Heart of Gold (Anthony Rizzo)

Thirty Eight

Anthony

Isabella had the bright idea of letting Nicholas plan the baby shower. He claims that since he's closest in age to her he knows the baby best so he knows what she would want. Therefore we let the seven year old who was the most experienced baby out of all of us call the shots.

Nick decided on having a costume party, because he'll find any excuse to dress up, and we decided to compromise with a wizard of oz themed party. Who doesn't like the wizard of oz? People of all ages liked it and it was easy to decorate accordingly so it worked perfectly for us. So we decorate the house like a old fashion farm home. There's drinks in Mason jars and a yellow brick road on the floor. We even go a photo booth and there was a curtains like the movie and everyone's faces showed outside of it too.

I suggested we dress Charlie up like a flying monkey because he was already brown, plus he didn't like the toto outfit. He probably found that demeaning. I went as the lion because I wanted to dress up like a big lion. I have courage but let's just say for role playing purposes I don't. I had a large mane and the outfit was hot but I looked great so I didn't care. Isabella is dressed as Dorothy and she was the cutest thing ever. Her long hair braided in pig tails with blue ribbon At the ends and she even had red ruby slippers. She had on a blue and white dress and she looked so incredibly sexy in it. Her bright blue eyes practically glowing as she looks around at the set up we had. We did really good if I do say so myself.

As for Nicholas, he was the tin man. We didn't get him a metal costume because if something was to happen and we needed to get to his chest it wouldn't work out very well but we got him a shirt that looked just like the tin man costume. He didn't care because he got the tin man head to wear so he could run into as many walls his little heart desired and Isabella couldn't yell at him. On his chest was a gold heart and a quote from the movie in it. It said, "a heart is not judged by how much you love, but how much you are loved by others" and Isabella and I thought it was so appropriate. He has always had trouble with his heart but it has never faltered who his is because he's just an amazing kid. Ask anyone and they'll say the same thing. He's touched more lives than the lives of those who touched his and that says a lot for a seven year old who hasn't really been able to live his life until recently.

After we get all the red caramel apples and other wizard of oz themed treats out and decorations up people start to come. They didn't have to dress up but most of them did. It was a easy theme because you could just dress like a farmer and fit in and that's what most of our friends did. Ciara came as the good witch and Jon came as the wizard. Jon explained that he loved dressing up and I can see that, he went full out.

Once everyone shows up Isabella and I walk around and say hi to everyone. We thank them when they say congratulations and tell them as much as we know, which isn't much. The invitations told them it was a girl and when she's due so all the important stuff was covered.

"Do you have a name picked out for her" Ciara asks as a group of our friends stand around and talk.

"No, we have just about everything else figured out" I laugh.

"You should name her Nicholas" Nick claims and I laugh.

"That's your name buddy" Isabella reminds him.

"You always say the world can use some more of me" he shrugs.

"I'm afraid it doesn't work like that" she laughs.

"Darn" he sighs.

"How about we make you a little brother and you can name him Nick" I say and Isabella gasps.

"Really! How are you going to do that" he asks and everyone starts to laugh.

"Dear god" Isabella mumbles.

"Hey look, Charlie is doing the flying monkey routine" I say and Nick lights up. He runs to the back porch and I laugh.

"Yeah, you're going to be just fine being a dad" Jon laughs.

After saying hi to everyone we pass out drinks and snacks and play some games. Some of it was wizard of oz trivia which Isabella killed and some of it was baby themed games. My favorite was putting a diaper on a doll blind folded, Starlin got his hand stuck in the diaper and I'm keeping that picture forever.

Eventually it comes time to open gifts and let me tell you, there was a lot. Her room wasn't completed yet but it was a light pink and we were ready to bring home our princess. We would decorate it more later on but for right now it was a blank canvas. We haven't picked a name because we weren't sure what would fit her, we decided to wait until she's born to choose but I had some ideas.

Nicky joins us in opening gifts and he does a pretty good job. It's going to be a pain in the ass to explain that this isn't for him but he'd understand sooner or later, right?