A couple of my good friends threw me a baby shower. It was very low key event – just seven of us – but a lot of fun. We basically sat around and shared birth stories which I realise might sound like a day in hell to some.

Seems the baby bug is going around – I have four close friends who are pregnant and about 5 who have had babies in the past 6 months. All but one are on their second child. It’s crazy! So this means a lot of baby showers, a lot of gifts and a lot of post-baby meal deliveries. Good thing I’m next because I am running out of meal ideas. 🙂

I got some lovely gifts for the baby and a VERY nice spa gift certificate for me. The best part – they have short-term childcare at the spa so I can go while I’m on maternity leave. Somehow I think I’ll need it. Part of me is looking forward to being in the hospital for a few days for a “break”. Is that bad?

Just four weeks to go…

Today was errand day. We started with a trip to the optometrist for Kei. Thomas and I kept ourselves occupied by visiting a children’s bookstore nearby. As soon as we walked in – a full display of books about dinosaurs and then a full display of books about Pirates. These people know their target audience. We even found a book about Pirate Dinosaurs – Genius!

Next up – Babies R Us and Seagals Baby store for a few essentials followed by a stop at Beaverton Bakery for a cannoli (yum!). I bought half an apple pie and then left it there. Unfortunately the apple pie craving I had at 11:00pm when we realized we had forgotten the pie did not justify the 30 minute drive back to pick it up. Sigh!

Then off to a hardware store to choose doorknobs and REI for new non-leeching stainless steel water bottles. Kei has been doing research and now we are afraid of all things plastic.

We got home at about 5pm and were pretty exhausted. I’m not sure how we found the energy to watch Into the Wild. The movie was close to three hours but very good. Kei and I both read the book a long time ago and it was interesting to see it brought to life. And also very depressing. Don’t want to spoil it for you but it doesn’t end well. Not the sort of movie you want to watch right before you go to bed. Speaking from experience.

Oh, and I put Thomas’ backpack through the dryer with a crayon in the pocket. Let’s just say that we now have one very crusty backpack. I feel terrible aout it because he loves that bag so I’m definitely going to have to buy him a new one.

So a very long, but productive day. And a VERY long post. Sorry about that.

A new friend. Kei’s work colleagues threw us a happy hour baby shower on Friday after work. It was really fun to get to know the people Kei works with and they were so generous with the gifts. The best part is that they bought a little package of presents for Thomas so he wouldn’t feel left out – VERY smart. His favourite? This little white dog which instantly became his best friend. I feel a little sorry for George though.

Time Out and time for a new strategy. The Time Out chair is no longer working – he likes looking around too much and spends most of his time looking at us, asking questions or laughing. This is Kei’s solution – standing facing the door with his hands behind his back (even the door can become a toy if you are allowed to touch it). Two minuted of this and Thomas is incredibly cooperative. Most of the time we don’t even get to Time Out stage. Just the threat of it is enough. How am I going to deal with it when Thomas finally works out that there is nothing holding him there and that he could just walk away. I am a little afraid.

I have been putting off posting a belly shot for a while but I figured it’s about time. 35 weeks pregnant and definitely showing it. The countdown has begun.

Thomas has been spending more and more time amusing himself lately. This is what he did while Kei and I ate dinner last night. He had a huge pile of books next to him and just went through them one by one reading them to himself and then to us. I am so glad Thomas loves books. Kei and I have been reading to him since he was born so I guess some of it has rubbed off.

Playing around in the construction site. Thomas loves going upstairs to see what they’ve done every day. Right now it feels as though we’re going backwards a little. They have been ripping up the floor to put in the plumbing so there’s a bigger mess up there than last week. Next week they start on the heating ducts which will go up through the closet in the playroom – Thomas’ bedroom right now. The very FULL closet in the plaroom. I see a weekend of reorganizing in our future. Only a couple of months to go… that’s how we’re getting through it.

Thomas helping Kei in the yard and making the most of the good weather before I turns bad later today. My plans for the remainder if the day? Many loads of laundry, cooking dinner and some dedicated downtime. In fact I just finished watching Enchanted. I expected it to be better than it was and was actuall grateful that Kei chose not to watch it with me. I don’t think I could have handled the snide comments I was sure to get from him during the movie.

Thomas is enjoying selected scenes now – the ones with lots of animals and singing and dancing. He just woke up from a three and a half hour nap. I think he was making up for yesterday when he chose not to take one at all. Nice break though.

Kei had a training course all day today so THomas and I went to the zoo – along with the rest of Oregon. Apparently Elephant’s 47th birthday plus first sunny weekend day in months equals thousands of people wanting to visit the zoo. We had to park in the overflow parking lot and catch a shuttle the rest of the way. And when I say shuttle, I mean converted school bus that is not really designed to carry whole families AND their wagons full of zoo visit crap.

Thomas enjoyed the bus ride though and the beauty of having a zoo membership means we can go for just a couple of hours and not feel like we are watsing our money. On Thomas’ wish list for the day – the elephants, the giraffes and the tigers. Done! We can also add the hippos who were actually visible this time (hence the photo) and the zebras who showed more than their backsides for once. I don’t know what it is about te zebras – they always seem to want to face AWAY from the crowd. I probably would too if I had people staring at me all day.

The long walk home. I think I may have mentioned before that there is a park on Thomas’ walk home from daycare and that sometimes he can become a little distracted and that short 3 block walk can become an hour long adventure. Such was the case on Friday when I picked Thomas up from daycare. It was a beautiful warm afternoon and we made the most of it by hanging out by the fountain and checking out some baseball practice. Thomas wanted to go down the slide as well but I wasn’t able to follow him so he did it on his own for the ver first time. But just one time and then we HAD to leave.

By the time we got home we had worked the VERY long way and I was exhausted. A 15 minute walk had turned into an hour. I just don’t have the stamina I used to have.