Baby Shower

This may come as a shock to some fans of "Murphy Brown" who think the series is hip and cutting-edge TV. But this is a sitcom that has become very old-fashioned in format, message and values. And tonight's highly publicized baby shower show -- at 9 on WBAL-Channel 11 -- is a good example. It's also a good example, though, of why this show means so much to so many people.Murphy Brown, of course, is having a baby. The actual birth happens next Monday nightin a funny, but also highly traditional episode -- so traditional the ending will make some viewers' teeth ache.

As Sheree said, "Life isn't full of cherries and berries!" I think I told you guys this would be a good one. I was giving a lot of side eyes and girl pleases to my television. This episode was full of shockers from Kim's wedding-inspired baby shower, to Sheree building a home from the ground up as if there's any other way (SMH), to Peter and Apollo's overly hyped argument which was overshadowed by Apollo's extremely high-pitched angry voice.

Listening to a baby coo, or even watching her fret in the family nursery, has become practically a pastime among young parents, a trend that experts say has grown over the past 15 years. There are the babies' toys, a gigantic industry with more than $5 billion in annual sales. Then there are the baby toys for adults, including the monitors, the lullaby machines and other gadgets and gizmos that comfort and cater to babies and those who love them. On the serious side, innovations will bring wearable computers for infants who, for example, need to have their vital life signs monitored constantly.

"Hello. It's so good to see you again. I met you a couple of weeks ago at the museum," the nice lady said to me. "I'm so glad you could come to this. " "This" was the sendoff for the president of the Friends of Trees in Portland, Ore. I was videotaping a play involving some friends who were popping out like gnomes and fairies in the forest in the upper northwest part of the city. I was also on jet lag. "No," I said to her. "I just arrived in Portland yesterday. " "Oh, yes," she insisted, "it was you I met at the museum.

Donnie Saxon, a burly van driver for the Long Reach-based Urban Rural Transportation Alliance, still finds it amusing that a group of elderly women he transports actually threw him a baby shower two years ago before the birth of his daughter, Kristina."

ANNAPOLIS -- A new legislative audit criticizes spending on the Governor's Mansion, challenging financial and inventory records as spotty and questioning the use of state money to pay for expensive table silver, gift certificates and several social events, including a baby shower.The audit, a copy of which was obtained yesterday by The Sun, also questions the donation of $22,000 worth of mansion furnishings, including silk draperies and carpets, to a private, non-profit group, saying the action was never approved by the state Board of Public Works as required.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she swatted away a tuft of nylon netting wafting through my kitchen.Glaring, I continued my attempts to ensnare a half dozen candy coated almonds in a swatch of nylon."Ooooh! Party favors! I love party favors," she said as she deftly caught an escaping nut. "Plastic baby bottles, pink and blue ribbon -- do I feel a baby shower in the air?"What gave it away, I wondered silently. Pink and blue balloons in my living room or the tacky pink parasol suspended from the ceiling, ready to impale the guest of honor?

Shower Oct. 11 to promote healthy mothers, babies "Maryland's Largest Baby Shower" will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 11 at A Grand Affair in Hampstead. The baby shower, sponsored by the Carroll County Health Department and other social and health agencies, is designed to promote healthy pregnancies and healthy babies through speakers and educational exhibits and materials. Dr. Jules Scherr, OB/GYN, and Dr. Cathy Reifman, pediatrician, will speak at the shower. The shower is free for pregnant women and $10 for a guest.

T hey were the happy, if largely sleepless, parents of three boys, and it had been four years since their youngest, Aldon, was born. Perhaps the Rev. Abraham Shanklin Jr. and his wife, Ingrid, could be forgiven for thinking their family was as big as it was going to get - and for giving all their baby furniture away. Ingrid, of course, got pregnant not long after that, and the Shanklins, a husband-and-wife ministry team based in Hanover, got a chance to start all over again.

"I am so-o-o-o-o sorry." It is one of the things you will say often after the birth of your child. Along with, "You won't believe what happened today," which is usually followed by a calamitous tale or an anecdote that only your spouse will find adorable. But parents can be certain they will do a lot of apologizing because of their child, or on behalf of their child. Either you have just run the stroller into someone's Achilles tendon, or your child has just burped up lunch on a friend's blue suit, or your child has just gotten into a screaming tug-of-war with another child over a toy that is not yours.