I can't think of the last time I was in a room full of pregnant women and a cotton ball. For that matter I can't think of the last time I was in a room with only one pregnant woman and a cotton ball. At any rate, the next time you're thinking of something besides baby names at a baby shower, break out a bag of cotton balls and brace yourself for some fun!
You need 2 large pales, a ladle and a ribbon or kerchief to use as a blindfold. Set the two pales at least 5 feet apart. Place all the balls of cotton in one pale. Each guest at the baby shower will take turns playing. The object of the cotton ball game is to take as many cotton balls from one pale and place them in the other pale with only the large ladle to help you. And don't forget that you'll be blindfolded. Each guest gets a full minute to try their luck with the cotton ball. At the end of each player's turn, a score keeper will annotate how many cotton balls were moved to other pale. The guest who can transfer the most cotton balls will win the game and get a prize.
What makes the game funny is that because each guest is blindfolded, and due to the weightlessness of a cotton ball, it's difficult to know if they actually have a cotton ball resting in the ladle. Many times they'll be stumbling around blindfolded with nothing in their ladle at all. So who says embarrassment isn't funny! This is such a humiliating game; everyone will be bent over with laughter! As this is a baby shower, you don't want to be laughing so much that a baby pops out at the wrong time!
The cotton ball playing game has a few variations and they are all funny! For example try this approach: take two buckets, two folding chairs, a large serving spoon, a bag of cotton balls, a kerchief to use as a blind fold and a stopwatch.
Set up the two chairs at least 6 feet apart, and have them face the same direction. Now sit a bucket on each chair. In one of the buckets you put all the cotton balls. The first player is blindfolded and spun around several times and pointed in the direction of the chair and the bucket with the cotton balls. Give them the large serving spoon and place the spoon on the edge of the bucket. Give the player an idea where the cotton balls are. Set the stop watch for 60 seconds and like the other version of the cotton ball playing game, each player transfer a cotton ball from one bucket to the other which by the way is six feet away.
Again, plenty of opportunity for silliness. Plenty of opportunity for stumbling around. At the end of each player's turn, see how many cotton balls actually made it into the bucket.
Keep score until everyone has had a go. And obviously the player who gets the most cotton balls into the bucket wins a prize.
A cotton ball and a ladle may not sound very titillating, but trying to pick up anything while you're blindfolded is a challenge. The only thing funnier than this would to be drunk and play this game. But we don't want to promote any activity that involves alcohol and a pregnant woman.
Not to be outdone at a baby shower is playing this game with kids of any age including adults. Young boys in particular seem to have a fun time trying this game which is really a cotton ball game of skill.
And if you really want to be mean - in a harmless funny way of course - is to take all the cotton balls out of the bucket and let the blindfolded person keep playing. They'll never know for sure whether or they are picking up the cotton ball or not!