If you’re like many adults, the last time you wrote a thank you card may have been after your wedding. Now here you are, pregnant, hormonal and so big you’re about to pop, and you have a large list of baby shower attendees and gift-givers to thank.

This is only the start—you’ll receive presents after the baby is born, too. From there, it doesn’t end: baptism, birthdays, holidays. I do believe in sending thank you notes for every occasion and teaching children to do the same from a young age.

My nephews send thank you notes to us without fail for every occasion that we give them a gift, and those cards receive places of honor on our refrigerator. It’s been fun to watch them evolve from notes written by their mom, to the simple words “thank you” in big blocky letters they wrote themselves as kindergarteners, to the personalized, heartfelt notes they now send as young adults.

Thank yous are important, but I digress. Some etiquette experts say you have as long as six months after an event to send thank you notes. The rule of thumb I’ve always adhered to is two months. Unless you have 1,000 people at your gala event, there’s really no reason to take six months to send a thank you note.

But do yourself a favor and get those baby shower thank you notes out as soon as possible, so you don’t create a backlog and find yourself with a long list of cards to write and a crying infant in the other room. If at all possible, get your shower “thank yous” out before the baby is born.

It all begins with the list. If you send Christmas cards every year, you probably already have all your important family addresses well-organized. If not, you may have put together an address list for your shower—or whoever hosted the shower did it for you, in secrecy. Get that list! It will make your life so much easier and keep you from having to re-invent the wheel.

Our article about Baby Shower Ideas recommends having each guest fill in their own name and address on thank you card envelopes as they leave, which is certainly a great idea if the host of the shower thinks to provide thank you cards for the mom-to-be in advance. (And what a thoughtful idea!)

With your address list in hand, you’ll also need the list of gifts you received and who gave them to you. Hopefully, one of your friends at the shower wrote all this information down as you opened presents and everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the adorable onesies and baby blankets.

And, of course, you need thank you cards! For round-two of gift-giving, after the baby is born, you may want to have cards printed with the baby’s picture on it or simply include a wallet-size photo with the card. If the baby isn’t born yet, it might be fun to include a sonogram picture (especially if you have one from a 3D sonogram), but there are also a wide variety of adorable thank you cards to choose from with no baby pictures required, online or at your local store.

Some Web sites and even drug stores will allow you to include your own special message pre-printed on the cards, but this is not enough! Each card should include a personalized, handwritten message, too, along with the gift-giver’s name, and your personal, handwritten signature. Visit the Tiny Prints Store for a great selection of Thank You Cards that you personalize or buy as-is!

The writing… for many people, that’s the hard part. What do you say? The important thing is to be heartfelt and personal. Mention the gift by name, and possibly even the way it will be used or something you especially like about it. “Thank you so much for the adorable outfit. It is my favorite color, and Ashley will be wearing it when we come home from the hospital together!”

If you know the baby’s name, it’s fine to use it, even if the baby isn’t born yet. Don’t forget to sign the card from both yourself and your husband, even if the shower was thrown in your honor. If you feel weird signing a card from an unborn baby, you can definitely skip that, but some mothers think it’s a cute touch.

In addition to commenting personally and positively on the gift, be sure to thank the person for attending the celebration, as well. Let them know you appreciated their presence, not just their present!

What if a gift is positively awful and you plan on heading right back to the store to make an exchange? (Or they didn’t check your registry and you received a duplicate.) Find something nice to say, but don’t be phony. Let the person know you appreciate the thoughtful gift, and emphasize how nice it was to see them at the shower. If you received two of the same item, comment on each as if it were the only one you received; the gift-giver doesn’t have to know whose Diaper Genie went back to the store and which one is sitting in the nursery right now.

Finally, be sure to send an extra special card, and maybe even a small gift, such as a box of chocolates or a scented candle, to the host or hosts of the shower. Let them know you appreciate how much work goes into planning such an event, and how much it meant to you. Don’t forget to thank them for their gift, as well!

Writing thank you cards is not difficult or scary and, in fact, it should give you a warm feeling inside, as you reminisce about the good times you had at your shower and all the love (and presents) you received! You don’t have to be Shakespeare or Miss Manners to write a good thank you card. Take time to truly appreciate the thought, expense, attention and care that went into each gift, and this gratitude will be reflected in every word you write.

This baby shower game is very popular at showers and is great for everyone at the party, even children who can read and write. Before the day of the party, select as many words as you want that are related to pregnancy and babies, no less than 25 is recommended. Now, the fun part is to scramble the letters so that they are no longer in the right order.

For example, the words that you scramble would include: breastfeeding, rattle, baby, ball and these could become: ngstbrieedaef, ttrela, bbya, albl or any other combination you want. Vary the length and the difficulty of the words when making the scramble.

Set a time limit of approximately five minutes and the person who unscrambles the most words within the allotted time wins the game and the prize.

Do you have a favorite baby shower game not listed?  Please comment!

For this game you need to purchase about 10 – 12 bottles of baby food. Make sure that you get different flavors that look the same; this is especially important if you decide to go with the taste or smell version of the game without using blindfolds. You will also need to remove the labels from each bottle and write down the number alongside the correct contents of the bottle on a piece of paper.

One version of the Guess the Baby Food game and one that can be quite hilarious is to do the taste test. This game can be played with or without blindfold, as this increases the level of difficulty and the fun. It is common knowledge that bottled baby food is not something the average adult likes. For this version of the game some baby food is placed in plastic spoons and the guest or mom-to-be tastes the food and tries to guess what it is. The look on the faces of the persons doing the tasting is priceless and will bring life to any baby shower.

In addition to the taste version, guests can be blindfolded and given jars of baby food to smell and guess what it is. Another version is to just let the invitees try to look at the sealed jar of baby food and guess what it is. With the latter version the sealed jars and the list with the numbers indicating what each jar contains is given to the mom-to-be for future use.

Do you have a favorite baby shower game not listed?  Please comment!

For this game you need to get the following items:

• Bingo cards (these can be pre-printed with words that are associated with babies, e.g. changing table, diaper, nappies. The design of regular bingo cards can be used, so the “B” line would have only items to do with feeding, “I” to do with names etc.)
• Markers to mark the cards
• Papers marked with things associated with babies and pregnancy – make sure that all the words on the cards are included. Place these folded papers into a bag or deep container.

Each guest is given a bingo card when they arrive for the party. Once the game begins, the host or anyone else acts as the caller. The caller’s job is to pull the strips of paper from the container and call out what is written on it. Guests will mark that word off their bingo card. The first person to mark off a line of words based on the type of bingo being played, calls out “bingo”. This person is the winner of the game. Guests can play for just fun, or to get more interaction, small tokens can be used as prizes.

Type of bingo: Before the game, the caller will state what type of bingo is being played such as ‘full house”, that is, all the squares on the card must be filled or ‘corner to corner”. Regular bingo players can make suggestions.

Version 2: Each guest is given a blank bingo card and is asked to write down what types of gifts they think the mom-to-be will be getting. As she opens the presents, the guests tick off the correct answers on their card. The first person to tick all the guesses on the card wins the game by calling out “bingo”.

Version 3: Again this can be played like a regular bingo game, and the numbers on the bingo cards should ideally be representative of the number of persons at the party. Therefore if invitations were sent to 25 persons, the numbers on the bingo card should not go above 25.

Each guest is then given a number between 1 and 25 to place on their gifts which are placed on a table. The mom-to-be will select gifts in no particular order and call out the number on the gift and guests will mark this off on their cards if it is there. The first person to fill in a line vertically or completely fill in the card, depending on the rules, wins the game by calling out the word, “bingo”.

Do you have a favorite baby shower game not listed?  Please comment!

This baby shower version of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” is just as fun and can really bring life to a party. Anyone can join in, women, men, children, even the mom-to-be can safely take part in this game. For the game you will need to get the following beforehand:

• A nice life-sized picture of a baby

• Drawings of a pacifier – you will need one for each guest. Since this is easy to do you can opt for excess in case some guests want more than one try.

• Blindfolds – you can create blindfolds from paper or get scarves or even ask each guest to take their own material or sleep mask to use.

• Tape to use on the drawings of the pacifiers. Tape is safer than pins.

The objective is to have guests take turns trying to place the pacifier in the baby’s open-mouth while blindfolded. The person who comes closest to the baby’s mouth with the pacifier wins the game.

There are many variations to this game, so use your imagination. Some suggestions include:

• Instead of trying to pin the pacifier, other objects can be used instead such as baby bottles, sippy cups, even a thumb.

• Use an image of a mother with hands positioned as if holding a baby, but of course, the baby is missing. The game is to cut out images of babies and try to stick them into the cradled arms of the mommy. Really creative persons can have the mommy lying in bed, sitting in a chair or standing – the choice is wide open.

• Another nice variation is ‘pin the belly button’ with a picture of a pregnant tummy minus a belly button and guests try to place the belly button in the right position.

Do you have a favorite baby shower game not listed?  Please comment!

This fun game is a variation of the popular Price is Right Game. Before the start of the game buy between 15 and 20 different baby-related items – make sure to keep the receipts with the price.

Write down the price of each item and place it face down under each item. Make sure than none the guests sees the price when you are doing this. Give each item a number – make this visible. Next you will also need to place the same numbers in a container and have each guest pull out a piece of paper with a number.

Once the container is empty have each guest write down on the paper what they believe the right price of the item is. The guest whose guess is closet to the right price wins the game.

There are many variations of this fun game. Here are two twists that can be added to provide some variety.

1. Show each guest the items and ask them to write down the prices. Once everyone has written down the price of each item, compare prices and the person who has guessed the prices of the most items correctly wins.

2. Decide beforehand the rules in terms of ‘closest price”. Is it the nearest price without going over, or is it the nearest price within two dollars of the correct price. This means that the winner is the person whose guess is anywhere from the correct price to two dollars more or less than the right price.

Suggested baby items include:

• Pacifier

• Feeding bottle

• Rattle

• Diaper pins

• Wet wipes

• Stuffed toy

• Bottled food

• Hair brush and comb

• Wash rags

Do you have a favorite baby shower game not listed?  Please comment!

For this fun baby shower game, which is also great for children’s parties you need to get a nice gift and wrap it in many different layers of wrapping paper. Try to wrap the gift in as many layers as the number of guest you expect at the party. Make sure that each layer of wrapping paper is different so that it is easy to differentiate one layer from the other. To make the game really fun, add small gifts in between each layer. The gifts do not have to be expensive and can include a cute pen or some candies.

Have each guest sit on a chair in a circle and start the music. The person holding the parcel when the music starts passes it to the person sitting beside them. The parcel is passed from guest to guest until the music stops. The tempo and length of time between stopping the music can be varied to make the game more exciting. The guest holding the parcel when the music stops starts removing as many layers of wrapping paper as they can. If they find a present it is theirs to keep, but they must stop and pass the parcel on to the next person as soon as the music starts again.

The parcel is passed around until the last piece of wrapping paper is removed. The guest who removes the last piece of wrapping from the parcel wins the game and gets to keep the gift or they can give it to the mom to be if they wish.

This is a fun game and can include all invitees at the party, women, men and children.

Note: In another variation of the game, each time the music stops, only one layer of wrapping paper can be removed.

Do you have a favorite baby shower game not listed?  Please comment!

Have you recently found out that you are going to be a grandparent? If you have and if this is a new experience for you, you may be curious as to what your roles and responsibilities are. You should know that grandparents are important on a number of different levels. Your grandchild will rely on you for love and support, as well as will your son or daughter and their partner.

One of the many ways that you can offer your assistance, as a grandparent, is before your new grandchild is even born. You will want to provide your son or daughter all of the knowledge and support that they need. This may involve throwing a baby shower for your daughter or daughter in-law, helping to set up the baby’s nursery, or just lending an ear. As a parent yourself, you may remember how overwhelming a new baby can be for new parents. That is why any help that you have to offer will likely be welcomed with opened arms.

As soon as your new grandchild is born, you will find a number of opportunities to offer assistance. Your child and their partner will likely be at the hospital, feeling a wide array of emotions. These emotions may include happiness, nervousness, and the feeling of being unprepared. You may want to offer your assistance around the home. You can straighten up your son or daughter’s home, particularly before they will arrive from the hospital. You can also offer assistance by preparing a few meals and freezing them for later. New parents often find little time for these tasks.

Although your help and assistance will be appreciated before and during the birth of your grandchild, you will be needed even more afterwards. As previously stated, it is important that you provide both your child and grandchild with all of the love and support in the world. After the birth of your grandchild, particularly during the first year, you will want to sure that you make time for your family. In fact, time is the greatest gift that you can give your grandchild and their parents. While your time may be spent running errands, doing housework, baby proofing, or baby-sitting, your role of a grandparent is important, on a number of different levels.

The above mentioned actions are just a few of the many that you may want to take, when you become a new grandparent. Although you will have a number of responsibilities to your son or daughter and grandchild, it is more than acceptable for you to take a break and celebrate the fact that you will be a new grandparent. After all, you may have as many as nine months to prepare for your new role.

Are you a new grandparent? If you are, you may be curious as to which responsibilities you should take on. It is important to know that your grandchild, as well as your son or daughter will need your assistance before, during, and after birth.

If you just recently learned that you will be a grandparent, your main focus should be placed on your son or daughter. Even planned pregnancies can be overwhelming for new parents. The good news is that there are a number of different ways that you can offer assistance. For instance, you can plan a baby shower for the new mom, you can purchase new baby necessities, such as clothing, baby formula, or diapers, or your can help to set up baby’s nursery. Before taking any action, however, you may want to see, from your son or daughter, where your services are most needed.

During the birth of your grandchild, you will find a number of opportunities to be helpful and offer your assistance. As with extending your help before the birth of a baby, you may want to devise a plan with your son or daughter. Will your services be needed in the delivery room or elsewhere? If your daughter or daughter in-law has the delivery of your grandchild already planned, your services may be best used at their home. For example, you could straighten up their home to ensure they come home to a clean and pleasant environment, help to cook meals, or pick up last minute baby supplies.

After the birth of your grandchild, you will still want to offer your help and assistance to your son or daughter in anyway possible. This may involve running errands, offering your services as a babysitter, and so forth. With that in mind, you may want to shift the majority of your focus onto your new grandchild. To have a happy and successful relationship with your new grandchild, you will want to start the bonding process as soon as possible. Even if you aren’t asked to baby-sit, you should still take steps to visit your new grandchild, even for just a few minutes.

The above mentioned steps are just a few of the many that you may want to take as a grandparent. As time passes, you will still want offer your help and assistance to your son or daughter and your grandchild. In fact, your help, guidance, and assistance will be just as valuable as it was the day that your grandchild was born.

by: Adriana Copaceanu

One of the most exciting events an expecting mother looks forward to is celebrating her baby shower.

Deciding to Throw a Baby Shower
Baby showers are often thrown by a friend or family member. Formal tradition dictates that someone other than a family member throws the baby shower, but this certainly does not have to be the case and many modern women go against the grain and welcome any offers from family willing to throw a party on their and baby’s behalf.

Preparing Ahead of Time: The First Critical Steps
Planning and throwing a shower can be a cumbersome task if you go into in unprepared. It certainly does not have to be however, if you keep a few things in mind.

One of the most important considerations is planning where and when the baby shower will take place. The majority of baby showers are held before mom gives birth, but this is not always the case and certainly does not have to be. Some mothers are superstitious and prefer to have the baby shower after birth, to ensure the happy and healthy delivery of their newborn. Be sure if you are planning the happy event to check in with mom to be to ensure you plan it at a time that is comfortable for her.

Most showers are held in someone’s home other than that of the new mom. Typically the person throwing the baby shower hosts the party at their house or at an alternate location such as a park or reception hall.

Invitation List
The next step in planning a shower is figuring out who to invite. The guest list should be the responsibility of the guest of honor. Letting mom develop the invitation list will ensure that no one gets left out.

Most parties held are women-only parties, though this trend is rapidly changing. As fathers continue to become more involved in the planning for new babies, many couples are starting to hold co-ed parties that invite couples. Be sure to check in again with the guest of honor to ensure that the theme of the party matches her preferences.

Themes and Thrills
Deciding on a theme isn’t necessary, but can add fun and excitement to the party. The theme of the party for an expectant parent who is having a boy baby might be something as simple as a color, such as “green”. Guests might be encouraged to bring gifts that correspond with the nursery room theme as well. Many parents for example, design baby’s room with a certain theme in mind such as ducks. Guests might consider brining items that match this idea. Even the cake and decorations can be designed to incorporate a selected topic or idea.

No baby shower would be complete without incorporating a few fun games. Deciding on games doesn’t require a degree in rocket science. One popular and traditional game involves having everyone get together in a circle and write down one piece of advice for the mom to be. Another one might have everyone right down one prediction for the new baby’s future. These cards can be collected at the end of the party and stored in baby’s memory book for review at a later date, providing a wonderful memento for mommy to be and baby.

Though it is not required, some hosts provide gag gifts for anyone participating in a game. This can be a fun way to allow mom and guests enjoy the gift giving bonanza.

One last tip to consider prior to throwing the party is finding out where an expectant mom is registered. Including this information on the invitation or having it available to give out to guests will truly help mom receive special gifts that will match her preferences for baby’s first year. One of the reasons for throwing a shower is to help new parents collect much needed items for baby’s first year.

About The Author
Adriana Copaceanu provides people with creative gift ideas that don’t blow the bank. Gift Baskets for Baby to Birthday and Beyond, are just some gift ideas you’ll find at her site: www.abcgiftsandbaskets.com Want regular reminders on gift-giving? Sign up for her free monthly newsletter at www.abcgiftsandbaskets.com/gift-news-signup.htm.