Round Two

I just wanted to share a book that we're been reading to prepare Luca for the new baby. It's such a cute book - very simple lift the flap book, with gorgeous illustrations. Cute, eh?

I think that Luca may actually be starting to grasp the fact that another baby is on the way. Occasionally when we're hanging out together we'll ask him if he wants to feel the baby, and he'll put his hands on my tummy. Sometimes he'll say "Wake up baby" if there's no movement. He's also a bit obsessed with belly buttons, and likes to try to poke my outie back in (which actually hurts!)

This pregnancy has seemed to drag on - and I've only just this week started to stop and think about it. About how cool it is to have two heartbeats in me right now, and to have created something that was only one single cell to something over 5 billion (or whatever that number is...you get the point).

I now visit the midwife every 2 weeks till the baby is born - I'm at 30 weeks....so about 2 months to go. I have bad heartburn, and horrible back pain that shoots down to my right leg. It's apparently called the siotic (spell?) nerve and quite common in pregnancy. I'll have to wait till the baby is born to see if it goes away. I also have this trobbing wrist pain and I'm on the waiting list to see a specialist - I might need surgery.

Besides my body falling apart and getting bigger by the day, I'm doing well. And when I stop just long enough to rest, and rub my belly and actually focus on the baby movine, I feel quite excited about this new bundle on the way.

I'm helping out with antenatal classes each Wed night for new expecting parents. I'm not the childbirth educator - just the volunteer hostess that helps organize the class and gets the parents to 'bond' together. Later they'll form a coffee group, and I'll probably attend this coffee group as well as the orginal one I was a part of - their babies are due the same time our #2 is. It's been a good refresher for baby #2, as it's a class all about pregnancy, the birth, breastfeeding etc. It seems like so long ago that we had a little baby in the house...not quite sure if I'm ready to go through all that 'stuff' again, but looks like I've got no other choice now!

Weekend in Pictures

Do you know how hard it is to look glamourous for a 'black tie' event while pregnant? Well, it's no easy feat - especially when you only get told the week before that the dress code is black tie. Problem solved - I ended up getting this pretty cool long black maxi dress (on sale to boot!) that isn't even maternity to wear to the function - makes me happy cause I'll be able to wear it after the pregnancy as well (and not have the guilts of still wearing maternity clothes! ha ha).

Friday night we had James' (old unit) Christmas Function. It was great seeing everyone dressed up and I even brought the camera along to get snaps of everyone. Guess who was also the sober driver? Thank goodness I didn't wear the high heels I was planning to wear cause lately my feet and legs have been getting quite sore if I stand around for long periods of time. To be honest, although I would've loved to have a few wines, it felt good going to bed at midnight (which is quite late for me these days) and then being able to spring out of bed the next morning to go to the gym. Saturday was the PNCC (my work) Children's Christmas Party. It's really not a big event, but everyone gets free entry into the indoor and outdoor community pools, there's a BBQ, and 'Father Christmas' comes to give all the kids gifts. Many people in NZ prefer to call him that rather than Santa. Have no idea why.

The weather was rainy and yucky but it didn't matter as Luca found some friends to run around in the rain and we had a ball jumping on the trampoline together. Good workout for my calves. In the photo belowe we were marching around singing "The ants go marching 1 by 1...."

I think this might be the first time that Luca has seen Santa in person. Or at least the first time he's recognized it as Santa. No doubt we'll be seing Santa again at the mall for photos, this weekend at the Christmas Parade, and probably a few other places too. Santa must really like Palmerston North. Luca was quite bold and went straight up to Santa for his gift. He didn't hesitate at all. Then it was off to the indoor pools. There had to be at least 200 kids in the pool on Saturday.

On Sunday we went out to Breakfast at McDonalds and I again marvalled at how great it is to have a playground combined with a resturant. It's no wonder those fast food resturants suck the kids into their greasy burger marketing ploys. We're victim by choice, and if I were to ever open up a resturant cafe - I'd make sure I have a kids area.

Luca went to church with Oma as it was a special grandparents day service while James and I finally sorted out some interior house colours. This evening we had a friend's b-day party. In fact the next few weekends are filled with b-day parties of those in the coffee/antenatal class. Party after Party after party....and then Christmas!

Random thoughts

The House:
It's getting more and more exciting as the interior walls have begun to be lined - and yes, all walls are INSULATED....woo-hoo! This is going to be such a nice change, we won't even know what to do with ourselves in a brand spankin' new house. The kitchen looks huge - well huge to use anyways. No, I take that back...the whole house looks huge to us - it's more than 2x the size of our house now - but I wouldn't call it a mansion by any means. Just good sized. And the neighborhood is so much better than were we are now. No more graffitti in the alleyway, dodgy renters doing burnouts down the street, or trash from recycling day being blown into our carport.

Suprinsingly enough we haven't really shown any of our friends the new house. Not sure why...I guess it's probably just not as exciting to anyone else besides us (and James' parents the architects!) Today my good friend Mel was in town. We had become quite good friends, but then she moved out of Palmerston North (like they all do) so we've lost touch a bit. Well anyways she was in town so I got to take her to the house. It was fun getting to show someone else. She loved it - especially the nice section in a great neighborhood.

I totally forgot to bring the camera, so guess you'll just have to wait another week or so till I have more pictures - it's more fun to show you photos when you can actually see a difference anyways.

Thanksgiving!
When is it? I have a feeling it's quite soon, and I'm totally unprepared. Isn't that horrible when you have no idea when the holiday is? Last week I went to the library on one of my breaks and had the staff there help me find a book about Thanksgiving that I could read to Luca. Lo and behold we actually found one that was age approriate. Not only does it teach Luca about the holiday but I think it's probably taught James a thing or two as well :-)

Cuteness~
Luca sat in his baby doller stroller today :-)
His favourite song is Baa baa black sheep, and can even (kinda) sing along with us. When ever we start singing songs with him and sing something other than Baa Baa Black Sheep he goes "Noooo, No, No Baa- Baa"
He took off his nappy by himself last night when we were getting ready to get into the bath. I have a feeling this actually isn't a good thing.
Last night after putting him to bed, I went in and checked on him after like 20 mins (b/c it was quiet). I found him climed up on the lazyboy chair with the lamp on and reading books. His new favourite is a book about Jobs....it has drs, firefighters, farmers etc. I put him back in bed and turned off his light at the wall, and hid the lamp. 20 more quiet mins later I went in to find him sitting in his chair in the dark, flipping through books.
Hard to get upset when he looks so cute!

Christmas~
I actually started wrapping gifts today. We have bought all of Luca's gifts - Santa is bringing him a lawnmower, and a stocking full of goodies. We bought him the book 'Where the Wild Things Are', some new clothes, and a toy truck. It's odd but I really enjoy wrapping gifts. I totally get all into it - in fact I think I'd rather wrap gifts then upwrap them. Maybe I should try to get a job at the mall as one of those gift wrapper people...ha ha.

Officer

And perhaps even more exciting than the All Whites....James is officially an Officer in the NZ Army now. It's been a long time coming (remember he left our honeymoon and trip to the States early so that he could come back for the selection process?)

He was officially changed over about 2 weeks ago, and all last week he was away in Waiurou learning all the ins and out of Officer life. Apparently there's things that are done different in the mess, and a different social culture, different expectations etc etc. There's a 10/90 split between Officers and other ranks, so he really is in the minority now.

He starts his new job tomorrow with the Infantry unit - a total change from what he had been doing. He's acting in a Captain's position - but his official title is Lieutenant (he was previously a Staff Seargent) Officers float around and change units every few years so they get a broader expierence of the Army as a whole. Okay, I should probably shut my mouth now cause really I'm not the expert on all this Army career stuff...and James could tell you better himself....but it's quite an honour and I'm really proud of him for making the change - it's not going to be easy, as it's a HUGE change, but I know he'll do really well once he gets settled in. Again, incredibly proud of him :)

And what does this mean for us? Well it could potentially mean more postings in other cities in NZ - Headquarters in Wellington, or possibly Auckland, or Christchurch...but that's not such a big deal right now as we'll most likely be in Palmerston North for a while. There's also the possibility of overseas postings.....and I admit - that would be quite cool. Yes, REALLY cool (and no I have no problem moving overseas for a bit with two kids!!!) Not for a while though (he's gotta get some seniority first) but the potential to be posted overseas would be AWESOME. But most importantly this posting means that if James choses to stay in the Army for a while - this will be the best career move as far as pay and rank goes. Not to mention it's going to look great on his resume. and of course there's the possibility to contribute more, and actually change the way some things are done in the Army.

Hide n' seek

Well first things first....I have some exciting news to report - the All Whites have made it into the Soccer World Cup. NZ generally punches above it's weight in most sports (for how small the country is compared to larger countries in the World) but the three biggie sports are defintly RUGBY, cricket, and women's netball. I'll be honest I'm not big fans of any of those. Yeah, rugby I enjoy going to games every now and then, but it's seriously on TV like all the time - and those rugby players are hideous....all cauliflower ears, violent binge drinking types, testostorne babies that demand to be pampered by the media....(okay they're not really that bad - but I think since the All Blacks did so poorly in the last world cup, the country has lost a bit of interest). NZ hasn't been in the Soccer World Cup for like 30 years - so this is BIG NEWS. They are projecting that this will boost the local youth soccer teams....which be nice cause if I had to choose I'd much rather Luca play soccer than rugby. Did I mention that James is an awesome soccer player? Maybe he can be the coach!

Luca is changing so much - he's starting to link together two or three words at a time, and is like a little parrot, repeating everything we say. His new favourite game is hide and seek - except he always hides in the same place, and then when we find him he says 'more, more!?' Then he goes and hides in the same place, again! It's pretty cute. Except when you're trying to get out the door and into the car....when he goes and hides from us...he just hides whether you are playing or not.

Hmmmm...where's Luca?

"Luca, Luca?! Has anyone seen Luca?"


And he's a picture of me - 27 weeks pregant! Soon we'll be in the third trimester :-) Baby is kicking and moving around all the time.

The baby has grown up

We knew we would need to get Luca out of his cot way before the new baby made his or her arrival. The last thing we wanted was for Luca to feel like he was 'kicked out' of his bed to make room for the new baby. We were orginally looking for a decently priced twin bed with a trundler but then this bed and mattress was on sale for half off - I'm not sure who was more excited about the new bed - Luca or James. When we bought the bed we were like, "Sweet - it's low enough that no real damage will be done if he falls out, and the sides will keep him in - and I bet he won't be able to reach that light switch anymore!" (a few weeks ago Luca discovered he could reach the light switch from his cot and would amuse himself by turning it on and off, on and off, on and off....we'd go in to find him in the morning with the light on.

Well guess what the first thing he did when he got on his new bed? Checked to make sure he could still reach the light switch. Great.



First few nights were hell as he came out of his room about 50 times and we'd have to walk him back to bed. It's really hard to do this with a straight face when he just looks so cute. Once you break the smile it's all over, and it's like he's won the game. I surfed the net to figure out what to do. The cot had already been taken apart so there was no way we were going to digress.

Once again the internet ruled. We went out and bought a baby gate to put at his doorway to "keep him safe." It's actually just like we've extended the boundaries of the cot. It works a dream. He still cries at the gate when he goes to bed, but we do the whole 'Ferber' thing and his crying has gotten less and less until he eventually goes into bed on his own. And he's been sleeping through the night again! Now if only he could figure out to pull the covers up to keep himself warm....