Baby Shower!

We just got back from a baby shower thrown for us by nangi and our little group of Lankanites here in Dallas. There’s a battle for space going on in the bundi, between Peanut and all the delicious food I just wolfed down: chicken pastries, maalu paan, carrot sandwiches, sausages, devilled eggs, chocolate cake and chocolate biscuit pudding. Plenty of strong tea and steaming mugs of coffee also made their way around. It was a really special afternoon and Roshan and I are so appreciative of the love, care and thoughtfulness that had gone into the planning and execution of this fabulous little do. It was Roshan’s first baby shower experience and his words post-shower were: “I thought baby showers were supposed to be boring, but this was really fun!” So hats off to the secret agent organisers who have been conspiring over the details without letting us know a scrap of what was going to happen for the last two or three weeks.
Roshan and I almost won the one-handed diaper dressing competition, beating all the old hands like Dihan & Roshana and Thilini & Lakshan, but surprisingly, we were beaten in the tie breaker round by singletons Thuan and Roshan F who took out the title in 26 seconds. Word unscrambling games were not everybody’s forte, but thanks to a few hints and clues from nangi, all players managed to scramble through with passable scores. Roshan and I were then challenged with the task of identifying the contents of a dangerously dirty diaper, specially assembled to resemble the meconium diaper we will be encountering in Peanut’s first few hours of being in this world. Fork in hand, we dug in and rather enjoyed picking out the banana from the apple, the Cadbury from the Junior Mints and the mustard from the peanut butter! Yummy!!
Of course then we had the gifts to unwrap! What a fabulous collection of things we received: bright, dangly baby toys and bottle warmers (curiously enough, the very items that are as yet un-ticked in our long list of “things to buy” for Peanut) and the sweetest little onesies, pyjamas and bunny suits. A Notre Dame football jersey also made its way in there, courtesy of the bappi to be. And then nangi brought out the big guns and I opened up the waterworks. No, it wasn’t a gush of water announcing Peanut’s early arrival, but a whole lot of tears when nangi handed us a huge poster on which she had pasted printed messages from our family and friends around the world. I only got through half the first posting before I became a blubbering mess and decided to postpone reading the rest till everyone left. In my defense, the message I read halfway did happen to be the one from thaththi and his words almost always have that effect on me. Even Roshan – yes, my tough and mighty Roshan – found it hard to get through the messages without salting up his eyes!

Sitting here now, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. I am so thankful to our little Lankan lot here in Dallas (led by Peanut’s doting "nangi nandi" and aunty Thilini) who made this day so special for us with their presence and efforts and so appreciative of the love and wishes sent to us from around the world by those who mean so very much to us. In the last eight months, many other wonderful friends have also shared our happiness with us; they have toasted Peanut's arrival over a glass of wine or two, said special prayers for him, bought him things before even I started shopping and helped us out with everything from maternity clothes to baby monitors. Peanut is so blessed to have such a network of love surrounding him already and we are thrilled to know he will have you all in his life, be it from near or far.