Not for me. That store is closed, closed, closed. But for the amazing Alison, of Mama Wants This.  She is having her second child sometime this month and three of my favorite bloggers have put together an online baby shower for Alison, who (in)conveniently for the rest of us lives in Malaysia.

Erica, the most-excellent curator of yeahwrite (and a great writer in her own (w)right), wants us to guess the incoming baby’s arrival stats, so because my most recent child (he’s almost 8, so “recent” is a relative term) was big and late, I’m going to wish for Alison that her second baby is small and slightly early: so let’s say 8 May and 6 pounds I mean, 2.7 kilos. (Damn that U.S. school system and their failure to teach me metrics.)

Stasha the best list-maker (and photographer) in the Pacific Northwest asks us to find baby presents for Scrumplet on Pinterest. Okay, I don’t pin. No clue how to pin, don’t really need to introduce yet more screen-related interactions into my life, so I will add my gift here, the way we used to do it in the good-old-fashioned steal-a-photo-and-paste-it days.

My favorite baby read-aloud book, which I read to both my boys until the book’s edges were frayed and curled. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

“The old moon laughed and sang a song,  As they rocked in the wooden shoe, And the wind that sped them all night long, Ruffled the waves of dew. The little stars were the herring fish, That lived in that beautiful sea—Now cast your nets wherever you wish—Never afeard are we”; So cried the stars to the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod…“  It’s a lovely little poem, just the right thing to put little babies (or their big brothers) to sleep.

Ado, from The Momalog, is currently on a screen-free week, which makes her not only a better mom than I am, but a better person too. Of course, I sort of knew that already but now she’s proved it. Something about a screen-free week campaign and an organization called Commercial-free childhood . AS IF. Okay, true, my kids basically watch no commercial TV but that’s because  A) we’ve always just watched taped programs or videos, so we either skip the commercials or it’s “just” a video w/no ads.  And now we don’t really have “tv” here in Abu Dhabi other than a variety of streaming soccer channels. Plus, B) my kids would rather play computer games, which is why achieving screen-free space is something I’m just too weak to attempt. More on that later.  For the shower, Ado asks for our favorite baby photo and quote about parenting, so I give you my sweet Caleb, about a week old:

And given that this is an online baby shower, it seems appropriate to use a blogger’s comment about parenting. I read this comment a long time ago on Mom-101; I think maybe it was her mom who said it, or perhaps she got it from somewhere else, but the advice is this: “remember that everything you do as a parent will be right and everything you do as a parent will be wrong.” I figure that about sums it up: we do the best we can with what we’ve got; we’re bound to screw up hourly some of the time, but mostly, if we get down on the floor and play with our kids; if we (yes, Ado, I hear you) look up from our screens long enough to pay attention and listen, then probably (fingers crossed) everything is going to be okay. Well – all of that and lots of naps. Maybe the occasional Pinot, too.

Happy baby, Alison; happy shower; and many thanks to our lovely internet hostesses (which I’m afraid makes you all sound a bit like you work for an escort service).