The current state

This is 37 weeks and 3 days. (Yesterday)

So I've shopped now and the I have list has grown
Now I also have:
1 dozen cloth prefold diapers - I'd normally call them cotton flats
20 blue disposable underpads - only 20 not the 24 thew midwifes list calls for
9 receiving blankets
a set of sheets
4 towels
oral thermometer
hydrogen peroxide (for clean up )
a plastic container (well 2 actually as that was the size the packet was and they don't do conveniently sized ice cream containers, and 2 litres of ice cream might be a challenge at the moment, not having any stomach space left)
1 hot water bottles
ice cube trays - thou not yet in the freezer

and we also had:
tea, juice, herbal teas for the beverages, but I did get a couple of bottles of gaterade as I remember having lucozade previously.
touches and extra batteries, which thanks to Josh's efforts while in Santa Fe I know are all good.
Large pot - the house came with one of those
plastic sheet or cloth, we have either a tarp or a 2 plastic table clothes so I think thats covered too.

The one thing on the list from the midwife that I don't have is "hospital bag packed" I haven't done one in the past either so I'm feeling almost superstitious about it. I never needed one before.
I do know where to find nighties, undies, diapers, toothbrush and car seat

Am I ready?

So I have:
pads for me
birth pool
spare sheets
six cotton fitted nappies
six hemp fitted nappies
six covers (free so hence the fitted nappies rather than more pockets)
one maya wrap sling
one packet of disposables
cotton singlets ("onesies")
woolen singlets
nightes
booties
hat
car seat
flannels
camera battery is charged
energy drinks

still need:
hot water bottle
old towels ( think this will be cheap towels or our camping towels)
large plastic sheet (think I'll get a cheap plastic shower curtain)
blue mats
ice cube trays
oral thermometer
receiving blankets

Madeline was here by now, Liam still had 27 days before he turned up.

Technology for Treasure hunting

Today Liam and Richard went on an adventure. They downloaded some geocache sites into the GPS and went off to find them. The sites were all within about 1/2 a km of our place, near the boat pond and beach at the end of the road. They came back having found two of the three they set out looking for. One of the favorite instructions was to watch out for muggles (ordinary folk, not looking for geocaches) and not disclose the cache to them.

Out and about

We had our first Victoria gymnastics today. It's quite different from the ones in Santa Fe with lots more kids on Liam's age group. I think it will be better for him as he has a group of boys to do gym with rather than mostly girls. They have several male coaches too, which Liam has one of. Liam didn't seem to get so much attention when he was being distracting which was good.
Madeline found it a bit strange having me doing the assisting her bit. She had also not had a sleep so wasn't focusing very well either. She was asleep on the way home.
Earlier in the day we ventured out and found a Safeway which was definitely a cheaper grocery option than the Thrifty at the end of the street. The milk company is having a promotion of chocolate milk, as a healthy alternative to soda, and similar to juice, both kids got hats, which are quite nice. The product lines in the supermarket are much more like New Zealand than Santa Fe, less variety in tortillas and chilli and more french breads, ciabatta and the like.

Around and about

Today was Grey and overcast till late afternoon, but at that point the kids and I went out for a walk in the neighborhood. We found a playground about a block from here which I'm sure we'll visit again.
The people in the horse and carriage rides which go past our window had blankets on their knees today. Yesterday they had little canopies, they might have had those this morning too but there aren't so many in the mornings.
I've arranged gym and dance for Liam and Madeline. Madeline hasn't done dance before but she's been very keen. Her Gym will be the biggest challenge as its a parent assist class, still I remember helping Liam with Madeline in a backpack. First class is on friday.

We made it

We are in Victoria, the house is nice, big enough but not too big, clean and not too many things for the kids to break. We couldn't get more downtown. Yesterday we took a bit of a drive around Victoria it's very green and holds tightly to it's English heritage, lots of Street names which are familiar, pubs, tea shops, fish and chips, and even pies - with meat in them!
Madeline is enjoying having her room.
She was rather upset by us taking the beds down in Santa Fe and has spent much of the trip here asking to go home. Thou she also wanted to camp again last night. She's a rather well traveled two and a bit, She is heading for her third birthday in her third country.
Liam enjoyed having his Junior Ranger hat in the car with us and wore it to receive several of the badges he gained on the trip.
After we left Denver which seemed to take a while (we stopped at REI and got Richard a GPS for his birthday, had lunch, ...) we headed into Rocky Mountain NP our first night camping, from there we went to a State Park in Wyoming, there were heaps of bugs and we couldn't find the bug spray! Not on the way but South Dakota was our next stop, we visited Wind Cave and Liam got his first badge for the trip, camping gas was hard to find in South Dakota, but we did and then camped in the Black hills before visiting Mt Rushmore NP, Minuteman Missle NM, and Badlands NP. We had thought of camping there but decided we'd better get back on track and so headed west planning to camp near Devils Tower. It was raining thou so we stayed in a motel in Sundance.
We visited Devils Tower NM the next day and had lunch there before driving on to Yellowstone NP we camped in Norris Campground here for two nights then moved to the John D Rockerfeller Jr. Parkway where we camped two more nights. We had a look around both Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP's but I think the kids enjoyed the hot pools by the river in the Parkway area almost as much.
Time for another hotel night to get some washing done, we stayed in Grand Falls, Montana then headed to Glacier NP. We couldn't drive through the Going to the sun road with the trailer but camped on the East side and drove over and back in the afternoon and took a boat trip on St Mary's lake in the morning. Before driving around the south side of the park and ending up driving into Canada that afternoon.
Richard pleased to get the Boarder crossing over with since his situation is a little strange, he was here till this morning and is now back in Santa Fe for the week. But he'll be working here and his work visa is not sorted out. Still we had no problems and spent the night in a Hotel in Grand Forks BC since we knew we had lots of driving to cover.
Liam was disappointed that this motel had no pool. His swimming is getting very confident with the pools in the last two hotels. Still we got to Vancouver and stayed in a hotel with a pool and they swum that afternoon and in the morning. It was a long weekend this weekend so the BCferries were fairly busy so we had an hour or two waiting for the ferry but we were in Victoria by three.
So yesterday we sorted stuff out and did our drive before having fish and chips for dinner and this morning we put Richard on the plane back to the Southwest again! It's a holiday today so tomorrow we'll figure out gym and dance etc