I want more power tools

We've got a bit of a break between visitors so I thought I should write a quick update.

We were expecting Darryl at some point before the baby was born, but he surprised us by calling us a few days before the weekend to say he'd be here along with his family. Luckily I had just spend a large chunk of the previous weekend cleaning the spare room (for the guys to come and fix our shutters) so we were okay. It was great to see Darryl, Alicia, Charlotte, William and Spencer, and although Oscar got a little upset about having to share his toys early in the week (especially after his nap when he was still tired) by the end of it he was happily (for the most part) playing with everyone. He seemed to like following Charlotte around, copying her, and later he and Spencer both copied each other.. which was good, because they were playing together, but not so good if they both wanted to play with one little toy :) I think it's a small taste of what's to come for him though. Daz was brilliant.. he made us the wardrobe (which we're still in the process of filling), fixed up the front security door, reattached the linen press door.. just generally did those tasks you really need power tools to do. We repaid him as best we could with beer and chocolates, but I think we still owe him big time.

This weekend Rach arrives, which will be great too. She's staying for a week, and I know Os is going to love having family here who don't want to ride on his bikes or read his books ;) Sadly Rach wont be bringing power tools to fix up whatever is left, but that's okay.. I think Chez has got a day off work so I'm sure they'll get up to no end of hijinks.

Speaking of Chez, she's doing really well. Only 10 weeks to go, and the little girl is very active. Os calls her "baby sister" and occasionally points out toys for her :) The time seems to be flying by now. We put up some photos of Cheryl so you can see her belly too.. I don't think it's as big as it was for Ossie. Either way I'm sure you'll agree she looks beautiful.

And me.. I'm on a weird low-carb diet. I'll write more about that when it's over if you're interested.. Then I'll have final numbers and the like. Either way, it seems to be netting a result for me, which is good.. because I do miss delicious carbs.

The big clean up

Today we moved Adam to a different area. He decided he would rather be in the corner of the lounge so some changes happened on the day. By late afternoon, Adam was repacking his things in the corner of the lounge. His desk had been repaired and the area for Jared was mostly clear. Lisa cleaned the windows and washed the curtains and we cleaned the floor and vaccuumed the walls.

I think tomorrow will be a day for them to catch up on the cooking and get settled. Maybe next weekend we can collect the bookcases for Jared's wall and set up his bed.

We have a new floor!

We got a floor laid today! Just one of the many, many benefits of being a pregnant woman (*Glenn ducks*) is you can ask for special treatment, like "as early as possible because we've got a baby coming". Dee found the flooring company on Monday and found out that "as early as possible" was before the end of the week! Good stuff! So last night we moved out all the furniture and ripped up the last little bit of carpet, then slept with the mattress on the floor where our dining table should be. Dee was happy to find it wasn't as hard to get up from the floor as she worried it would be. (Lucy woke us nice and early, of course, although arguably it was harder for her to lick us since she had to bend down.)

Rock and AJ (real names?) turned up this morning and got to work: we put up a drop-sheet across our door to block out the dust (but not the noise), then left 'em to it. Lots of hammering and grinding from behind the orange curtain, so Dee took the car out for a service and I put on some headphones. "A nice hardwood floor...", Tasmanian oak? Something like that. They were finished by about two o'clock, with another 24-hours before we can walk on it (so camping out again tonight); in a couple of weeks (once it has settled I suppose) they're back to sand and polish it. It already looks good!

Lucy was a reasonably good puppy during all the ruckus, although we had to block off her path with sheets of plasterboard because she just wanted to help. By the afternoon she'd grown used to it, and went outside to harass the neighbours little dogs. So funny to see muddy little "Milo" or yippy "Hannah" chasing a big black Great Dane around the yard! Considering that Lucy has been sneaking into Milo's yard and stealing his toys, I'm not surprised he chases her.

So we are slowly but surely getting something like settled. This floor was a big one, as it really brings the room together with all the painting, plastering, sanding and amateur-carpentary we've done over the last month or so. French-doors this weekend, getting it polished before the end of the month, a couple of rugs, photos and/or paintings, a little bookshelf cabinet by the door and we're done with our bedroom!

4D ultrasound

We had another ultrasound this week, a little check against heart defects (sonographer said it looked fine, but we haven't had the final confirmation from the doctor yet -- not worried). A nice little ultrasound centre in Berwick, and we found out the meaning of "4D scan" when she showed us his face in 3D ... and then he moved! Opening and closing his mouth just like a real baby might (and he's looking pretty baby-like now), it was amazing to behold. Technology is awesome! Science, you rock. They printed out a couple of 3D pics, with the digital copies on their way (can't scan the thermal-prints) so you might've seen the blurry pic from Flickr:

For me, seeing him move was another "wow" moment, like hearing his heartbeat for the first time. In these pictures, he's got his hands in front of his face so you can only kind of see half of him -- but who do you think he looks like?

(The sonographer also showed us around his head -- he's already got hair! That might change who you think he looks like?)