Off to Mexico

Howdy all.  Think I'll make this a short blog today as nothing of much significance has happened this week. 

We survived another few days without Pete.  It's starting to get slightly easier as I get more used to the routine without him.  But of course, we still all miss him a lot when he's gone.  His trip (to Calgary) was a productive one so he was pleased (if a bit tired) on his return.

We're still seeing accidents from Naomi every day.  It's been about a month now.  Have no idea what we're doing wrong.  Thought I was getting somewhere a few times this week.  She had two days with her pants being dry until about 5pm and then she had a poo accident.  Frustrating.  Yesterday she got through the whole day with no accidents.  We made a big fuss of her with lots of cheers and rewarded her with a new book.  So I was hopeful that today would be the same, but no!  About 4 changes of pants and after getting undressed before bath, she then decided to start doing a poo on the carpet (apologies if this is too graphic but I feel the need to vent after cleaning it all up).  So the battle continues.  Hoping that on holiday we'll get through as she'll be in her swim wear most of the day.  But I'd better pack some washing powder anyway!

Lydia is amusing.  Still has a few standing moments on her own and likes to walk holding something (like a small chair or her walker).  Her foot is pretty much fine now as she gets more strength in the leg.  I think her confidence in standing has increased and so she feels happy to have her feet forwards and not always turned ready to go back down for crawling.  She has an attitude over her food but with persistence we're still winning (for now).  I have now finished breastfeeding which has its pros and cons.  The main con is that she is refusing any milk from a bottle.  We're trying to give her extra yogurt and other foods and so far that's going ok.  Just hoping she doesn't get sick of it.

In between the mundane routine of life I've been trying to prepare for our holiday.  Got a few things now but think Naomi may need a few summer clothes as obviously she's grown out of everything from her last summer (Dec 09-Fed 10).  Thankfully the shops do have lots of summer clothes in, even though it doesn't get that hot in Alaska.  I guess they realise that everyone goes on vacation.

As we leave next Saturday night, I'll guess I won't be blogging till after our holiday.  So I hope you all have a lovely few weeks and we'll be in touch with a few holiday snaps once we return and have ourselves sorted.

More birthdays

Apologies for the delay in this week's blog.  But with Sunday being my usual blogging day but also Pete's birthday, it had thrown me off.  So this week saw the remaining two birthdays in our house.

Firstly Naomi's was on Tuesday.  She had stayed home from school on Monday so her birthday was her first day back after Spring Break.  We had made apple cinnamon muffins for everyone and some strawberries too.  Later I heard more about what she did.  They lit three candles for her to blow out and they sang too.  They all shared the muffins and read out something about Naomi's life (that I had written and taken in).  So I think she enjoyed it. 

In the afternoon we found yet another play centre that we'd not been to yet.  It was very quiet; the only other children there I think belonged to the girl manning the desk. It was small and a bit overpriced but at least I could let Lydia crawl around with worrying about her getting trampled on.

We then headed home for some more presents and some ice-cream.  It was a nice day but the main event was the party on Saturday.  I was very worried about having so many children around but it turned out to be really good fun.  We divided the time between the basement and upstairs so I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  The girls were incredibly blessed by some wonderful presents.  People have been so generous.  After everyone had left we sat down to eat yet another cupcake (and by this I mean the icing from the top) and Naomi made up a little song.  She does this quite a lot at the moment and I managed to capture it on video. Here it is.

Sunday was Pete's birthday and a big one for him.  40.  So I was a very mean wife and took lots of opportunities to make jokes about his age and give him presents with 40 all over them.  As we have our Mexico holiday planned as our main present to each other for birthdays this year, I only gave Pete small presents.  But to make it more fun I gave him one every 40 minutes.  So all day he was opening presents.  I think he enjoyed it.  We did our usual Sunday morning – church and then swimming.  The afternoon was very lazy.  We just played with the girls' new toys and watched some basketball on TV. 

Then Pete and I had a lovely evening out to a restaurant in town.  The food was amazing and the service very pleasant.  They even brought out a birthday candle for Pete to blow out at the end.  The place was empty by 2130 though.  The dessert's only looked ok so we decided to head to another (less classy) place for dessert.  We ate way too much and ended the night feeling thoroughly sick but satisfied.  So all in all I think everyone enjoyed their birthday celebrations.

Pete has now headed off to Calgary for the rest of this week.  I'm really looking forward to our holiday so we can spend a bit more time together.  Life has been so busy and he's had a lot of trips away so far this year.  It will be good to spend some quality time together.  So it's just the girls at home again.  Lydia's two top front teeth have come out so on the whole she is a bit happier this week.  We are over our illnesses now which helps too.  Lydia is really making her wants known now.  She points and grunts at what she wants and goes into full blown tears if she doesn't get it.  Sometimes it's quite funny to watch her.  Her leg is almost normal now.  The paediatrician wasn't worried at all and said she'll turn her foot around more as she gets used to standing.  Which she is doing now.  We've even seen her stand without holding on a couple of times.  Only for a second or two but she's making progress.

Naomi is behaving better and I think getting into the routine of school every day.  However, we're still having lots of accidents which are incredibly frustrating.  I'm resigned to the fact that it may continue for quite a while yet though as going to Mexico may throw her off course again.  Poor kid, with all this change in her life. 

So, this week is all about preparing for our holiday – buying swimsuits, what will I feed Lydia, check the hotel booking etc.  Glad now that the birthdays have finished that I get excited about it.  11 days to go!

The Birthdays Begin

March is a big birthday month in the Scott household.  And this week saw the first of those. Lydia turned 1 this Friday.  Was a very special day.  Pete stayed home a bit later in the morning for her to open some presents.  Here are a couple of photos of that.

I then took the girls to a Kindergym class at a recreation centre.  Naomi loved going to a new place with new games.  Lydia sat on my lap for a bit and then wanted to crawl around and join in.  She had a big smile on her face the whole time.  In the afternoon we took our time and made our way to a place to eat where we were to meet Pete.  I had actually not heard great things about it but I wanted to go as it's an American icon.  Chuck E. Cheese's.  I'd only heard of it on TV so thought I'd check it out.  It has lots of games for kids so thought Naomi could be amused whilst we made a fuss of Lydia.  Turned out to be mainly video games that you play with tokens.  We ordered a pizza and had a bit of a play around.  Lydia seemed to enjoy it.  She then gave me a good present that night by actually taking a small amount of milk from the bottle. So all in all it was a good 1^st birthday.

However, the milk thing has not continued.  She's down to just the morning breastfeed now and still refuses to take anything from a bottle during the day or at night (other than on her birthday). She also seems to be having a few teeth coming through.  They haven't broken through the surface yet so hopefully when they do she'll cheer up a bit.  Her appetite has been down too.  But this weekend we've all come out with colds.  So who knows what is causing what problem.  Are the teeth giving her a runny nose and affecting her appetite or is it a cold that makes her not want to eat.  Hopefully she'll sort herself out soon.  She's having trouble sleeping tonight as she can't suck her thumb for comfort because she can't breathe.  Also it's only just gone dark which is probably throwing her off.  Our clocks changed last night so now the sun is setting at about 8 o'clock.  I need to get out and buy some black-out curtains otherwise we may find ourselves with 2 little girls who don't want to go to sleep.

Naomi is still having some accidents.  The behaviour improved towards the end of the week.  But I'm a bit unsure how to get her past these accidents.  We're trying the sticker rewards again but I'm not sure they're having the right impact.  I'll stick with it and hopefully once she gets back into the swing of school she'll get over this phase.  We had a good week with lots of activities to fill our week as school wasn't on (Spring Break). Naomi enjoyed seeing her friends from my mother's group and we had a couple of playdates at home too.  I was quite worried about surviving this week but have managed to come through relatively unscathed (and so has she!). So it's just the colds we need to sort out now.  We've all had a pretty miserable day today and I can feel my cold only just starting to kick in.  Am praying that it won't develop into much as I go into the new week.  Not sure if Naomi will be up for school tomorrow as she's pretty grumpy all day.  She got her appetite back at the end of the day so perked up a bit.  We'll see how she goes overnight and how she feels in the morning.

Pete and I had a lovely night out last night.  One of the mum's I've met has also just moved here from Australia and so we went for dinner with her and her husband.  We had lots of giggles and some yummy food.  It's her 40^th birthday as well so we also treated ourselves to a bottle of champagne.

This week holds Naomi's 3^rd birthday on Tuesday.  I'm really hoping that she is feeling better for it.  The big day is really Saturday though when we have 19 kids coming over for a party – what was I thinking when I invited that many people! There are a few friends that have 2 kids so the numbers add up pretty quickly.  We'll have some party food, play a few games and eat cake.  Hopefully we'll survive the afternoon.  And then Sunday is Pete's birthday.  Nothing much planned yet except a meal out for Pete and me.

It has now been 6 months since we left Australia.  We still feel homesick but are definitely more settled.  My last couple of pictures are of Pete in Barrow on his recent trip there.  The first is in front of a whale jaw bone, as whaling is a big part of a community like Barrow.  The other one he is actually standing on the Arctic Ocean.

Positivity

As I write this, I'm feeling a little stressed.  But I do have a glass of wine at my side so hopefully my stress will begin to ease and I can write something positive about the week.  I hope I'm not the only one that has these negative moments.

Well, something positive happened at the start of the week. Our fridge fixed itself! So the helpline of the manufacturer had told me that the display would correct itself in 24-48 hours but as the advice that it was still cooling was wrong we had decided this must be wrong too.  However, within 48 hours the display suddenly came on and it started working again.  So we think we managed to save all the food in time by getting it into the garage or our other freezer.  And we managed to save ourselves a callout charge from a service guy.  So that was a good start to the week.

But another thing that I mentioned last week was Naomi's behaviour.  Unfortunately, as this week has progressed we haven't seen much improvement and I've seen a lot more accidents occurring.  Very frustrating.  I'm trying so hard to be positive but just like the last time, it's difficult.  It's not so much the wet pants that gets to me.  More than once I've noticed and know that she needs to go to the toilet (she only does some of it in her pants), she then fights me saying she doesn't need to go.  Clearly she does.  After a lot of fighting and threats, she eventually gets on the toilet and of course does a big wee.  And then there is usually a fight over washing her hands.  She is in full-on defiant mode at the moment. So difficult.  I had one very bad parenting moment where I shouted so loudly at her that I actually hurt my throat.  It was just the last straw for that day.  I did apologise to her a little while later (a hard thing for a parent to do) and we were friends again.  So the challenge continues on how to get her to be more obedient and on how to get her to the toilet on time.  This week is Spring Break so there is no school.  So either everything will be better because she's not exhausted from school where she is still trying to get used to everything there.  Or things will be awful, as life has changed again for her and I don't have a break from her in the week.  It's going to be interesting! (that was my attempt at being positive – I'm actually dreading this week).

Elsewhere, I'm having dramas with Lydia and my attempts to wean her from breastfeeding.  I had stopped breastfeeding Naomi by this age and had wanted to stop by the time Lydia reached one.  Well that happens on Friday.  She was having 3 milk feeds a day.  Last weekend I dropped the middle of the day one.  Pete took her a sippy cup of milk (so that she wasn't confused by me being there). One day he had no success, the next she drank it all.  However, I haven't been able to get any into her.  I have been trying for a few weeks but had always given in and breastfed her after a few screams.  But now that I'm not giving in, I'm still having no success.  I still have 2 feeds to drop and am out of ideas.  I really don't want to go back to expressing (besides its all packed away in a box somewhere in the basement). We tried cow's milk (even though she is a week off one – the age she is allowed to start on cow's milk).  No joy.  Pete tried again this weekend and nothing.  She physically pushes the bottle away, screams and then thrusts her thumb into her mouth.  She can get quite upset over it.  So I have no idea how to wean her off the other 2 feeds and still get calcium into her.  We had lots of calcium problems with Naomi too.  Trying to get enough in her diet is virtually impossible.  Not everything can be made with milk or cheese.  And there are only so many yogurts one baby can eat.  Naomi barely touches yogurt now after so long having them forced onto her.  I'm dreading having the same battle with Lydia.  Maybe I just need to stop breastfeeding and after a couple of weeks she'll figure out that if she wants milk she'll have to take the sippy cup.

Gosh, I'm not being very positive am I?  I'm sorry everyone.  More wine needed – and maybe some chocolate too!

Well here's something positive.  We had another great Alaskan moment this weekend.  We went to watch our first Iditarod (a dog sled race run over about 20 days and 1,150 miles and fairly extreme terrain). I've attached a picture below. It was a beautiful day.  Cold but sunny.  It was great to watch the teams coming past with the beautiful mountains in the background.  But I'm glad I could get into a nice heated car after an hour or so and not have 20 days spanned in front of me standing on a sled in freezing conditions.  Rather them than me.

Let's hope I can get some positivity happening before tomorrow and Spring Break begin. A nice relaxing night in front of the TV is planned.  Switch my brain off time.  Hey no cheeky comments – yes my brain is switched on now!

Our little baby starts school

It seems very weird to think that Naomi is now at school.  Right until the moment I said goodbye on her first day, it's just felt like she's starting another childcare.  But we've been calling it school (because it is a school that goes right up to 6^th grade) and it was only when I choked up after saying goodbye that I realised this is my moment as a mum when I send my daughter off for her first day at school.  I was fine after a couple of minutes but the emotions that have built up over the last few weeks about moving her to a new place did finally get to me in that moment.

So how is it going? Well, it's a mixed bag really that I'm still trying to figure out.  As far as I can tell, the time she is at school is going really well.  Her teacher came up to me at the end of the second day saying how surprised she was that Naomi hadn't been in a Montessori style teaching environment before as she had picked it up really quickly.  That was very nice to hear.  Her other teachers also expressed that she is doing really well.  I even was given two photos of her in the class with some writing telling me what she was doing in the picture and how that activity aided her development.  I was very impressed with that.

But the other side of things is what I'm still trying to figure out.  There have been quite a few moments at home when she has been more defiant than normal.  This is similar to what happened when we first went back to England at Christmas.  At that time I decided it was one change too many for her in such a short amount of time.  Which is why I was worried about moving her from the childcare she was in.  Ultimately I know it will be the right choice but it's the short term that may see some backlash.  We've had a few battles over eating breakfast in the morning.  This may sort itself out as we get used to the new daily schedule. Also Pete has been away again this week and Naomi is such a Daddy's girl that this impacts her quite a bit.  So it's hard to tell if her behaviour is a result of me being more stressed, or school starting or Daddy away, or most likely a combination of the three.  In England she also regressed with the potty training and we've had one accident this weekend and a few close calls.  So I'm a bit concerned if we're going to get a repeat of the regression.  I really hope not as that was not a fun time.  My plan is to go back to being very positive when she makes it to the toilet in time and hope this curtails any regression.  Wish me luck!

Lydia had her own little first this week too.  She's been pulling herself up to standing for awhile but if she wants to move she'll go back down to the floor and crawl to where she wants to be.  No cruising yet.  Well this week she pulled herself up to standing on a small child size chair.  Whilst leaning on it, she pushed it further away from her and so she followed it by taking a few steps (holding on still, we're nowhere near the walking yet!).  She managed to walk along behind the chair for quite a way across the room.  We've been worried about her foot as she often will pull herself up and stand on the very edge (almost the top) of her foot, rather than the bottom.  It's quite twisted.  So we're hoping she doesn't have an ankle or hip problem.  I've booked into see a paediatrician to get some proper advice on it.  Hopefully she'll figure it out herself soon.

This weekend has been quieter than normal with not much to report at all.  I think with the emotional week of school and Pete away, it's been necessary to have a calmer weekend.  The only drama we had was our fridge dying on us.  We had a power cut on Saturday lunchtime and the display on the fridge went strange.  From talking to the helpline, I was told that it was just the display and that would reset in 24 hours but the fridge/freezer itself would still be working.  However, 24 hours later, the display is not fixed and everything is rapidly defrosting in the freezer and warming up in the fridge (thank you Samsung helpline for being very unhelpful!).  Thankfully, we have another freezer so I think we've been able to save most of that food and our fridge food is sitting in our garage where we hope it will stay reasonably fresh with the cold weather here (finally a time when I've been glad of this weather!).

So that's all for us for another week. Fingers crossed for behavioural improvements and a fixed fridge.

Safe cars

This Friday one of my new friends here had a pretty major car accident.  Unbelievably she walked away from it and so did her 2 year old daughter.  I had actually driven past the accident having no idea that I knew the people involved.  It was a snowy day and the roads were icy and even though she was doing 20miles an hour under the limit, her car began to skid into the fast lane of the highway.  Despite her attempts to correct it the car continued to skid and when it hit the central reservation it then flipped, rolled twice and landed on its side on the other side of the highway. Having seen it, I can hardly believe she was able to crawl into the back of the car, unclip her daughter from her car seat and then both of them climb through the back window. She is very shaken up, understandably, and pretty bruised.  But her daughter is nearly better and running around like toddlers do. Myself and the other mums in our group are doing what we can to cook meals for them.  But it just reminds us how careful we need to be on the roads here and I'm so glad that we too have got good cars with airbags and good car seats. Praise God for keeping them safe.

So despite that rather distressing news, we've had an ok week.  Valentine's Day begun the week but with Lydia deciding to spend the evening crying and staying awake, it wasn't the most romantic night ever. Never mind. Pete also got given two more trips away for work this week.  One of which was back to Barrow at the end of this week just gone.  The next is tomorrow through to Wednesday in Seattle.  Unfortunately that one means he won't be around for Naomi's first day at 'school' on Tuesday. He'll try to call her before she leaves in the morning and when she gets home as Daddy has such an influence on the way Naomi views things.  So hopefully she'll still decide that school is a great thing and she'll love it there.

The week has been fairly normal really.  Few sniffles in the family but nothing too bad.  Yesterday we went to another children's birthday party which was fun. Today we all went to church as usual only to find that the nursery wasn't open due to a lack of volunteers. So whilst Naomi's class was running, Lydia had to stay with us through the service.  Thankfully she was well behaved.  Pete and I are considering volunteering in the children's ministry now that we're a bit more settled here.  We've put our names down so that someone will call to give us information and then we'll pray about it and see if it's something we could do.

This afternoon Pete and Naomi went off sledding again and had lots of fun.  We've ended the evening with a Skype call to Grandma and Grandpop which was nice. Pete and I are now going to have a yummy meal and get an early night so we're both ready for the week – me for looking after the girls on my own and getting Naomi started at school.  Pete for his travel and meeting in Seattle. 

Some parting words for those of you with small children.  Please be vigilant on putting those car seat straps on correctly as no matter how careful you are on the road, you never know when an accident may happen.  We want all of you to be safe.

I'll leave you with a video of Lydia playing with one of her Christmas presents. You have to shake the rattle to get Winnie the Pooh to move:

Remember to let go

This week Pete had another trip away.  This time to Barrow.  For those of you who haven't heard of Barrow it's in the very north of Alaska. Brrrrr.  Pete said he took off his glove for 1 minute and regretted it.  Took awhile for it to warm back up again.  He was there for a festival for the local people and it was a chance to meet some people who are both impacted by and impacting Shell's Alaskan venture.  His highlight was walking out onto the Arctic Ocean – yes I did say onto not upto.  It's frozen over at this time of year.  He was warned a lot to watch out for polar bears if he did walk onto the ice.  Thankfully he didn't see any. So overall it was a good trip and thankfully for me, he came back with no desire to move there.

The girls and I coped ok with him away.  Naomi definitely misses her Daddy and Lydia is aware that something's different (although that could be picking up on Mummy's elevated stress levels). Naomi even said an unprompted prayer one day to bring Daddy back safely.  Was very heart-warming.

This week we finally made the decision of where to move Naomi to in regards to pre-school/childcare.  She's going to be starting at a Montessori school 5 mornings a week.  She will probably have 2 days where she stays till 3 in the afternoon as well.  She seems very excited about starting "school".  I'm hoping she stays that way as she has had so much change in her life over the last year.  I'm very nervous that the move will have a negative impact on her.  But I'm praying that it won't and that she'll thrive at this school.  It just seems like so much more of a positive environment than the childcare she is at now.  And they don't just stick on the TV either. The style of teaching will take a bit of getting used to but we were so impressed by the children we saw there (and those we already know who attend Montessori) that we're confident ultimately this is a good choice. So this coming week is her last at childcare and then she will begin at Montessori the following Tuesday (Monday is a holiday here).  Prayers for her adjustment would be really appreciated.

On Friday night when Pete returned from Barrow, we both attended Governor Parnell's Inauguration Gala.  It was a black tie event so we had fun dressing up and shared a table with some of Pete's colleagues, as Shell was a sponsor of this charity fundraising event.  It was a good night out.

Yesterday, despite the cold conditions (-12 °C) we spent the afternoon at a local park doing some sledding.  So far sledding has just been Daddy and Naomi but this time Mummy decided she would give it a try too.  So with Lydia strapped into the Baby Bjorn on my front, I clambered into the sled.  Pete told Naomi to give me a push down the hill.  She thought this was a great idea so grabbed hold of the sled to give it a big push.  Unfortunately, after the push she forgot to let go and proceeded to come down the hill after us doing some tummy snow surfing!  She was fine which unfortunately for her meant that Mummy and Daddy did get some big laughs out of it.  She was a bit shocked and upset that her snow boot had come off half way down but other than that she was fine. We just wish we had a video of it as it would have made great TV.

Naomi's had a bit of a sniffle today and has been a bit more whingy than usual.  We've dosed her up on Ibuprofen and hoping that she doesn't come out with a full blown cold or worse the flu (which is going around Anchorage a bit right now). But despite that we still managed to go for dinner at one of my friend's house.  She is the woman who started the mum's group that I go to each week.  Her daughter is a couple of months older than Naomi so they play very well together.  So we all had an early dinner and had a good chat with topics including religion and politics and sports.  Quite big topics for a first meal together with new friends.  Thankfully we departed as still friends so we can't have said anything too controversial.

Nothing major planned for the coming week.  We're having a quiet Valentine's Day tomorrow, just cooking a yummy roast dinner and spending time with each other.  So we wish all of you a very happy and romantic Valentine's Day. xxxxx

Wedding Vows Damaged

Well that got your attention didn't it! So are we talking Pete's vows or Helen's vows? Well both actually. But don't panic, our marriage is not in jeopardy.  However, what I am talking about did reduce me to tears.  For our wedding, Pete and I wrote our own vows and my sister beautifully wrote them in calligraphy and did illustrations too.  We had it framed and it is something very special to me.  And this is what has been damaged. This week we had a cleaner come round to help us out.  We were trialling her out to see if we would get her to come on a regular basis.  However, she failed! She switched days on me and then turned up late (only after I had called to see where she was) and then she has ended up gauging one corner of the frame of our vows.  We had yet to put the vows and other pictures on the wall. They were leaning against the wall and she moved them onto the bed so she could vacuum the carpet.  However, in doing so she piled them up and made gauge out of the wedding vows frame with the frame of another picture.  When I discovered it, I burst into tears.  So needless to say she won't be returning and we're now trying to decide whether to live with the damage or get it touched up somehow or completely reframe it.  Now, a few days on, I'm less upset about it and am starting to realise maybe it's not that bad.  We have now put the picture up on the wall, so hopefully no more harm will be done to it.

This week, we did a tour of a pet shop with my mum's group.  Was fun although Naomi wasn't so keen on petting any of the animals.  She got brave with the tortoise! Thankfully she didn't come home pleading for us to get a pet.  I don't think either Pete or I are ready for any more dependents!

Lydia has been a bit sick this week.  She had a fever on Tuesday and Wednesday and a very runny nose.  By Wednesday afternoon she was back to herself, although we're still wiping her nose and it took a couple more days to get her appetite back.  We bought a Vicks vaporiser and I love it.  Was a good purchase.  It puts out warm steam into the room and if you add the Vicks solution, this steam also helps to clear the nose.  I'm fairly sure it had a big impact on her sleeping.  We only had one lunchtime and one evening this week where she was unsettled during her sleep.  However, we did opt to not go to the ice hockey this week because of her being ill.  We thought if she was going to be up in the evening, it wasn't fair to her to have a stranger there and not us when she's sick.  I'm sure there'll be other opportunities for hockey.

This weekend we ha d some of the people from Pete's team at Shell round for a few drinks and nibbles.  Pete had decided to give it an Australian flavour and so Naomi and I made ANZAC biscuits and Pete made a pavlova and we put the 2010 AFL Grand Final on the TV.  It was a fun afternoon.  There was a 3 year old girl who came and Naomi and her had a great time running around and looking after the baby dolls together. Lovely to see her playing so happily with someone new. 

Naomi has been a very good girl this week.  I think we're nearly on top of the potty training thing.  There is the occasional accident but nothing much.  We did two batches of biscuit making and she was excellent.  Helped to measure the ingredients out, and pour things into the bowl, stir it together and put the mixture out on the tray to cook.  She waits happily whilst I do any of the hot ingredients.  So long as she can see what I'm doing, then she is happy. Oh, and she has to lick the bowl of course, but it's not baking without that part!

So now, it's Sunday afternoon and in about 5 minutes the Super Bowl XLV begins. So we're getting ready for an afternoon sitting in our La-Z-boys and eating chips and popcorn! And maybe somewhere amongst that we'll be entertaining the kids as well! Although Naomi will happily watch for a little while too.  She does a great impression of what American Football is. She mimics a throw, then runs across the room and throws herself on the ground.  Pretty accurate if you ask me. 

So will it be the Green Bay Packers or the Pittsburgh Steelers? To be honest, I'm not sure I care but I'll pick a side, I'll watch, I'll cheer and I'll feel American for an afternoon. It's all part of the experience.

Survived

Well we all survived another week.  No major dramas with Pete going away thankfully.  He had a good trip but was very tired on Thursday after arriving back in the middle of the night and switching time zones again.  He stayed home on Thursday and did some work from here as well as caught up on a bit of sleep.  Naomi loved having her Daddy home again.  She leapt out of bed and threw herself into his arms when he got her up on Thursday morning.  Very cute. 

But first, let me backtrack a bit to whilst he was away.  Monday morning was great fun as the mums and toddlers from our South Anchorage Fun Mums group came over to play.  We did a Jack-in-the-box craft morning.  We used lots of the boxes that we've been unpacking and the kids put stickers and coloured on their own box and then got inside to become a human jack-in-the-box.  They seemed to have fun.  The trampoline got lots of use too.  Naomi loved having her friends over to play and the mums had a good natter.

I've spent a lot of this week looking at pre-schools for Naomi.  One that has come up quite a bit in conversations with others here, in Australia and in England, is Montessori.  So after spending ages trying to get in contact with one here I finally went to look at it on Friday morning.  It looks very promising.  Montessori is a child-led approach to teaching (that's a very quick summary and I'm sure if we end up taking her there I'll tell you more about the things she does there). I have another 2 schools I want to look at but at the moment Montessori is looking like a good option for us.

I went to the gym a couple of times this week which I enjoyed.  I'm still trying to work out if I want to get back into personal training or do something different.  I'm definitely not fit enough yet to be a personal trainer as I was aching again after doing the weights class (although thankfully not as much as last week).  Lydia was only ok in the crèche.  I don't think she was happy with the lady who was looking after her.  The usual lady will be back working in the mornings in a couple of weeks though so it should be ok then.

We've finally unpacked the boxes – hoorah!! The guest room is all made up, pictures are hung on the wall and I think we've located everything we owned now.  So we'll be scheduling a pick-up of all the boxes soon and we'll finally get our garage back (there is a whole wall of boxes – most are flattened but it still covers a whole wall!).

We've had another birthday party this weekend which was fun.  A joint 4 year old and 1 year old party.  They had a piñata which was hysterical watching a bunch of tiny girls with no muscles trying to break open this thing with a stick as tall as them.  Those sitting nearby were in more danger of getting hurt than the piñata itself! After a little help from the birthday girls' Dad, it finally opened and the kids all dropped to the floor to recover the candy (sweets, lollies – depending on your country!).  There was the inevitable sugar crash after the candy hearts, the cake with lashings of icing and the princess punch. But it was still fun to have gone.

Pete and I had a lovely date night on Friday.  We went to see the Kings Speech.  It's been out for awhile but if you haven't seen it, I recommend it.  Was great.  I think it's up for lots of Oscars this year.  We also went for ice-cream afterwards which was a nice chance for the two of us to chat.  We asked our next door neighbour to babysit for us and she seemed to do a good job.  Unfortunately Lydia woke up whilst we were out but she seemed to cope very well with it.  She gave her cuddles, let her crawl around for a bit and then sat in her room beside her cot whilst she went back off to sleep.  Hope she didn't find it too much like hard work – I think she was expecting to get some homework done.  We'll soon see as we're hoping to go to the ice-hockey this week and will ask her to come round again.  Pete got some free tickets from someone at work and we thought it would be an interesting thing to go to.

Lydia is making moves towards walking! Well sort of.  She's taken the next step (pardon the pun!) and has started to pull herself up to standing.  She not quite cruising yet but seems to be thinking about it.  I think she's first trying to figure out how to get herself back to the ground once she's pulled herself up.  She seems to get stuck sometimes and then just calls out for someone.  There is a slight worry though, as she seems to be standing on the outer edge of one foot rather than on the base of the foot.  Hope she corrects it herself, otherwise it may mean some sort of physiotherapy is necessary.

Church was good today and swimming was lots of fun.  We spent the afternoon at Borders, in the cafe and then choosing a book each for the kids. A lovely end to the weekend.

That's us for another week. See ya!

Mundane but good

A fairly mundane but good none-the-less kind of week.  We made ice-cream with the mother's group at the start of the week which was very yummy.  Was nice knowing exactly what went into the ice-cream and having none of the additives and chemicals.  And it was delicious! We may have to think about buying an ice-cream machine for ourselves in the future.

Pete had car problems Monday night which unfortunately meant he didn't make it home in time for our Skype session with Grandma and Grandpa and Nanna and Gramps.  The girls and I still enjoyed having a chat with them all.  Naomi had been playing phone calls all day and had been pretend calling Grandpa.  The cutest bit was she kept bursting out laughing.  Grandpa was obviously telling her something very funny in her imagination!

On Tuesday Pete had a meeting in Washington but instead of making the trip down there, he got up before 4am and telephoned into the meeting from our basement.  So with such an early start he was finished early too which meant he could pick Naomi up from childcare which she loved.  I went to the gym and did my first group exercise class in a long time.  It was a strength training class and I could barely walk for 3 days afterwards.  Going to attempt it again this week and I'm hoping the recovery will be a bit easier.  Lydia was less happy in the crèche though.  The afternoons are really quiet but the mornings (when the group classes are) are a bit more hectic and so she gets a bit more upset.  Hopefully this week it won't be as much of a shock to her.

I also went to a knitting session this week.  It was some of the Mums from my mother's group, most of who wanted to learn how to knit.  I already know but it was nice to be there with everyone and to spend some focussed time trying to finish off the blanket I started about a year or more ago.  I think we're going to meet up once a month to do this which will be fun.

We're also incredibly close to unpacking all our boxes finally.  I'm hoping by the end of next weekend they'll be done.  I did a few boxes during the week and a couple over the weekend.  But Pete spent an evening and a lot of Saturday unpacking and did an excellent job.  It's so nice to not have boxes to look at everywhere.  Making the house feel even more like home.  We just have the guest room to do (including building the guest bed) and then we're done.  Phew!

Naomi is doing really well with the potty training again.  Such a relief.  She has decided she wants her privacy and independence so insists on going by herself now.  She still needs some help with wiping (not that she necessarily wants the help) but we're so much closer to getting it now.  She hasn't had an accident for over a week (apart from at childcare where they insist on not putting a nappy on her at lunchtime and then she has an accident in her sleep).

Mum and Dad have booked flights out to see us in April/May which I'm so excited about.  I've basically got February and March to get through and then there are lots of good things happening.  We have our holiday to Mexico at the start of April, then my parents arrive and shortly after they leave Pete's parents arrive.  That takes us through to the middle of July.  And then we'll be in Alaskan summer which will be good to experience.  Hopefully we may get some more visitors at that time (fingers crossed).

It's been a tough time settling in here, particularly for Pete and myself as a couple.  Those of you who are married have probably fallen into the trap at some point of taking out your stresses on each other. So we've decided we need some focussed time for just us.  We're trying to make a date night once a week, although we won't necessarily go out every week.  This week we played some board games together which was good fun.  Pete won one game and I won the other so the battle is on!

This weekend we went to a 3 year old birthday party which was fun (Naomi had to dress as a princess so she looked great). We also all went swimming together after church which was fun.  Naomi is going down the water slide practically by herself now.  She goes to the top with Pete, pushes him down and then follows him, with Pete catching her at the bottom.  It's great to see her confidence in the water growing.  And if she has a hold of the side she can work her way along the  edge and get herself out too, so that helps us as parents feel better too.

We also took her ice-skating today.  I watched with Lydia as I would have been a hindrance not a help.  Pete can ice-skate so he went on the ice with her.  Was funny watching her try to get her balance.  She fell over a lot but didn't really complain.  She didn't want to stay on for very long but at least she didn't throw a tantrum and complain.  Hopefully we can take her some more and she can get the hang of it soon.  There were some other little kids zooming around the rink with no fear at all.  They can't have been older than 5.

So our weekends are turning out very nicely at the moment.  A good mix of achieving those things that need to get done in life and having some fun together as a family. Now to the next week.  Pete is heading to Houston tomorrow morning so it's just the girls at home for the next 3 days.  Pete gets back in the early hours of Thursday morning so we'll get to see him when we wake up Thursday. I hate this feeling when he is about to go and I know I have to cope on my own.  I know I can but I still don't like it.  My inspiration this week will be one of the ladies from the church Mum's group whose husband is in the air force.  He's just got back from 4 months away from home.  I have no idea how she did it but if she can cope for 4 months then I can do 3 days.  I'll let you know how it goes next week...

White Christmas

We're back!!! Unfortunately our wonderful holiday in England came to an end and we're now back in Alaska and settling back into work and life and the cold.  So what did we get up to while we were away?

Unfortunately, there were quite a few illnesses involved in our time in England.  Firstly Lydia picked up a virus (presumably on the plane) that led her to start throwing up on our 2^nd day.  She refused solid food for nearly a week and was throwing up for about 3 or 4 days.  By day three we were worried about her becoming dehydrated but thankfully a trip to the doctor relieved our concerns and she soon after started keeping her milk down and then eventually had some solids too.  Mum and Dad also got a stomach bug for a couple of days.  Mum, with a weakened immune system then caught a cold.  Debi also got a cold and so did Zac (Zac's led to him throwing up at the end of Christmas Day from all the excitement).  So it was quite dramatic with all the illnesses but thankfully no one was ill for the entire time.

But in amongst all the illnesses we still had a wonderful time.  I caught up with university friends, hearing all the latest on new jobs, future plans, and 3 gorgeous new babies.  You know you have special friends when you can meet up once every two years and still slip into easy conversation with them.  We also saw lots of my family which I really cherished.  After all, family is very important.  The snow in England had a bit of an impact on all these catch ups but thankfully there weren't too many people we missed out on seeing.  We had been assuming we would be escaping the snow with our trip to England but that wasn't to be.  In the end it was actually worse than being in Alaska, as the place isn't set up with road sweeping and studded tyres on the cars.  But none-the-less there's always something special about a White Christmas.

We had a few issues with Naomi whilst we were there.  She decided to have a potty training regression phase, where she stopped telling us she needed to go.  She wouldn't make a complete mess on the floor, just enough to warrant a change of clothes.  So between Lydia throwing up the first week, and Naomi having accidents the second week, Mum's washing machine was on overdrive! I think Naomi has just had a few too many changes for such a young toddler.  Going back to England and living in a different environment and sleeping in a different bed was just too much for her. Hence she chose potty training as her way of taking some control and getting attention.  The difficult thing is that the best strategy is to play down the accidents and make a big fuss of the successes.  But that is so hard to do when you're frustrated with her because you know she knows how to do it but is choosing not to.  The accidents have continued during our first week back but thankfully seem to be tapering off these last couple of days.  We've made a big effort to get the parenting strategy right and it seems to be paying off.  We're also realising that she's a bit like her Mum was at that age and wants her privacy.  So now when she goes she tells us she doesn't want us to come.  That's ok until we realise she's forgotten to wipe or the other extreme and she's unrolled nearly an entire toilet roll!  But I'll take that over the constant changes of clothes and washing.

I managed to do a few shopping trips whilst away.  It was fun going back to the English shops that I'm familiar with.  I bought a few things but the best day was going with Mum and Debi to M&S.  The trip included a coffee break and lunch and was highly successful and enjoyable. 

The girls did exceptionally well in Christmas presents.  Very blessed little girls.  Pete and I also did well.  For each other we bought our La-Z-boys that I've mentioned before.  We needed something to open on Christmas Day and so we decided to do a fun shopping trip.  We each had a strict hour and a budget of £20.  But not only that.  We had to buy 5 presents, each beginning with the letter S (letter chosen by Mum and Dad and the number from a roll of a die).  It was a great challenge.  I bought Pete a Scarf, Socks, a Sweater, a Superman Shirt and some Sensitive Skin Shaving gel.  Pete bought me a book entitled Swimsuit, Slumdog Millionaire DVD, a Snack (a bit on the edge of the rules but this snack was a chocolate bar so all was forgiven), Spa Stones (for heated massage) and a Santa mug.  Good fun.

Since we've been back in Alaska it's been tough.  Pete is still working very hard and there is a lot of pressure in his role.  I feel like there is a constant battle to have Naomi in a good mood with no accidents and keep Lydia happy.  And it's incredibly cold (today was -18 Celsius!).  The days are slowly getting longer which is helping.  But it's a constant effort to make the most out of life and to enjoy our time here.  We love our house and have nearly finished unpacking the boxes.  Just a couple more weekends should do it.  It helps having a home that we all really love.  So hopefully, things will slowly get easier.  I'm going to be applying for a right to work here so that sometime this year I can start some part time work and have some time where I'm something other than a Mummy.  Shell generously gives me as part of our expatriate package some money to "self-develop" i.e. complete some study or training or course of some sort.  I think this is a great opportunity but I can't think what to do.  Any suggestions on what I could use the money for and ultimately what sort of work I could think about doing?  It's interesting seeing what other people think I could be good at.

We've booked a holiday to Mexico at the start of April which we're so looking forward to.  We've missed the Australian summer and are in desperate need of some warmth and sunlight.

Below are a few photos and a video that I thought were worth sharing.  We went ice fishing last weekend.  Was ridiculously cold and we hadn't really dressed appropriately. Lydia didn't have her booties on or gloves hence why she is wearing adult gloves on her hands and feet in the picture. So we didn't last very long fishing and most definitely not long enough to catch anything.  But oh well, we did the Alaskan thing.  There are a couple of shots from a photo shoot we did at Mum and Dad's place over Christmas.  And some other random Christmas shots.  The video is of Naomi receiving her & Lydia's Christmas present from us (albeit a bit delayed due to its size not being possible to take to England with us!).

Enjoy.  I'm sure there's lots more I could be telling you as it's been so long since I wrote.  But you get the general gist of things.  Hope you are all enjoying 2011 so far – how are those New Year's Resolutions going?!