We made it! After our disappointment last year having to cancel our trip Out East with only a week to go, we managed to find a spare week to try again this year. We caught a red-eye from SeaTac, hoping Isobel would get some sleep overnight and we'd be ready to go on arrival in Boston around 7am ... but she was up for most of the flight, only falling asleep about an hour before we landed. Bugger. We were lucky to be able to check in when we arrived at the hotel, so we unpacked and found our bearings, then headed off for a walk into the city to check things out.

Andy had a bit of a check list of things to see while we were here, and the big one was the Freedom Trail - a big red path that traces all through the city linking up a lot of the historic sights. We picked up a guidebook from the Visitor Centre in Boston Common and started off ... Isobel wanted to walk the whole way herself, and certainly made her annoyance known when we had to strap her into the stroller to pick up the pace a little!! The guidebook had lots of detail about the stories behind each of the stops, and it was interesting to see a few of the places we'd only read about before then.

Little did we know we'd arrived over the Patriots Day weekend, which meant Monday was a public holiday and the day of the Boston Marathon! Our hotel was a little way out of town, so we weren't really affected, but we saw a lot of runners wearing their commemorative spray jackets and finishing medals around town that evening. We took the ferry over to the USS Constitution only to find it was closed on Mondays, so we picked up the end of the Freedom Trail again and finished the sights we'd missed on Sunday, returning back through the city and stopping into the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We were seated under a tour jacket from New Kids on the Block, who were originally from Boston - scary to think that was nearly 20 years ago!! Isobel enjoyed her hot dog, and giggled away at a young boy on a nearby table. He was enthusiastically bopping along to the music playing on the TV screens around the room, and Isobel thought he was hysterical.

We also managed to stop into the Children's Museum and the Aquarium during our trip - Isobel is getting old enough to need some separate entertainment, and she had a ball at both places. The Children's museum had a special section for under 3s, and once she got past her initial shyness she was racing around all the different toys and having a great time. A few of the kids in the room were being randomly selected for a learning study by some MIT students - we were asked if Isobel would participate, but when put in a small room with two strange people she clammed right up and clutched Mummy and Daddy pretty closely. Didn't want to play with the offered toys at all! Hopefully the students get something from her reaction, anyway .

After three days in Boston, we jumped on a train for the seven-hour trip down to DC. Thankfully we'd booked business class seats, so we had a bit more room for Isobel to climb around - we'd brought a few of her favourite books with us, but they only last so long. She flipped through all the magazines and safety cards, watched out the window for a while and finally fell asleep for a quick snooze towards the end of the trip. We're realising that she needs to be somewhere dark and quiet to get a good sleep - there's just too much to look at otherwise, and she'll force herself to stay awake!! Very funny to see her trying desparately to not fall asleep ... stubborn little thing, don't know where she gets that from .

Last week was rather busy - Andy was dealing with some contractors who'd flown in to Seattle, which meant a lot of meetings and several late nights during the week. Isobel seems to know when one of us is away - she doesn't play around quite as much during bathtime or bedtime when there's only one person doing the baby-wrangling! Makes things much easier.

Pete and Libby invited us around to their place for lunch on Saturday, along with Darren and Cathy and their two kids. Isobel had a good feed of sausages and meatballs for lunch, and then she and Luke kept everyone amused for the afternoon with their antics - Luke's about a year older than Isobel, but they still get along pretty well. Isobel did really well for not getting her afternoon sleep ... which worries me a little in a way, I really don't need her to give up her one remaining sleep just yet!! Early next year would be just fine, thankyou very much ;-)

We popped into Bellevue Square on the way home in an attempt to find me a frock for the Ball in a couple of weeks - we sorted Andy out on Friday by getting him a tux, but guys are always easy to organise in that regard! I had a very naive idea that I'd be able to wander into the maternity shop, walk up to section with evening gowns and pick something off the rack ... er, apparently not. Apparently April is not "evening gown season", so apart from the clearance rack (which was all cocktail length, not full length dresses) there was not much in the shop. Oh dear. We had a quick look through Macys and I tried a couple of dresses on there - no maternity sizes, and I couldn't even size up a couple of dress sizes because they didn't zip up over the Bumb. Crap!! Still, they at least recommended a bridal shop not far from home that might be able to help out.

So on Sunday I drove over to the bridal shop, and was directed to the 'special occasion' dresses. I found a couple of nice styles, that would have suited if they'd actually had maternity sizes ... to my horror, the shop assistants said special orders were a minimum 3 months and then tailoring would be additional time again. We leave for DC in two weeks - not helpful!

I had one last shot before throwing myself at the mercy of online shopping and hoping for the best. We bundled Isobel into the car and headed down to Southcenter, after calling ahead to see if they actually had anything that would work for me. Again, we were directed towards the 'special occasion' dresses, which were on sale and in no particular order - trying to find nice styles from the catalog and then locate them in the racks was a challenge all its own. Finally I wandered around a different corner and spotted ... maternity gowns!! OK, so there were only four dresses to pick from, but beggars can't be choosers ... two were near enough to my size, and after my experiences shopping for this dress so far I wasn't going to quibble! I tried them both on and settled on one - a periwinkle-blue colour, not one I'd have normally picked but it didn't look too bad considering how stressed I looked at that point! I made an appointment for Tuesday to come back for the fitting - only about six inches of fabric to take up on the hems, but that's normal for me - and was surprised to see the price that came up on the register, the dress was marked down about 70% ... so I can afford to get matching shoes and a bag now!!

I also had my 28wk appointment with the OBGYN last week - I'm at the point where they do the test for gestational diabetes, so I had to drink that horrid sugary stuff and then have more blood taken. I'll get the results in a couple of weeks. I'm still progressing well, bub's heartrate is good and strong and I can't believe I'm in the third trimester already ... where has the time gone?! Reminds me I'd better make a few phone calls this week - have to organise the "blue book" (Australian immunisation schedule) for the baby, plus find out what's happening with the new nursery furniture we're supposed to be getting soon ...