My friend, Andrea, recently threw a baby shower for her sister and used a unique activity to help fill the time: onsie painting. She bought a few packages of plain white onsies and supplied fabric pens and stencils. All of the onsies got painted and everyone had a great time.

Fabric pens and stencils to paint the onsies.

It helps they know the name of the baby.

Here’s my favorite … the diaper cake. I first heard of diaper cakes from Sex and the City. These things are expensive if you buy them pre-made, but Andrea shows one here that you can do it yourself and have it look great!

There are a ton of ways to organize and decorate a diaper cake, but this shows the beauty in the simplicity of flowers and elegant ribbon. Next time you have to host a baby shower, think of something unexpected. Below are some sites that might help in your planning.

Photos courtesy Andrea Morhack.

Related:

• Free baby shower games
• Planning a baby shower
• How to make a diaper cake video
• Baby shower FAQ

It’s nearly 9:00 a.m. and I just took my first bite of food and sip of coffee since 8:00 p.m. last night. As I read that sentence, it doesn’t seem like that much of a hardship, but it’s not as easy as you think. I had to fast in preparation for my yearly glucose screening test.

When I was pregnant I developed gestational diabetes (which went away after I had my son), but now I am at a higher risk to get regular adult diabetes so I have to get tested yearly. This means:

not eating for an evening,
driving to the lab where people pee in cups,
drinking a sugary, lime green liquid that tastes disgusting,
waiting,
waiting,
waiting,
then, finally, having my blood drawn while trying not to pass out.

So, I’m prepared for my test today. I didn’t eat or drink anything last night after dinner. I get up and brew a pot of coffee for my husband (nice wife that I am), fry up an egg and dice some cantelope for my son. While I sit by and watch them eat and drink, the hazelnut from the coffee tempts me by wafts in the air. But I don’t cave, my appointment is just after 8:00 a.m., so I don’t have to suffer too long. It’s time to go so I drive to the testing lab and have a seat.

The lab specialist calls me up and tells me that my insurance doesn’t cover this particular lab: “it’s out of network,” is what she says. I go home. Now, I have to do it all over again.  

I’ll write more about diabetes in the future. For now, I’m going to finish my breakfast.