Phew, Made it through the 1st week of new job

Hip hip hooray, I'm now a working woman of independent means! I've made it through my first week of work in the new job without any major catastrophies, didn't embarass myself more than I could cope with and even managed to make a few new friends.

I'm in with a group of eight others in training for six weeks, it feels like we are back at school. Our group comes complete with class clown, class chatterbox, 2 new kids on the block - it's their first 'proper' job, a distant relative whom I never met before, only guy amongst us whose most amazing life moment was 'coming out', one with a VIP connection - she's engaged to a professional sportsman, and one other ordinary mum just like me -except of course I'm a Gran, and that I was told by my visiting teachers this morning is a unique and special role.

The most amazing thing is we all get along like a house on fire. All extremely nervous on our first day - we didn't need to be - it wasn't so bad. We're even planning to go dressed as VICTIMS for the V day next Tuesday when the whole site (around 500) indulge in a little inter-team rivalry. We reckon there'll be loads of Vampires, vegetables and vicars and hopefully no other Victims.

And by the way, I couldn't have managed any of this without the support of my daughter and the adorable Major, who, although he has only been in our family less than two weeks, has forged a deep gouge into my heart to make a special place reserved just for him. I'm so so glad to know that Families Can Be Together Forever.

What A Week!

Well I'm beat, after rushing around all week I'm absolutely shattered, lethargic, struggling to be motivated and my foot hurts. I've been struggling all week long, anyone would think it was ME who had the baby.

At first I thought it was just a lack of sleep, so I tried to sleep late; couldn't too many pressing duties. Then I realised I hadn't really eaten much over the last couple of days so I fuelled up; didn't help I just carried on exhausted with a full puku (tummy). Tried really hard not to stress too much about the monthly Provident Living activity I lead - which of course fell into this awful week. Then one of the midwives at the birthing centre mentioned how emotionally draining it is when you are closely involved with labour, birthing and new babies - funny I always thought it was THE NEW MOTHER who carried all the pressure, extra hormones, emotions and battle scars. I stand corrected, I now believe this all falls onto the GRANDMOTHER'S To Do List.

And just to add to my week, I'm very aware of how I'm starting work next week after 11 months of never-ending leisure time.

Now I've become quite expert at falling asleep every time I sit down for more than 10 minutes, so this week I had planned to begin my new routine of early to bed, early to rise to make me healthy, wealthy and wise AND TO HELP ME STAY AWAKE AT WORK. That of course, has been blown out the window with our new arrival. I hope my training is interesting and varied otherwise I fear I may embarass myself. Just incase, I'm taking a crash course in somnambulism in the hope that those on high may be fooled by movement into not realising I'm asleep - don't like my chances.

Justine came home with little Major yesterday afternoon and we have had a fairly constant stream of visitors, phone calls, texts, emails etc ever since. My daughter knows 75% of the Hamilton population and they all feel the need to be involved in this chapter of her life.

Despite all this, little Major is doing very well, he's an absolute darling and we all adore him - as you do!

I hope next week will feel a little easier on this old Gran's body and soul.

How could you not love this?Gran's Precious Darling

Nau Mai Haere Mai

He's finally here, my darling second moko, named Major after my dad his great grandfather. He arrived on Sunday night at 9.25 pm weighing in at 10lb 1oz!

Here he is having his first play date with Disa who is nearly 3 weeks old, notice how much bigger he is. They both slept through their first meeting, much to our amusement.

He's got masses of dark hair - is there some truth to the old wives tale that heartburn makes for hair, cos his mother had loads of heartburn, little squinty eyes and big solid legs. He'll make an excellent rugby prop with those legs! And by the way mummy's doing okay too.

What We Were Doing On Major's Due Date

Well yesterday was Aunty's due date. The day came...... and...... went.

So instead of gathering to welcome our newest family member last night, we, and 10,800 others, went to watch the Warriors play Melbourne Storm in the pouring rain!

The blurry is the rain, everything was soaked!

The rain could'nt dampen our smiles tho

Notice Aunty's 'All Areas Pass' We got them too!

Aunty and Treasured House Guest

Still Waiting.....

By the way, Aunty is off getting acupuncture at this very moment as she read somewhere that it can get labour happening within 24 hours.

Sure hope that's true, we've almost run out of tissues - all used up by mother-to be's frequent, out of the blue, outbursts of sobbing COS THERE'S STILL NO BABY!

Don't kids make FHE so much fun?

Now don't kids add a whole new`dimension to Family Home Evening? Instead of our usual dull study and whatever- we actually started with a song (it happened to be Popcorn as that we are informed is one of our house guest's favourites) then we all participated in a simple - but prepared- lesson and then we had the best fun creating these little beauties below.

We used malt biscuits sandwiched together with icing made from a stiffly beaten egg white with 1 and a half cups of icing sugar beaten into it. They were then decorated with an array of lollies.

Our "kewl' houses

The artists at work

It's Official - I'm no longer Unemployed -

Wooo hooo, I've accepted a job with the NZ tax dept working on a relatively new, government backed, retirement saving initiative. Only a couple more weeks of being a lady of leisure: Yes! Yes! and work means a pay check Woooo hoooo. It would be fair to say I'm ecstatic.

It's been a long time coming. I've learnt lots on how to survive on the smell of an oily rag as the old saying goes. Work is a blessing especially in these economically troubled times. God is good.

The Lounge Has Been Transformed

Our lounge has been transformed into a baby equipment testing laboratory and I'm pleased to announce: Our delightful house guest (otherwise known as The Only Grandchild) has deemed all Aunty's Baby equipment in great working condition.

Not so sure about the condition of the original house occupants - gran Denny's feeling a trifle tired of worrying about where it's safe to put my feet down in the lounge and Aunty is just so over being pregnant.

The toys make wonderful crash test dummies

Big Bird fits the highchair perfectly - apart from the struggle it was to fit him in there

And this contraption seems to be made for multiple babies tho we're only expecting one

The Scan

We finally got to see Aunty's baby scan, and what a thrill that was. We discovered that Aunty's baby is in the 99% something or other and that he weighs 9lbs 5oz! Poor Aunty!

A Couple of False Alarms but no baby yet

Still no baby, don't those last few weeks just seem like for ever? I'm feeling sympathetic when I watch my daughter waddle along in the heat. I can see how uncomfortable she's looking, I often hear her up and about in the middle of the night when she just can't seem to sleep.

The situation isn't made easier by her knowing that her 3 friends have all delivered their precious bundles of joy over the last fortnight. She's quite certain that she's the only one still pregnant from her ante-natal class too. The phone seems to be ringing all day long - another well wisher enquiring to see if there's any news yet.......

On the plus side, dear house guest just can't go past without kissing or rubbing aunty's tummy and talking to her soon-to-be cousin. She's almost gotten over asking if aunty's waters have broken yet, however she's had time to ponder and subsequently ask not only how the baby gets out but how it got there in the first place!

We gave the simplest explanation we could about how the mum's egg gets fertilised and then the baby starts to grow. She was very relieved to know that the egg doesn't get laid like a chicken but I'm waiting with trepidation for when she realises she needs to know how dad fertilises mum's egg. Shame daddy's so far away, I would have enjoyed listening to his explanation of all this



Aunty and our darling house guest