Ideas for Classy Baby Shower Games

There are no end of suggestions on the internet for baby shower games - cheesy ones, funny ones, competitive ones and downright gross ones (thinking of the sniff what's in the nappy game here!). However, not every mum-to-be, baby shower party host or guest is going to want these kind of games at their baby shower. This article gives some suggestions for more sedate and classy baby shower activities.

1. Cake or cookie decorating. This year cupcakes have been the big trend. If your party host is a dab hand they can run the activity but you can also often find local cake decorators willing for a fee to attend your venue to give the guests a lesson in decorating for an hour or so. Learn a craft plus get to eat the finished article - what could be better! If cupcakes aren't your thing what about making cookies using baby shape cookie cutters like bottles, bibs and booties then icing them afterwards. If you are feeling really brave have a go at making cake pops - the newest sensation to arrive from the US. Little balls of cake mixed with icing, rolled into balls then covered with melted candy and decorated as you wish - how about having a go at making little baby faces!

2. Completing an advice book or cards. Many guests at a baby shower are likely to have their own children and can offer invaluable advice to the new mum. Tips on how to get a baby to nap, how to change a nappy, best breastfeeding positions, getting baby to sleep through the night and so on are great for a mum expecting her first baby. Even guests who don't have children can give great advice - often they are the best at advice about how to carve out time to pamper oneself after having kids. Buy some lovely little keepsake cards or an advice book to write them in and ask each guest to write their best piece of advice to the new mum. These tips can then be easily referred to and also make a great keepsake gift that can be stored along with baby's first curl, booties, hospital bracelet and so on as a lovely reminder of the start of her fantastic journey into motherhood.

3. Pamper time for the mum-to-be! Give her some well -deserved pampering before the baby arrives as there won't be much time for it afterwards for a while. Bring a selection of nail varnishes, face packs and foot lotions and give mum-to-be a little boost whilst eating lots of lovely cake, drinking tea and gossiping - the ultimate girly day.

My Life As an Adoptee and What I Have Recently Learned

I'll be 40 this year, and have yet to know and discover my birth-mother, not to mention my birth-father, birth-siblings and other birth-relatives. These people, yes, real life people, are all out there but a complete mystery to me. I am starting to assume this is how it's going to be, that there will always be that missing connection. Separation at birth, undoubtedly affects the lives of both adult and child, more particularly, mother and child, both mentally and emotionally.

Unrelenting feelings of abandonment and loss are natural byproducts of being relinquished by adoption (also referred to as "emotional amputation"). I can certainly relate to that and have to believe that birth-mothers must feel that same loss, shrouded perhaps with painful guilt, grief and emptiness. Consciously or not, their inner selves have suffered.

I have also learned over the years that the need to be connected with my biological and historical past is an integral part of my identity formation. I am starved for that special bond that was developed in-utero. It's natural for me to want to hear her voice, smell her body, see her facial expressions, feel her skin - I was born to her. And in my case, I don't believe I will be healed until I do. If I don't, it's pretty simple that I will always be wounded by my adoption.

Knowing this all to be true, and knowing that I am not unlike any other makes it bearable, and even livable. It was the years of not knowing what was wrong with me... Why did I feel so sad all the time? Now I can see a reason for those feelings. I've been able to expand my thoughts to include consideration of the feelings of the woman who gave me birth, but could not give me life.