The bump with 6 weeks to go
Well it really is starting to feel like we're getting closer and closer to Baby's arrival now, with somewhere in the region of 4-5 weeks to go. The time seems to be passing fast as our weeks have been full and the weekends even fuller, but at the same time we are trying to make the most of the time we have left as a family of three!
Last weekend we went up to Taranaki to visit GeeGee - it really was a flying visit, arriving Saturday lunchtime and leaving about 10.30am on the Sunday, so not even a 24-hour turn around. Normally this wouldn't have bothered us, but I in particular found the 10 or so hours of sitting in the car over those 2 days a bit uncomfortable as there's only so many positions you can contort a fairly pregnant body into in the front seat of the car. I know that GeeGee loved seeing us though, and she especially loved the hour or so she had with Noah on his own when Mark, Jackie and I popped out to the shops. When we got home, the evidence of what they had been up to was all over Noah's face (he'd found some chocolates we'd left out and gobbled up at least a couple before GeeGee realised what he was doing!). It was also a lovely chance for us all to hang out with Jackie and Noah really enjoyed her company in the backseat in between watching episode after episode of Little Einsteins on the mini DVD player!
Noah also greatly enjoyed the marble race game that GeeGee gave him for his birthday (picked out in advance by us a few weeks back and taken on the journey so that GeeGee could give it to him in person). We had a lot of fun each picking different colours and seeing who won the race, but I think equally as much fun was had seeing if we could get all the marbles going down the chutes in one go!
Fun in the Naki feeding the cat, and playing with marbles and bubbles. Not to be outdone by fun in boxes, a beautiful Highbury sunrise on Sunday and chilling with George and the Little Einsteins
Last week there also was a very nasty gastro bug at daycare, thankfully they managed to contain it on the under 3 side and none of the older children caught it, but it was sufficiently nasty that some of the younger children ended up in hospital with dehydration, and they even had to close that part of the centre down last Friday so commercial cleaners could go through and disinfect everything. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe from that sickness at this point!
The past weekend was also full to bursting with lots of different things, Sally & Olly dropped in for lunch and brought over a single bed they have kindly given us to make room for setting up their own nursery (Sally is due only 3 weeks after me with their first baby - a girl we think!). So Noah finally has a 'big-boy' bed, and we can put his other bed (still the cot with the sides off) down in the garage for a few months before it reappears for round 2 as a cot for the new arrival once he grows out of the bassinet! I also managed a much overdue haircut and then went out to a work pot luck dinner in the evening. Mark planted some strawberry plants in the garden...can't wait for this season's produce, the wineberry and raspberry plants have lots of new buds on them and we even have a few baby lemons on the tree - who would have thought it looking at the sticks and so little foliage it had this time last year! Noah got given a worm farm for his birthday so we used the opportunity of digging over some soil to start our farm with 6 or so wormies. Now we just have to make sure we give them just the right amount of food and water to keep them alive!
I went off to church on Sunday morning, and the boys went up to the park where Noah amazed Mark with wanting to go on the swings (higher, Daddy!) for a long time - he's never been into the swings at all before, but these days he surprises us on such a regular basis that I'm almost not surprised when I hear that he's revelling in previously untapped experiences....! Sunday afternoon we met up with a few daycare buddies at Karori Pool, and then George, Craig and Sophary came back to our place for fish n chips and the boys played happily together...even sharing a bath together before the family headed home about 8pm. Noah's turn will come on Thursday as he's going to go home with George for a playdate and dinner, all part of getting him used to the possibility of being picked up by Craig/Sophary and spending time at George's if it works out that way when baby decides to make his appearance.
This coming weekend, I have an all day church women's get-away conference on Saturday, Mark is out a couple of nights going to an international basketball game tomorrow and some drinks on Friday night, and then we have Brooke's (Becky/Jonny's wee girl) 1st birthday party Sunday afternoon, so plenty to keep us amused as another week passes by in a bit of a blur!