As you may note from the sidebar, I finally got my hands on my copy of the new Harry Potter book yesterday.

(K.T. had picked up a copy for me at the bash at Barnes and Noble Friday night, but among the other excitement had forgotten to bring it to the shower. Karen was kind enough to swing by my office on her way out of town yesterday to drop it off.)

I was very good and did not start reading it during work. Having a book to read pretty much guaranteed that I wouldn't do much work.

On the other hand, this morning I figured that I don't have all that much work to do anyway, so the book came back to the office with me.

This book hasn't sucked me in the way the last one did. Of course, some of that may be circumstantial. I was really sleepy yesterday afternoon, so I couldn't concentrate. I eventually gave up and put the bookmark in the book and went upstairs to unpack the baby shower presents.

That was kind of fun. I sorted everything into little piles according to utility. In the crib I put all the toys, and the blankets, and the bath stuff, and the clothes (divided between newborn-wearable and other). The crib is just about full. It's a good thing we don't have to fit the baby in there yet.

And then I used one of the baskets we got and put in it the medicinals - powders, lotions, ointments, rubbing alcohol, q-tips, cotton balls... Et cetera. (Though I think there's probably some shampoo and baby soap in there that should be moved to the bath pile.) There's a pile on the changing table of feeding gear - bottles and bibs and such. And another pile of just random things that didn't fit into a category.

We're getting pretty close - somewhere between six to eight weeks, if I don't deliver early - and it seems there's a lot left to do.

We need to go shopping. There are still lots of things we need to get. Some of it won't be necessary for a newborn, but it'll be easier to shop when we don't have a baby to juggle. (Like gates or a high chair.) Some of it should probably be obtained before the baby comes home. (It occurred to us the other day that we should have a laundry hamper and a trash can in the nursery.)

We need to put up the curtains in the nursery. That shouldn't take too long, though. A measuring tape, a stepstool, and the cordless drill should finish that job off in less than half an hour.

I need to take all the tags off all the clothes and blankets and wash them, and then figure out where to put them away. (Maybe I should add another closet organizer or two to my shopping list.)

We need to move the changing table to the longer wall, and find or buy another table to put next to it on which to stack things like diapers and rash cream and wipes and all the other things you need to change diapers that won't fit on top of the changing table. (Or maybe I'll just move in the white bookshelf that currently only has about four books on it, and use the top shelf for diaper things, and put the baby's books and toys on the lower shelves.)

We need to take a day off and tour/interview the local daycare centers.

We need to pick a pediatrician.

I need to fill out the pre-registration forms for the hospital and turn them in. (That's waiting until I get my new insurance card, since my insurance info is all changing on July 1).

And after the insurance changes, I'll have to prod my company's benefits center into giving me the phone number to call to pre-arrange for my maternity leave. And then, of course, call the number and arrange for my maternity leave.

And we should probably do some more work on narrowing down our list of potential names. I'd like to have it down to no more than three options by the time we check into the hospital.

It's a hell of a list. I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting things.

And most of this I want to have done by mid-July, so we're not caught by surprise if the baby decides to come a bit early.

Yeah, I can hear you laughing from here.

--Liz