the baby shower

So, remember when I went away? Sans kids? Okay, so I still had one kid, but it felt close to none. Almost a whole month ago. How time flies.

It was a super quick trip, flying up Friday morning and back Sunday morning, with very little other than party prep and actual party attendance taking place. We squeezed in a pool dip and a solo coffee date with my baby sister, chatting about the big stuff, the dream stuff, the life changing stuff. Isn't it so much easier to do that when you're in holiday mode?

If you know my sister, you know she likes everything just so. And her baby shower was no different. Everything had been carefully considered and planned, resulting in a glorious afternoon in the sunshine and warm, spring breeze, shared with her closest family and friends, which led into the evening. Her closest friends travelled from Melbourne and Sydney to spend the afternoon with her. She was given the most beautiful, thoughtful gifts, spoilt indeed. As every mama in waiting should be. I made her - or rather, little one - a cot quilt. Or at least my version of a quilt. The lazy quilter's quilt if you like (separate post to come later).

Bree had wanted to do a shoot with her husband to remember this time by. I was so sad that time just got away from us and we couldn't manage it.

And the first nights spent away from my eldest two? The first day and night were WONDERFUL. I don't remember how quiet it is having JUST ONE CHILD. Especially when the smallest kid doesn't say much. The silence was deafening. I had expected him to spend all his time with my dad, he is infatuated with him. But carrying around the virus he had, made him unusually clingy and didn't want me too far from his sight. By the end of the second day I was missing them terribly and I'd be lying if I said a few tears didn't hit the pillow as I laid my head down on Saturday night.

And that beautiful big bump? On Wednesday morning of this week, the fourteenth of November 2012, the bump decided he'd had enough on the inside. Teeny tiny Rome Parker arrived into the world, ten days early. The new parents are smitten, and their little man is doing wonderfully.

*That last photo? The girls have always been sizeable. Now? They're just outta control. And we like to make fun of them. Bree is usually less than impressed.
** Bree's dear friend, Heather, made the little fondant baby cupcakes - and travelled on the plane with them on her lap, all the way from Sydney! She needs to quit her day job and bake for a living. They were white mud cupcakes. Never have I tasted anything so divine!