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.