The male version of a baby shower....

The male version of a baby shower does not include friends getting together or a gift exchange of any sort. Heck, in Jeremy's case it didn't even include beer with his friends. It only included a day of shopping at our favorite sporting store, REI.

Amazingly, we still had giftcards from our wedding so we thought we'd use them on a hiking pack. It's something you can carry a baby or toddler in while hiking in the mountains or just around on a walk. Jeremy was rather excited about this purchase. When we found out we were expecting he saw one of these and wanted to buy it then. However, I was only 3 weeks along and thought it might be best to make it through one or two ultrasounds before we rushed out to purchase this absolute necessity of an item. (never mind the fact we don't have a carseat or crib, but heck this baby can come home from the hospital in style riding in the "hiking pack" although it would be a long walk).

Anyway, we headed downtown to REI and Jeremy tried on the 3 or 4 different styles they had. This isn't your everyday hiking pack, it includes a sun/rain cover, diaper pad for changing, a storage area for carrying diapers, etc. One pack even had a mirror so you could check on the status of your baby while hiking. I find this rather amusing......are they expecting us to be on 4-5 day hikes and carrying all the baby supplies in the pack? Anyway, I made the deal since I get to carry the baby for 9 months, Jeremy can carry the baby all he wants in his hiking pack. So we finally made our selection.....we were getting the one with all the bells and whistles on it so we were prepared for anything/everything....and then got near the front to check out and saw another man with one much simplier and what appeared to be lighter. So, we turned around and went back to begin the selection process again. This time we walked away with one half the weight of the first one and without all the bells and whistles (still has the sun/rain protector).

We were proud of our decision and then realized 1/2 the hiking pack equaled 1/2 the price, which means we were not going to use much of our giftcard......our ultimate goal since we really don't go to this store often for it's location. So Jeremy put on his hiking pack and we proceeded to walk around the entire store looking for anything else we could add to this purchase. I'm not going to kid you - Jeremy was very proud of this hiking pack and insisted on wearing it. Since it adds depth to a person I was convinced he was going to take someone or something out while turning and looking at other items. It was like watching a kid with a new pair of school shoes walk around showing them off.....rather cute. Anyway, we came upon a youth outdoors water bottle and some other random things. Finally we called it quits and left......with money still on our giftcard.

On our way out I looked at Jeremy who was still wearing his "hiking pack" and said "this must be the male version of a baby shower!" He laughed. It was fun to see him so excited about something for this baby that he could envision using on a regular basis.

*I must note, we have looked at multiple cribs and that in itself is an adventure. Whichever one is selected really should be posted here as well because we are 1) rather picky 2) safety conscious 3) price realistic 4) ultimately over protective parents-to-be of a baby who will not be able to roll over by themself at birth and we are worried about them jumping out of the bed on day one or jumping up and down and the thing falling down. ha ha

A quick update on Sadie......

She is doing much better and in the middle of last week was able to have 3 of the 4 bandages taken off. However, one paw wasn't healing as well so they rebandaged it and sent us home with instructions on Sunday to take it off....... Well, Saturday afternoon Sadie decided she was better and pulled it off by herself. We just laughed and went with it. She's doing well and still desparately wanting to play ball.....however, she's on restrictions through this week. Don't worry, Elvis and Sadie have now rejoined me for jogs in the evening so they're using energy.

Have a great week!