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
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