Holiday Break

Sorry anyone who keeps checking for a blog update. In England for Christmas and so will do a Christmas and New Year blog update when we return to Alaska. Merry Christmas to you all in the meantime.

The broken spell

I'm going to start with a movie recommendation.  I rarely do this as I'm always nervous that people will come back to me saying how awful they thought the movie was.  Maybe it's because we just finished watching it and I'm still in that warm, fuzzy feeling stage you get after a good movie.  But whatever the reason, I think you should all go out and hire "The Blind Side".  It stars Sandra Bullock and is based on a true story.  I think it may have won a few awards as well (so I'm not the only one who thinks it was good!).  Anyway, Pete and I both really enjoyed it.  Makes you feel good (although not all the way through – some sad bits there too).

But watching movie's is not all we've been doing.  Far from it.  Pete's survived a hair-raising plane trip, we've been to Christmas parties, done some more Christmas shopping, workouts, potty training continuing etc.  It feels busy busy here as always.

Pete went to Dutch Harbor this week.  He was supposed to leave on Wednesday and be back Friday but the plane got cancelled on Wednesday as it was too windy in Dutch Harbor to land.  So instead he left first thing Thursday morning.  Which was lovely for me and the girls to get a bonus night with him.   But although it was safe enough for the plane to land in Dutch Harbor the next day, it was still a pretty scary event as the plane was being buffeted around and it's a pretty tough airport landing anyway.  Pete thought the more faint-hearted among us, may not have survived the nerves!  Thankfully he did and the weather was ok for the flight back and (after prayers from Naomi) he came home safely on the Friday night.

Naomi is continuing to do well with the potty training but we do still have an accident or two here and there.  She loves childcare and has moved to a different group now that she can use the "big girls toilet".  But she is really working on that American accent and Pete and I have exchanged many a look as she talks to us.  She is going to have a very confused accent.

Lydia has been good too.  She has a really funny smile at the moment where she smiles so big that she shuts her eyes.  Hard to describe but adorably cute to watch.  She loves her big sister and wants to play with her and her toys a lot.  Naomi has other ideas sometimes though and tries desperately to move her toys away from her sister.  But with Lydia now crawling she just makes her way round to where Naomi has pushed them.  Think Naomi has some adjusting to do about sharing her toys with her sister.  I can just hear the future quarrels now!

Another landmark this week was Pete's turn for the Alaskan road test.  Thankfully he passed and so we are now both holders of Alaskan driver's licences.  Watch out Alaska!

Pete and I had a lovely workout at the gym together.  When his flight got cancelled on Wednesday he thought he would surprise me at the gym as he knew I was going.  Funny thing was he looked around the gym and couldn't see me so thought I must have changed my mind.  He got on a treadmill and after a few minutes we both suddenly realised that we were running next to each other!  I was wearing a baseball cap which is why he hadn't recognised me and I hadn't bothered to look over at the person who got on the treadmill next to me.  Was quite funny that he went to find me, gave up and then found me by mistake.  So we enjoyed a run and some weights together.  Naomi was still at childcare and Lydia was in the crèche.  It was sort of a mini date!

We also had the Shell Christmas party this weekend which was good fun and another chance to be out without the kids - always appreciated and enjoyed.  Pete's work colleagues are so friendly as are the majority of people here in Alaska.

On the downside this week, the spell has finally been broken.  Naomi has worked out she can get out of her bed.  Sounds odd.  She climbs in and out all the time when we're around.  But once we've said goodnight it's exactly like it was when she was in a cot.  She thinks she needs to cry out if she wants something to get us to come back in and help her.  I've liked this as I know she will stay put and won't be secretly sitting on the balcony behind us while we watch TV. Or refusing to go to bed and constantly running out of her room.  But this week she came out of her room.  Poor kid must have been crying for a while.  Pete was in the shower and I was getting ready for bed and over the noise of the shower we didn't hear her crying.  I suddenly did and came out of our room.  She was standing in the corridor looking over the balcony trying to find us, crying her eyes out.  Lydia's door was wide open so she had already been in there to look for us.  She obviously had tried crying out to us but when there was no response she came looking and poor kid still wasn't sure where we were.  Took a while to get her back to sleep.  Now she hasn't done it since but it's only a matter of time.  And she seems to be needing less sleep as she keeps waking up at around 6 and calling out for us.  It's so dark and cold at that time that we just tell her to lie back down and she goes back to sleep.  Hopefully she'll either stop waking up or at least will keep going back to sleep quickly.  I don't want to get up that early every day.

So I'm super excited as this week we head back to the warmth of England (now there's a phrase I didn't think I'd say in December!).  Really looking forward to Christmas with my family.  Just hoping the kids don't tear apart Mum and Dad's house. Fingers crossed. Have a great week everyone.

The Big Man

Potty training has continued to take a lot of our emotional energy this week (and sometimes physical with dashes to the nearest toilet!).  She's definitely getting the hang of it but we are not accident free yet.  The start of the week was good and thankfully she had 2 days at childcare with no accidents at all.  But at the end of the week a few more accidents crept in.  Mostly no.2 which is far less pleasant to clean up but at least doesn't go all over the floor too (yet!!).  But at least we've made our way out of the house a few more times now.  Still making sure we go places where there is a toilet nearby and I think I'm on edge the whole time waiting for that little cry "Mummy, wee wee" and working out how long it will take me to get to the toilet and how to do that with Lydia too.  It is definitely tricky to use public toilets with a small toddler who needs to be held on the toilet to stop from falling in and a baby who I don't really want crawling round on the floor seeking out things to put in her mouth.  Thankfully there have been a few helpful ladies in the bathrooms who have offered to hold Lydia for me.  We'll get the hang of it.

Other than that this week has held lots of unpacking boxes and building flat pack shelving units for the girls' playroom.  I'm very excited by the new storage I'll have for all of their toys.  Unfortunately, one box had an incorrect piece in it so we can't finish building until they send us the replacement part.  But out of the 8 sections to build we just have that 1 remaining.  I reckon I should start my own business of building people's flat pack furniture.  I've done so much of it over the past few years, I'm becoming an expert!

Not sure if I wrote before about what Pete and I are giving each other for Christmas but in case I didn't, we got each other a La-Z-Boy (a recliner seat for those who don't know).  I had sat in one a couple of months ago and loved it.  Finally managed to get Pete into the same store and between me and the sales man (and the chairs themselves) he agreed that this was a great thing for us to get.  So he chose "The Big Man" chair – mostly suited to those who are grossly overweight but also made for those tall guys.  So finally Pete will have a chair that is suited to his long legs and gives him the back support he needs in the right place.  I'm wondering though if he's going to be so comfortable there that he'll end up sleeping in it rather than get out and go to bed!  I went in to the store this week as I wasn't happy about the different fabrics on his and my chairs and the awesome sales guy agreed to re-upholster Pete's one for free.  A bit of a silly move really as I went in prepared to pay for it so he would have got more commission.  I think he wasn't sure how to work the computer properly and it was easier to just give it to me for free.  Either way I was very happy and am super excited to be getting our new chairs.  Mine is due to arrive early Jan and Pete's in early Feb (as his needs to be re-upholstered).

We got lots of Christmas present shopping done too which is great.  More to do but at least we've done a big chunk of it.

The mother's group I go to at church also had a mum's night this Friday.  Everyone brought a traditional Christmas dish to share so we had lots of yummy treats.  Was a fun night and nice to be getting to know some of them a bit more, without the kids running around us too.

Pete is off to Dutch Harbour this week for a few days so it'll just be the girls and me.  But with Naomi in childcare 3 days and the church group and my other mother's group, the week gets pretty full up so I'm sure the time he is away will pass quickly.  And then it's less than a week until we get on the plane back to England – yippee!  So looking forward to it.  And it'll be good being back a week before Christmas, partly so we can get over jetlag, but also as I'll have done all the present shopping, I'll just be able to enjoy this wonderful time of year with most of the stressful bits (come on you know there are stressful bits to Christmas too) behind me.

Hope you are all enjoying Advent and remembering the real reason we're celebrating as well as enjoying those carols in the shops and the twinkly Christmas lights.  I definitely am – I love Christmas.