the baby Bjorns go?

I can't remember if we mentioned this before, but we got like 4 Baby Bjorns as gifts before Holden was born. We got them at showers, at work, and from friends -- we kept getting this as a gift, that it almost became comical (esp. when I got one from the docents at work as a gift just a week or two after getting 2 from other people at work). We, of course, kept one, but returned the others to Target ... and I never spent much time thinking about them or wondering where they might go -- UNTIL TODAY!

If you ever wanted to know where returned baby items go, there seems to be a once-a-year "clearance" where they lay them all out ... and I found our returned Bjorns today sitting there on that shelf. Yes, there were 3, the exact number we returned to that Target! Call me crazy if you wish, but I'm convinced these are them!

p.s. If you are on the market for a Chocolate Brown Baby Bjorn, the Hampton Target store has them on clearance for like $40 each (a steal of a deal!). And be sure to thank us for returning them to the market.

What we didn't see at our showers...

Thankfully, we didn't end up with any cakes like this at our showers--which, by the way is anatomically off, since at this point the game most babies are heads down, with their backsides out. The teddy bear cake worked great, thanks.

Other hilarious cakes from all kinds of events can be found at cakewrecks.blogspot.com.

The shower that disguised itself as a party

If the first shower was a classic Iowa bbq, and the second a sophisticated brunch, then the final one last Saturday can best be described as a shindig! Our dear friends Chris and Imran hosted what Mike has started calling the "unshower," because it was the kind of event that a stranger could stumble into and not know the ocassion for hours. That said, it did feature some tried-and-true "baby shower" themes, including a fabulous cake that the grandma-to-be brought, and the ceremonial opening of presents. The other fun aspect of this particular party (I mean shower), was the diverse array of guests--from the parentals and their friends, to employees at SLAM, to dear old college friends, to a dog named Willow.

We have so many great pictures from the event that I thought in only best to present the details in pictorial form:

The scrumptious food spread that Chris and Imran prepared. Suprisingly, one of the big hits were the vegetarian bacon-basil-tomato sandwiches. At least a couple of guests couldn't believe the bacon was vegetarian.





Above it the cake--a chocolate flavored teddy bear with vanilla cupcakes.

And here's Mike's mom cutting the cake. According to her, the best way to cut this Teddy Bear in blue was to decapitate it.

I think we can agree that she'll be one hardcore grandma!





Mike enjoying the company of the host Chris, and me with Katie.

Present time! The Baby Bjorn was definitely the most popular gift-giving item. We've now received 3 of them! Our friends and family definitely know us well.

And last but not least...

Willow! The canine vacuum cleaner.

Baby Shower #2!

This weekend our friends Anna and Elissa hosted the second of our three baby showers, my Art History Dept. shower, where much fun was had by all. It was a lovely brunch event that included my primary pregnancy food craving, pumpkin, of course (in the form of muffins). And not only did pumpkin play a part in the menu, but in the gifts: we received our first of what I hope will be many seasonal outfits, pumpkin beer (for our Short Stranger celebration, yum yum), as well as some adorably cuddly winter outfits, warm blankets, booties, and even fab leg warmers. And now that it's finally starting to feel autumnal, we can finally start to picture the little guy all cuddled up in cozy wear.

Some pics from the event:

Baby Shower Silliness

As Mike noted in his post about our first shower, any Campbell get together includes what Mike calls "Campbell-ing," which includes lots and lots of picture taking - a tradition I plan to continue in the Campbell-Murawski household once the Short Stranger arrives.

This time, my cousin Beth and I had a chance to model our dueling pregnant bellies. We're 10 weeks apart; I'm 27 weeks, and she's a svelte 37 weeks (with her third boy), looking fabulous and not at all ready to pop. We tried to be serious for our pictures, but needless to say, silliness ensued:

From the side:

And in a pose requested by my brother William:

the 1st shower: Mike's thoughts

Couple quick thoughts on the first baby shower in Iowa this weekend:

1) It was a great time! We got some great, useful things for little guy, and got to see pretty much the entire Campbell clan (plus surrogates) -- except Bob and Lindsey (doh!). There were, of course, lots of family pictures, lots of barbecued meat, and lots of Campbell-ing (I'm not quite sure what that is, but it happens when the Campbells get together, that's for sure. Usually it involves singing Christmas carols and taking pictures of people's butts, but these seem to have mostly slipped by during this August get-together).
2) Still a large reluctance for Campbell men to participate in a baby shower (the realm of women, right?). Big shout out to Will-i-am Campbell, and Grandpa-to-be John, for both breaking the barrier and joining us to open gifts with the ladies. And Wil's card to me even brought to light another gender stereotype, because he COULD NOT find a baby shower card addressed to a man/dad (so he made a note of that on a non-gender-specific card) -- another travesty easy to let slide, but very interesting to notice. Thanks for being aware of these issues, Wil!

3) While Bryna and I are so thrilled to be getting such nice things from family and friends, we're still learning so much about what we are going to need to prepare for the arrival of the pumpkin baby. We made plenty of faces while opening gifts that probably looked something like "oh, thanks, this is GREAT . . . wait, what do we do with it?" Yet I'm positive Grandpa-to-be John made this face many more times than we did.
4) Even for someone who has been to Iowa in the summer countless times, I still think that Iowa is beautiful. The weather was amazing for this trip, and the light was really nice as we all finished our dinner, watched the kids (mostly Scott and Joel) play wiffle-ball homerun derby, and took family pictures.

Overall, excellent first shower! Thanks Campbell clan and Iowa!