Halloween for non-Halloweeners

Hello everyone! Hope that you are all well and have enjoyed your extra hours sleep last night! Our children had had an appalling night's sleep on Friday night (Naomi wasn't brilliant last night), so they were tired and so we even had an extra hour too!

We have had a busy weekend, which has been great! The Americans have been very excited that we are here for our first Halloween – something that I can't quite share! But one thing is certain, it is certainly the season for parties and we have been to two this weekend; both have had craft activities, both have given sweets to the children and both have involved dressing up. The difference was that one was a Jungle party at church and one was a party at someone's house.

Interestingly, Halloween is very different here to the UK. Here it is mostly for younger children; we haven't seen any children older than 10 dressing up or Trick and Treating, but whether this is an accurate assessment, I don't know. The children have not been dressing up in scary costumes, but as animals or fairies or even a fire man! There also seems to be a mixed approach from Christian circles, some don't mind it, some do but the atmosphere here at least is relaxed and friendly rather than intimidating as it so often is in the UK.

Yesterday, we celebrated Naomi's birthday and she really enjoyed opening her presents. She has worn her apron that her Great Grandparents gave her all weekend and I am sure it is going to be accessorized with the wellie boots anytime soon! That will be worth a photo! She also has enjoyed toy birthday cake that her Grandparents gave her and has offered Tim and I more birthday cake than would be good for you in reality! She is very proud of the fact that she can cut it with a 'knife' but you can only have it in quarter slices! She is very funny!

We only have a small space here so I have put some of the toys away for the moment. I will probably swap them round in a week or so, but it is easier to keep some of them hidden for a little while at least. When we move into our new house, she will have plenty of space, but until then, the toys will have to be limited! Esther very much enjoyed the paper and the envelopes and she thinks we are very mean to keep removing them from her! She is going to love Christmas!!

After lunch yesterday, we dressed Naomi up as a monkey and went to the Jungle Party. For all of 30 seconds, Naomi had her ears, tail and paws on and looked quite the part but soon she removed all accessories! We took some photos for you all to see. (I know I keep promising photos, and I will get round to learning how to put them on soon!!) She had a great time and was quite disappointed today to go to church but not to have a party! She won some sweets and decorated a cake and had a pumpkin painted on her face and generally had a good time. Back home, we also sang Happy Birthday to her and had her birthday cake, which she loved, so she had a good day!

Today, we went to church in the morning and then this evening went to the halloween party at a ladies house whom I had met last week. The children did some gluing and sticking of more pumpkin shapes and then we had supper there. Julianne had cut up sausages (or hot dogs as I am supposed to call them!) to look like octopuses which were great and we had enchiladas. She had invited the neighbours who live in their small cul-de-sac and some other Polish friends and we had a pleasant evening. The children dressed up – Naomi was a fairy today which she thought was great! – and they received 'candy'! They live in Issaquah, not far from our new house and so it was good to get to know them better.

My calendar for this week is filling up, which is not bad considering I have only been here for 3 weeks! I am going out on Thursday evening with the mothers from Quest (name of our church) which should be fun! They are a nice group of ladies and from a variety of Nationalities. Currently there will be English, Burmese, Korean and American on Thursday evening! I am also planning on going to the Mom's group on Tuesday with another lady who lives this side. It is nice to get to know these ladies better, they are all extremely friendly and welcoming and I feel comfortable among them already!

Naomi's and Esther's skin isn't too good at the moment which is a shame and hopefully we can get this sorted out very soon. They are both itchy and red eyed. Hopefully the medical insurance stuff comes through this week and so we can sort out a paediatrician for them. At least I have discovered that they sell Aveeno here so I can get hold of that easily. Bizarrely the thing I can't get hold of is paracetamol and therefore Calpol, which is really irritating.

Theoretically you can't buy a drug here for a child under 2 which is really silly! I don't want to have to see the doctor every time I want to give Esther a dose of Calpol. Somebody found a box of the stuff that I can give to Naomi today so at least I have something to give her and I shall have to save my Calpol specifically for Esther. They are really behind here in some things, which is weird. I read an article in a good magazine yesterday that was listing the reasons why a baby walker is not safe, information I have been giving to my parents for years. But this was new to them here!

Naomi has been coming out with some gems this weekend. She copies what we say to her so much at the moment, so she has been saying to Esther, "sh sh, Esther" or the one which is really funny "hello darling!" It sounds so funny coming from her and yet we say it to them all the time! Last week she was "hello-ing" on the telephone! She also has been blowing raspberries on Tim's tummy very noisily today when they were playing rough and tumble, something that Esther and I were both amused at but for very different reasons!!

Anyway, all quiet here on the western front and so I am going to go to bed. Night night all and have a good week.

Friday Night

Hello everyone, Friday night in Seattle and we are sitting down and relaxing just before we go to bed! We have had a busy evening.Tim has been filling in more forms for our mortgege and I have been making Naomi's birthday cake. I will try to get a photo on the blog for you all. It isn't as impressive as last years, but Naomi will like it and it looks OK. I have also been making ears and a tail for tomorrows party! It remains to be seen whether or not she will look anything like a monkey but that is what she wants to be and it will be fine!

We had a busy day, shopping mainly. I finally managed to buy some Tushie wipes for the girls in a very nice supermarket and I also bought an iron. I hope that it is better than the one that they provide here. You iron a bit and then it decides it has done enough and turns itself off! It is hopeless so this one had better be better! This afternoon, we went food shopping so, not a very exciting day really!

Yesterday, the girls and I went to our new house yesterday for the inspection. It was great to be able to see the house again and I was able to try and plan where we will put our furniture or work out what we need to buy. The inspection went well and things are continuing to move forward. We were there a long time and ended up going to McDonalds for lunch and a play on their soft play, which was good.

The girls have been enjoying their newly arrived toys. Esther is so investigative at the moment that she is for ever landing on her tummy as she stretches too far to reach something. She then yells loudly as this is not her favourite position! I think she won't be long before she is rolling over and crawling. She is definitely very keen to be on the move! Naomi has been enjoying her buggy and baby's bed.

We are going to 'do' Naomi's birthday tomorrow and so we have laid out all the presents in our lounge. We will take a lot of photos for you all and will blog about it tomorrow but that's all for now!

Air Freight

Hooray! Today the airfreight has arrived. It was delivered by a large man called Buster and an unknown Man/ Woman!! I left Tim to it and went to our Toddler group! When I came back, the flat was full of boxes! So, we now have Naomi's birthday presents, my computer, a CD player and some Balamory DVD's! Life suddenly looks brighter!! And the flat fuller!!

The children were both delighted with the new arrivals. Esther loved being back under her gym - she beamed and beamed but also enjoyed playing with the new toys for older babies. She has worked out how to hit the pop up farm and has enjoyed that as well as the pots that Naomi also loved. Naomi was delighted to see her baby buggy returned to her and also her drawing board and letters. We are leaving opening the presents until Saturday and so I will let you know about that then! Sorry to keep you all waiting!

I have kept one of the shallow boxes for Naomi and Esther to play in. I think we may need to turn it into a car or something! I'll see what Naomi wants to do and if I can work out how to do it, I will take a photo to post onto the blog!

I have done lots of washing and ironing today and now thankfully Esther has some clothes to wear! At least now I know what they are both short of and I can go shopping! Now that will be fun! Just need to find out where to go now....

Had to laugh today! I was chatting to an American Microsoft mum today and we were the last to leave the group that we had been attending. I was saying to her daughter (4) that we were always last, saying it with a long 'a' (as in 'ar') as a girl from St. Albans should! The little girl then started to copy me, only her mum told her off for saying it that way and said that she should say it with a short 'a' instead. I had to apologise and say that it was my fault because she was copying me! The poor mum looked quite embarrassed then and I had to reassure her that it didn't matter!

Naomi has been 'driving' lots recently and everytime we stop the car, she wants to 'drive'. Everytime I get in the car, I have to turn off the indicators, turn off the lights, reduce the fan, stop the windscreen wipers ....... etc etc etc!! She thinks it is great fun! She was given a goody bag from the bank the other day and in it was a little plastic pumpkin with a toy spider inside - like from a Christmas cracker. She has had great fun playing with this although I do a double take when I see the spider on the floor. After we had been given it we went into a small supermarket and, at one point, she says to me "dropped spider" so we have to go on a hunt to find it. I seriously expected to hear a shriek from some poor unsuspecting customer as our way of locating this spider, but thankfully we got to it before it caused anyone to faint!! I mean, really, what a daft gift to give to a child!!

Found a House

We've put an offer in for a house today and it has been accepted! Hooray! We are very pleased and hope that there are no hiccoughs now! We saw the house yesterday in Issaquah and it is lovely! It has a central staircase from which there is a large living / dining room that leads into a kitchen and family room. Upstairs it has got 4 bedrooms and a lovely sunny bonus room which is great as an extra sitting room! We are very pleased with it and happy that our offer has been accepted. We still have lots of hoops to jump through but if all goes well, we will be moving in at the beginning of December, which is not really that long away now! It will be so nice to be out of here by Christmas and to have all our familiar things around us again. I am really missing my furniture!

We think the air freight is arriving on Wednesday and have a suspiscion that it has been lying around for a few days, but that may just be me being cynical! I shall look forward to seeing what i packed 3 weeks ago! It will be funny to think that when I last saw this stuff, it was still in our house in Nottingham! We shall celebrate Naomi's birthday in style on Saturday if everyting arrives in one piece!

Found our church yesterday in under half an hour - a great improvement on the 70 minutes it took last week. We enjoyed the service and the people are very friendly! The children both stayed in their groups without us and without any problems, although I think Naomi was a little upset at one point, they obviously managed to calm her down and to distract her. She had obviously had a good morning when we saw her!

Then we found our house!! We also saw another one that we both liked but that one was more money for an older house and we couldn't quite see how, so we went for this one! It is going to be pretty hectic for the next few weeks, I can tell you!

Today, Naomi, Esther and I went shopping in the morning and found some Weetabix! Yippee!! Given that Naomi spat out the last cereal that I bought her, I am relieved! She will be a happy bunny. She has actually eaten quite well for her today, so that is good! Esther is still pulling faces but we persevere. She really is going to take some soon!! This afternoon, we had a lovely time in the park, Esther enjoys going on the swing and Naomi loves all the slides and things to climb!

A funny story to end with! We have a thing called a Garbage Disposal unit in our sink; basically when you turn it on, it makes a dreadful din and eats anything that is going down the plug hole and in the sink. I think the Americans put their veg. peelings down there and stuff like that, where it goes or how it works is a complete mystery to me and I have been experimenting with it! It doesn't like teaspoons for future reference! I have been putting the odd bit of vegetable peelings or fruit cores down it but mainly I still put things in the bin, but on Sunday morning, I turned it on without checking what else was in the sink and it made a dreadful dreadful noise! The Spoon was jumping up and down, Tim was on the webcam to Hannah, the phone was ringing, Naomi was yelling because of the garbage disposal noise and I was shrieking trying to get the noise to stop and to rescue the spoon without it going down the sink. utter chaos!! Finally the garbage disposal spat the spoon out (with some force, I may say!) and I managed to turn it off and calm Naomi down, whilst Tim answered the phone! Esther was quite calm during all of this and just sat and looked bemused! She is a really placid child!!!

I'll write soon!

Pumpkins

Greetings to you all! Hope that you are all well! We are fine here and have had a busy Saturday! Sadly for Naomi the airfreight hasn't arrived so she has had her 2nd birthday withhout any presents! Our plan is to make a big fuss over her next Saturday when hopefully the presents will have arrived and do the birthday thing then. However, we have received some cards and little presents today so a big thank you to you for them! She has enjoyed reading them and looking at the marvellous art work, Ruth!! Chocolate buttons arrived in one piece, Granny and made a little girl beam with pleasure!!

I passed my written driving test today much to my relief - I would have been really cross if I had failed! I take the practical test in November, but I think that today's was the harder of the 2. We went into Seattle itself today and to the Pike Place Market. We all enjoyed wandering round and looking at the stalls. We even bought some nice cheese! Naomi wasn't too keen on the fish market where they throw the fish to one another but we had a lovely day none-the-less.
The girls and I have been looking at yet more houses on Friday and this time were a lot more positive on our return home. WE saw some really nice properties in a lovely area and will go back round them with Tim tomorrow. We drove to the area to look round more generally today and we both agree that it is a really nice part to settle, so we will see. MAybe one of these will be our home - I am quite excited!!

I know I am going backwards in time here but on Thursday, the girls and I went on an expedition to Snohomish which meant going out of King County (where we live and will continue to live) to go to a Pumpkin Patch (farm) which is all the rage here right now. They celebrate Halloween here in a big way and whilst we have no intention of doing so, one of the new toddler groups had a trip to the farm so that people could collect their pumpkins. We had a lovely day and the farm was great. They had a series of scenes from different nursery rhymes or children's stories - The Wizard of Oz for example - made with pumpkin heads which was quite fun to look at, but the highlight were the animals in the barn. Naomi got very excited about seeing a baby cow and some chicks and had a wonderful time playing in a large and very muddy puddle, which she fell into! We had a good trip and it was great to meet some friendly and pleasant people - I shall look forward to meeting them at the next meeting we attend. I was impressed thatI managed to find my way to this farm as it was a long way off and it gave me a chance to explore the area!

On the way home from the farm, we stopped off at Safeways supermarket to buy Esther some weaning foods. It is currently impossible to make my own in the flat as I have only a small freezer, which is full of bread! Bread is extremely expensive here and we had a coupon that enabled us to get it for half price so I stocked up! I also haven't yet replaced my hand held whisker that I used for Naomi and so Esther will have to make do with jars until we get a little more settled or until we eat up the bread, which ever comes first!! Anyway, Esther has been starving the last few days and so I thought that she was well and truly ready for food! HaHa! We tried with some apple and sweet potato and she yelled and screwed up her face in great disgust so I abandoned it! Anyway, a little later,Naomi was doing some painting and so I put Esther in the highchair. In the end, I gave her some banana to play with and she did actually get used to the taste through licking it. It was a start! Yesterday, I gave her a spoon and I had a spoon and she was quite happy; tasting the food that was on the spoon although she still pulled great faces! She even tried a bit of cooked apple yesterday too. Today, she had carrot and even managed to stop pulling the faces when the spoon was dipped in it; I think she even swallowed some! Well, as you can see she is the opposite of Naomi who loved her food (not very keen at the moment, but that's another issue!) but she is at least getting used to different textures and flavours. I think we will have to approach it very slowly and let her be as independent as possible! I'll keep you posted!!

Naomi is fine and looking forward to her "birthday cake" next week! She is very cheeky but mostly adorable with it! As you can imagine, I have had to turn round and go a different way a lot since we have been getting used to the area and now, even when reversing out of a carpark, Naomi says "illy mummy, gone wrong!" Oh well! She also describes the leaves as running when they get blown by the wind, which I think is very sweet!

Anyway, that is all for now!

Toddler Groups

Well, here we are again. Sorry for the delay! Still no air freight. If it doesn't arrive by Saturday, Naomi will have her 2nd birthday without any presents, poor child! Never mind, we will give her a birthday celebration when it does arrive - she won't know the difference!

We have had a busy few days. We attended a church in Seattle called Quest on Sunday and despite taking 70 mins to find it, it was very good. It only took 20 mins to return home so that wasn't too bad! The children's work was so well organised that my presence was well and truly not wanted and so for some of the service at least, I was able to join in. Naomi stayed for most of it on her own and Esther, too, was fine after she had been fed and realised that Mummy was coming back!

We liked the church and hope to attend there for a little while at least. They were very friendly (although very young - it serves a predominantly University population and I felt very old as a result!) and the teaching was good. The pastor even emailed us yesterday, which I thought was a nice touch!

The highlight of Sunday afternoon was that Esther started to sit unaided and is now getting very good at it! She is very pleased with herself and is full of smiles. I am going to buy a spoon and some food for her tomorrow and try to feed her - she is a starving bunny right now and ready to eat anything that comes her way! I can stand it no longer!!

On Monday we met Tim for lunch at work and had a picnic much to his colleagues amusement. We told them that we Brits have picnics in every weather and at least it wasn't raining! Naomi and I both had hair cuts on Monday, mine in particular is looking quite different and not quite how I imagined it would be!

We have been to two Toddler groups this week, based in the Redmond Community Centre. Tuesday's just consisted of free play, with lots of toy cars, some soft play and a kitchen area. It was good for Naomi to have a long run around and to enjoy playing on the bikes and cars, which she has missed doing here. The people were not very sociable and did not communicate much to one another. I did eventually have a conversation with a lady but she was the only one! Today's though was very different. It was a well organised session with singing, movement and craft although they also had the soft play out too. The people were a lot more chatty and I talked to a few people, one of whom I will try and see next week some time. Naomi and Esther enjoyed the session and we will definitely go back next week.

We have also joined the library this week and when I have several hours free I might try and investigate it further. We had a quick trip yesterday and it was enormous! I need a map to get my bearings!!

This afternoon I have been house hunting again, but not very successfully! We decided not to put an offer in for the one we saw on Saturday. It is really hard trying to find a house when there are so many unknowns right now. I am feeling that I am fumbling around in the dark and I know why they say it is a stressful business! I would agree! Never mind, hopefully something will turn up soon!

Esther gains strength in her sitting daily and she is trying to reach for things in front of her now. She lands on her tummy regularly and mews like a cat! She doesn't like being on her tummy much! Naomi is obsessed with sitting next to her in a "boat" for some reason and invariably ends up knocking her over, sometimes more accidently than others! Esther loves watching the other children play and was very impressed with the bubbles today!

Naomi's language skills are amazing and fascinating to hear. What I find wonderful is the way she is constructing her own sentence structure in her head rather than relying on what she hears. So for example, she says "Edder too wake!" meaning that Esther is also awake or she may say "Too raining" meaning that is raining a lot! But she hasn't ever heard us phrasing the sentance like that so she is using the words she knows to form an understandable sentance. I find it fascinating but I'll let you off if you don't!!

Just a funny story in which to end! I reversed into a space the other day, (in the bus, so hope you are impressed!!) only to be greeted by amazed stares by the other drivers. Americans never, absolutely never, reverse into a space and so I am going to make it my mission to reverse into spaces occasionally and impress them all!

Night night for now!

Welly Boots and Houses

Hello! We've had a busy Saturday here and the children are both sound asleep at 7:30 pm! We been shopping and bought Naomi some bright red wellies which she thinks is great and has spent all day going "Welly boots!" We also finally bought a kettle but it is very slow and I have had to boil it 3 times before I can get a cup of tea out of it!

Went house hunting this afternoon. Sadly, the house that I had seen and liked last week had been sold but we saw another one that we both liked today. unfortunately there has already been an offer made for the house and so we have to decide quite quickly if we want to put an offer in ourselves….. Watch this space!

Naomi has enjoyed looking at the houses; I think that she likes the space to run around in! She also really likes our estate agent, who also likes children so it works well. She has been saying today "big and brave!" at every opportunity - we must have said it to her at some point. She also said to Tim this morning "Naomi through, beep beep!" Definitely too many readings of "Duck in a Truck" I think!!

Esther and Naomi were playing at buses this evening - Esther is a really placid child who doesn't mind her big sister shouting and sitting on her cushions (with her still there!), she even smiles and laughs at her! Oh well!

Shower Cap

Hello once again to the next installment of Lou's Blog! We have now spent our first full week here and it has been very busy. I am gradually getting used to the bus - it is a Ford Freestar for those of you who are in the know about these things!! I still sing my little song though and today Naomi joined in.....!!!

We went house viewing on Wednesday afternoon with our Real Estate Agent, Rachel - another Brit! We saw some lovely houses in Sammamish which were spacious and comfy. They all had lovely big kitchens with a family space next to it - great for being able to see the children when I am in the kitchen! Naomi enjoyed looking in the cupboards of the houses and I was planning guest bedrooms and living areas in some of them already! Sadly the 2 I liked the most have already sold and so we are off to see some new ones tomorrow with Rachel and Tim.

On Thursday we spent the morning with our Relocator advisor who showed me a lovely shopping mall to go shopping in and several other useful places to note. I took copious notes and keep reading them for reference!! If you are a shopaholic or just enjoy a brouse - come and visit, there is plenty to keep you occupied here! Yesterday was a very useful expedition as I am really beginning to know where I am in our locality and today managed to find a new supermarket without needing a map!! It is those little things that are so discerning and make you feel like an alien! I felt very proud of myself today! It is certainly becoming more familiar and less wierd!

It has been a beautiful week here. The sun has been warm and continuous all day and the autumn colours are magnificent. Naomi is still very concerned with the leaves on the floor and still picks up several each trip out for Daddy to see! We visited a fantastic park yesterday, within walking distance from here, it has slides, a climbing frame and a wobbly bridge, but is a bit low on the swing front! We spent a good hour there yesterday afternoon and then met Tim at work. We then went to a park near the lake and had a picnic. It was lovely, really pretty overlooking the lake and the woods nearby, with the sun setting. We won't have another opportunity this year but I can imagine that we will do it a lot next summer.

Today we went grocery shopping. Honestly, what an experience!! The shop was great and much more like a french supermarche than a supermarket in England but it didn't have a baby and toddler seated trolley! All they had to offer was a large car with a trolley at the front. I ended up putting Naomi in the car (she was happy!) and putting Esther in her car seat in the trolley! No room for shopping! I ended up putting the shopping between the children who peered at me from the apple juice and cereal! Hopeless! I am seriously thinking of suggesting they find some! I just don't know how people shop with 2 children round here!

One thing that made up laugh this week was my new shower cap! I bought it in the chemist's shop and it just looked like a normal shower cap! When I opened it it is a 12" shower cap and it is huge, I think Tim and I could were it together!! Ridiculous!!

Esther has taken to enjoying dancing round the room, she laughs and laughs! She is so nearly sitting and will be so much happier when she can do it more reliably! She is looking forward to having solid food as she stares and stares when we are eating! She has had a growth spurt since we've arrived and all her clothes are too small! All her next sized clothes are being airfrieghted so I hope that it arrives soon!! She loves playing with her ribbons, her monkey and the snail - they are all well chewed at the moment!

Naomi takes 'baby' everywhere, she goes on the swing with her, she enjoys sleeping with a dummy and is fed, bathed and has her hair brushed regularly! She is cheeky and very clearly tells you which stories (and where) she is having. Current favourites are "Tunnel" (Edward, Gordon and Henry in the Thomas the Tank Engine series), "Squash and Squeeze" and "Maisy goes Camping", which she recites from time to time, so we get: "Mind the tent [pegs] Charley. 2 in the tent!!" throughout the day!!

Anyway, things are going OK and we have completed our first week! Will blog again soon!