semester three, trimester three.

Well, I'm approaching the last week of class for my third semester of grad school - and less than ten days until our baby's estimated due date (October 27)! Thankfully most of my final projects are just about done, and I'm very relieved to have made it this far along, especially when there had been some concern a few months ago about delivering the baby early.

working on a video project for a class.

It's been a pretty smooth few months. This semester was probably my busiest yet, but my schedule still allowed for various doctor appointments and plenty of time to nest (or procrastinate nesting). Ben and I have made some decent progress in getting the apartment ready for Kortlever #3, and we've been able to enjoy our last weekends as just the two of us - going out for brunch, watching a movie ("The Martian" - so good!) having friends over to play cards... things we won't be doing too much of once the baby arrives. I know the world doesn't end when you have a baby, but things will be different from now on.

last pre-baby Cards Against Humanity night!

enjoying the Mooncake/Mid-Autumn Festival festivities

 brunch.

Our friends from work and uni have been really supportive and helpful during this time. Ben's coworkers have been giving/lending us a ton of hand-me-down clothes, baby furniture and accessories. His boss' wife threw me an adorable baby shower, and I invited a bunch of our girl friends. We've even received some nice cards and baby care packages from family and friends in the States!

"hen's" baby shower

babystuff from our friends Adam and Priscilla

Anyway, I'm ready to be done with carrying a melon-sized human in my tummy. I've been blessed with a relatively easy pregnancy and a pretty chill baby (she's only kicked me hard a few times), but I do miss being active - running especially, and even being able to walk up a flight of stairs without feeling ill. Exactly a year ago I completed the Melbourne Marathon, and now I'm the person waddling to the elevator and riding it to level one. Hopefully it won't be too long before I'm back to jogging on the sidewalks!

Also, we finally gave in and got a Costco membership - because buying in bulk just makes so much sense now, especially since we'll be a family of three soon. There's a store relatively close to our house, and as a bonus we've been able to buy some much-missed American products (like jalapeno poppers and pepperjack cheese). And oh yes, even in Australia they sell giant American-sized slices of greasy pizza for less than $3 at the food court. Why did it take us this long??

beautiful, beautiful Costco

CK