The Baby Shower

Yesterday we threw a surprise baby shower for Duke, who is expecting her second child in February.  Monster Noggin and I have never thrown a baby shower before.  Have never been to a baby shower before.  So we weren't 100% sure what we were meant to do.  Monster Noggin organised pretty much everything from rallying the troops to offering her house as the location.  She's good like that.  We figured we should have food.  Lots of food.  Drinks.  Presents.  And balloons.  Yes.  Balloons.  I was in charge of balloons, which might explain why things took a turn for the weird.  I was pleased that I'd managed to find a pack of blue balloons and when I arrived to help Monster Noggin set up I set about blowing them up.  25 balloons.  1 Little Stalky.  I almost ran of out of puff.  Almost.  I managed to get these balloons quite large and even tied them up and everything.  I was amassing a nice pile on the floor when one unexpectedly exploded.  I don't like sudden noises.  I let out an almighty scream followed by a loud obscenity.  Monster Noggin was downstairs at the time and also screamed, though this may or may not have been more through by reaction than the exploding balloon itself.  I assumed the balloon must have caught itself on something sharp.  But then, another one exploded.  Much more screaming!  Despite losing two balloons I set about blowing more up.  Perhaps a little smaller, suggested Monster Noggin, in case they're too big.  So, a little smaller.  Then another one explodes!  My God!  Not only were we going to run out of balloons, I was possibly going to a be a twitching wreck by the time everyone arrived.  On edge waiting for the next bang!  Then, as I was artistically draping balloons from various points in the room, another frickin' balloon decides to explode.  Luckily for me it wasn't the one that I was hanging up.  I've had a balloon explode in my face before and it's not nice.  More screaming.  With all the screaming and loud bangs I'm surprised the neighbours hadn't rushed around to see what was going on.  Then, with all the balloons nicely positioned, one hanging off the end of the fan cord and swirling in a circle, another one bloody well explodes!  Gah!  I think we lost about six in total.  Both big and small.  The only thing we could put it down to was the heat.  We just hoped that the balloons had finished exploding.  The last thing we wanted was those things going off during the baby shower.  Not only would it upset the kids, I didn't think we wanted to be causing undue surprise to a heavily pregnant lady.  Bad enough that we were surprising her with a baby shower.  But after that the balloons behaved themselves and even after being bashed by small children they refused to explode.  It was a huge relief.  And balloons aside the baby shower seemed to be enjoyed by all.  There were some lovely gifts, conversations that made me decide it sounds far to scary to actually give birth and good company.  As anticipated we had far too much food.  We probably could have fed a small army.  At least our lunchboxes are all well stocked today though.  Mine is so well stocked that I think I'll be able to feed the office too.  I'm sure they won't mind.