Photos are up

Photos of the baby shower have now been uploaded as promised.

Have been off work for two weeks now. It didn't take long for me to switch off and I've hardly given work a second thought since I left. Thursday was the work Christmas party though so I went along and caught up with people which was nice.

Have been kept busy shopping for things for Nooboo as well as Christmas and birthday presents. There's also a vicious rumour going around that I've been keeping the house clean and cooking delicious meals and ensuring my husband has a beer in his hand the minute he walks in the door. Don't get any ideas - this rumour is over-exaggerated, and won't last long anyway ;-)

We have bought a cot, a changing table, a pram and a carry pack on TradeMe. We picked up the cot & table this afternoon from a lovely couple in a rural area way south of Auckland. Might have been a long drive but it was a nice day and it was worth it because we got a really good deal.

In terms of the wider family, Peter unfortunately didn't get that job in Wellington that he went down for the interview for. He was their second choice out of 12 people interviewed so that's pretty good. In a way it was a bit a relief because if he had got the job we would have been moving around the time Nooboo is due, or within a few weeks of him/her being born. Which wouldn't have worked at all. So it's definite that Nooboo is going to be born an Aucklander. Don't hold it against him/her, it's not their fault.

Also on the family news front, Peter's mum has announced that she and Patrick and the kids are finally going to be moving back to New Zealand, which is absolutely great news. Peggy and Mardie arrive in early January and we can't wait to see them again.

Finally, Happy Birthday to Peter who celebrated his birthday yesterday. We spent the day hanging out together, playing X-box, and had a great night out at the Comedy Club.

Last Day at Work

Friday was my last day of work. It feels really weird - it's Sunday night now and I ought to be getting up in the morning tomorrow to go to work. But I won't be. It still hasn't fully sunk in yet, I guess I kinda feel like I'm on holiday. Especially with it being summer and Christmas coming up, it's the sort of time one might normally take a holiday anyway. I guess reality will sink in later in the week.

Months ago when I started this Blog I thought this day was so far away. But time keeps marching on and here we are. Six weeks until Nooboo is due. When I handed in my notice at work three (or more?) months ago I really thought Peter would have found a job in Wellington by now. In fact I half expected him to move down there before I did. He had a formal interview in Wellington this week for a job that he was shortlisted for, but haven't heard anything yet. We'll see.

I had a good last day at work. Tess and Phil ensured that we had a great morning tea sendoff. And I got phone calls from friends all around the country, which was great. I worked really hard last week to get everything done in time, and felt good walking out for the last time knowing that Kathryn my replacement knows everything she needs to know, and that Phase II of the project I'd been working on is finished. Phase III has been scoped and signed off but not delivered, so that is a shame, but I'm sure Kathryn can handle it from here.

This coming week I've got heaps of things to do. I've got to start shopping for stuff for Nooboo (clothes, furniture, etc). Then there's Christmas shopping to do, and heaps of work around the house that needs doing. So I'd say I'm going to be kept pretty busy. I'm sure it'll take me a while to get into a routine and once Nooboo arrives everything will turn upside down anyway.

Attached is a photo of me taken today, 34 weeks pregnant. It's not actually a lot different from the last photo, at 28 weeks.

Baby Shower

Last weekend Phil and Jude, with help from Tess, threw me a baby shower at their house. We had an awesome time. My closest friends from work all came along and we sat around drinking bubbly (only a small glass for me) and playing baby-shower games. Highlights were:

* The "Guess what's in the nappy" game - 8 nappies with realistic looking goop in them that we were encouraged to smell and even taste to try and work out what it really was. It included various different brands of chocolate, peanut butter, mayonnaise and dressings. Apparently Ann's young daughter is still traumatised from seeing mummy smelling and tasting dirty nappies!

* The "Baby Food eating race" - See who can feed their "baby" a small tin of baby food the fastest. Lesson learned - never feed your kid anything you wouldn't eat yourself. The lambs fry (with vegetables?) was the most disgusting, and tasted like spew. Apparently the carrot wasn't much better, and Peter ended up with more on his face than in his mouth.

* The "Don't say the B-word" game - Congratulations to Chris on winning hands down. Everyone started the day with one nappy pin each but if you said the B-word you had to surrender your pin to whoever caught you saying it. We all started out pretty well but soon everytime someone accidentally said the B-word everyone would start laughing and shouting. Of course it got even funnier once you'd lost all your pins because you could say the word without fear and everyone would jump as soon as they heard it, but couldn't take any pins off you.

Thanks to everyone there for coming and also for the awesome presents you gave us. Up until the party we hadn't bought anything for baby. The main reason was we didn't want to rush into buying a whole lot of stuff and then end up moving to Wellington. We thought we'd buy it after we moved. Now we have a lovely rocker, heaps of clothes, and some really practical bits and pieces that are going to come in very handy.

Big thanks to Tess for organising the people, Phil and Jude for hosting the party, and Tricia for researching all the cool games on the internet.