Hope you all had a Happy Easter weekend! I spent Friday at the opening of the fascinating Zenergy House out in LA (details about that to come tomorrow!) before heading north to visit family.

Since my sister has officially gone off to college, my parents are downsizing from their beautiful 3 bedroom house in Ventura, CA to something smaller in Orange County. The change is bittersweet for me. I loved the space they had in their most recent home (and I was quite a fan of the community pool at their big place in suburbia) but they’ll be closer to me after the move. And having relocated a lot throughout my life, I don’t tend to get too attached to one place.

I went home this weekend to troll through a jillion boxes of childhood memories and determine what’s worth keeping and what’s not. On the definitely keep list: my massive collection of troll dolls.

Yep, there are more trolls where that came from. Lots and lots and lots more. I loved troll dolls when I was a kid. Trolls were my own weirdo version of Barbie dolls. I braided their hair and dressed them up and developed little personalities for each one of them, and I’m so glad I got to salvage my troll collection before they went the way of my beloved pogs. I also had a ridiculous amount of Breyer horses. My sister – six years younger than me – had American Girl dolls, Beanie Babies, and My Little Ponies. What a difference six years can make!

So, what childhood toys were you obsessed with?

A ridiculously high number of my friends have been having babies recently, so I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing baby stores for the obligatory gender-neutral onesie. Some parents do find out their baby’s sex beforehand, but I still like to go with yellows and greens just in case. I have heard a number of horror stories where the couple was expecting a girl and then it’s like, “Whoops, looks like that thing in the ultrasound wasn’t a foot after all!” Plus, I don’t see why girls have to wear pink and boys have to wear blue. Let’s mix it up a little.

So in my baby shopping adventures, there’s been one thing I just cannot resist: baby shoes. Baby shoes are the cutest thing on the entire planet. I don’t really ever need to have babies – just give me a collection of baby shoes to coo over and my cuteness quota will be filled for an entire lifetime. So I inevitably buy a pair of matching baby shoes to go with these numerous onesie baby gifts. It’s my way of saying, “Sorry kid, your outfit is pretty much a giant body-blanket, but here’s some rad shoes to complete the ensemble!”

The parents inevitably oooh and aaah over the tiny baby shoes and send the standard angelic baby thank you card, but I can tell what they’re really thinking. “Baby shoes? And of all things, high-tops? Really? Only Chelsea would give us something like this. Does she think our infant is going to start spontaneously break-dancing?”

To which I telepathically reply: “No (insert any one of my plentiful pregnant friends’ names here), obviously I don’t think that. I have much higher hopes for your child. Like fencing, badminton or Taekwondo. Trust me, those baby shoes will come in handy any minute now. I’m expecting Olympic gold here, so don’t let me down. And PS – I know you still have that godmother spot open. Just sayin….”

Is it just me, or does EVERYONE seem to be getting pregnant lately? There’s babies everywhere! It doesn’t really make sense, considering that we’re still caught up in a recession and baby booms usually come after recessions (when people feel confident to start investing in their families again), but my theory is that everyone is cutting back on entertainment expenditures and finding other ways to entertain themselves at home…

Anyway, the sudden onslaught of infants has unveiled a whole new world that I was previously unaware of. A world of onesies, diaper genies, baby showers and something called a “Hooter Hider.” Always one to make a party out of anything, I was delighted when one of my friends invited me to a baby-related event called the Gender Reveal. The mysterious and very exciting gender reveal is when the expecting parents find out what gender their baby is going to be, and then reveal it to the world in clever and inventive ways.

My favorite gender reveal is the “baby cakes” method. The ultrasound-stick wielding doctor (you can read all about THAT invasive process over at All Bower Power) gives the parents a sealed envelope with the gender written inside. The parents then hand the sealed envelope over to a baker (or trusted friend) and have a cake made with white frosting and either blue or pink layers, depending on the baby’s gender. A big party takes place where everyone finds out the baby’s gender via cake-slicing, and all the family and friends party, eat cake, and drink champagne in celebration while the pregnant mom sips something non-alcoholic, non-caffeinated, and – of course – non-shellfish.

A slightly-less public method of revealing the gender is to send a simple card to friends and family. When choosing this route, the expecting parents have the doctor tell them the gender, and then they create a card or photo card with the announcement. A really nice and simple touch is to tie a blue or pink ribbon around the mother’s stomach and use that as the announcement photo.

For close family who can’t make it to a gender reveal party or who you just want to do something extra-special for, a nice gesture is to send either blue or pink flowers with a simple “It’s a Boy” or “It’s a Girl” card. A similar idea is to send a single helium balloon in the appropriate color.

While we’re on the subject…many of my friends have asked when Nate and I plan on jumping aboard the baby wagon, so I’ll go ahead and share what I’ve told all of them: I refuse to even think about it until after the wedding. I have quite enough crammed into my head at the moment (bridesmaids, bouquets, caterers, chair covers) without adding in distant future concerns about nurseries, booties, formula, and diapers.