My best friend’s brother and sister-in-law are having a baby, and she asked me for ideas for the baby shower. First of all, I love baby showers! Bring on the boxed wine!

Just kidding. Kind of. Actually, this one is a little wierd for me because said brother was my first love. It’s not weird because I harbor ANY feelings other than friendship for the guy, but I was not invited to their wedding - even though there has been no romance between me and him for a good 10 years. I think they’ve been married for two years or so now. The wife is a lot younger - in fact, she was their little sister’s best friend. That’s weird too.

So anyway, back to the baby shower. Here are my favorite games:

• Guess the poop: Fill diapers with mysterious substances and have shower guests guess at the contents. Melted snickers is my fav.
• How big is she?: tear off squares of TP approximating the girth of the preggo girl.
• Bait and Switch: Have the guest of honor carry a tray of baby goodies around the room (that she’ll get to keep). Each guest gets 10 seconds to memorize what’s on the tray. Then, she leaves the room, and you say, describe the pregnant girl. Ha! Tricked you! The person with the most detailed description wins.

The other things I like to see at baby showers are pre-stamped envelopes ready for the guests to write their names and addresses on. This way, the new mom only has to write out the thank yous, not worry about gathering up all the addresses.

As for gifts - even if there’s a registry, I always make something myself and give a gift card. My favorite gift is homemade baby birth announements with blanks that the mom can fill in. But these days, there are so many cool birth announcements on the market, it’s almost not as fun to make them any more. Especially all the options for photo birth announcements.

Anyway - if there’s no chocolate fountain, it’s not a party. Keep that in mind, shower planners.