It's Raining, It's Pouring, It's A Baby Shower

Our mothers hosted a baby shower for us in Cleveland on March 29th. It was held at a location adjacent to where we had our bridal shower, which made things even more memorable. It's like things have come full circle. A little over 2 years ago, we were in the same place preparing for our wedding, and now we are anticipating the next part of our life together with our little one.

As with the bridal shower, it rained on the day of the baby shower. I heard that rain is good luck (at least that is what people told me on the wedding day because it rained then also...you have to love Cleveland weather). People didn't seem to mind too much though, and I hope everyone had a great time. We had approximately 80 guests. Shereif was the only man there :) but he said he had fun and especially liked the food. We ate a ton of Middle Eastern appetizers and had chicken marsala with red potatoes, veggies, and pasta with asparagus as our entree. We also had a beautiful cassada cake, which is Shereif's favorite, and a wide assortment of Middle Eastern pastries.

Some of the appetizers


The beautiful and delicious cake


Pea D's Sonogram image as well as pictures of Shereif and me as babies

As a fun game, we played The Price is Right. I was Bob Barker, or Drew Carey since my belly is so big, and Shereif was one of the lovely Barker Beauties. Guests formed teams and had to guess the price of certain baby items (e.g., a pack of diapers, diaper rash ointment, pacifiers, baby food) without going over the original price. We gave away prizes to the top 4 teams. We also gave each guest a favor, which was a set of silver and gold spoons. Even though Pea D will not be born with a silver spoon in her mouth, we thought that the favors would be useful and go well with our wedding favors, which were crystal dishes that most people use for sugar.

The favors

We are truly fortunate to have such loving, supportive, and amazing family and friends who are extremely generous and thoughtful. We received so many great gifts and know they will help us get through the beginning days, months, and years with our little monkey. We cannot thank everyone enough for all that they have done for us and continue to do. We especially want to thank our mothers for all of their love and support and for working so tirelessly to throw us a wonderful shower. We also want to thank my Aunt Rosy for all of her help with the food and making sure things ran smoothly during the shower. In addition, thank you Aunt Mary Ann for all of the decorations and for running back and forth to help with the set-up. Our friend Hena and cousins Amanda, Brittany, and Sarah helped tremendously with the gifts, game, and taking pictures. We love you all very much!

The parents and grandmothers-to-be

There is an Arabic saying that babies are good luck. We know that Pea D has been a tremendous source of good fortune for us. She has helped us get through a lot in these past few months and has made the bond between Shereif and me even stronger. And, she even helped us win 2 prizes at the Baby Fair! In addition to the first aid kit we won, I just found out that I will be receiving a free skincare facial and consultation soon. It will definitely be nice to get pampered. Even with all of these blessings in life, we are also reminded of life's limits. Please keep Shereif's grandmother who is in the hospital in your thoughts. We pray that she will get better soon and be back to her happy, always-on-the-go self so that we can introduce her to her great granddaughter.