On the Potty

Good evening! We are now coming to the end of our first Thanksgiving weekend and it has been lovely to all be home together for four days! We have all benefitted from having a restful few days and from having Tim around. Naomi is such a Daddy's girl when he is around. It is lovely to see her look adoringingly at Tim! I feel rested and relaxed at any rate - I hope Tim does too!

We went to one of Tim's friends on Thursday for Thanksgiving lunch. It was a very European affair with French, Spanish, English people present as well as South African and Brazilian. We had a pleasant afternoon, although the dominant languages were either French or Spanish for the women so I felt a little stupid! It was so quiet out on the roads though - really like Christmas day!

On Friday, we had a very lazy morning and then went looking for a hoover in the afternoon and were extremely amused by the robotic hoover that was for sale! Naomi thought it was hilarious and was chasing it until it came near her and then ran for cover!! She was very funny! We ummed and ahed about the different sorts of hoovers - I hadn't realised that there was quite so much choice! Anyway we haven't yet bought one but will before Friday! We went on to a good friend of Tim's on Friday for an early supper and had a super time. Eileen and Jay live near one of the houses that we looked at buying and have 2 cats. They are great people, very warm and friendly and our girls took to them very easily. They were very kind and offered to look after the girls if we needed them to, something that I am sure we will take up!

Eileen and JAy had had to take their new kitten to the vet on Friday morning because it had been for a swim in the washing machine! Unusually for an American family, they have a front loader washing machine, which the cat had climbed into! Eileen had started the washing machine and then the kitten had started to wail and wail and so she turned it off to listen where the noise was coming from and realised the cat was in the washing machine! Poor kitten, it was tiny and very nervous but no harm done! At least they didn't put it in the dryer....!

Naomi was also a little nervous around the cats when we first arrived but by the end she was having a whale of a time with them. Eileen had a long stick with feathers on the end and Naomi was waving it around to make the cat jump up and get it! She was running on the spot and laughing with excitement! She held close to Eileen but had a great time! She was even brave enough to stoke it and by the end was running up to both cats to stroke them - so much so we had difficulty in dragging her away! She was funny! The bigger of the two cats was very soft to stroke, which I think helped in the tactile front! Esther was fascinated by both cats and was sitting on JAy's knee bouncing up and down in excitement!

We had supper with Eileen and Jay and I made Apple Crumble (or Crisp, as it is known here!). When we first arrived I explained that the pudding needed to go into the oven for a while but didn't explain what it was. Eileen and Jay were very confused when then we ate apple crumble as the word "pudding" here specifically means some sort of chocolate pudding! It was not what they were expecting! Another new word learnt!

The girls are fine although I think poor Esther is teething at the moment, she has been really unhappy today and has had a temperature, poor little lady. I can't see anything else wrong and she has very red cheeks and her gums are hard and slightly raised at the front. I hope that we aren't in for too many bad nights and days with her! I was just catching up on some sleep!

Naomi has started to introduce herself and Esther to people if they ask her and it is very sweet! She says "Maymee ebeka and Edder Alice!" which most people don't understand! She even told us today that we used to live in Nottingham, England which I was very impressed with. However, her good language can also be a problem in that she is very good at telling us what she wants but it may not always be what we want! On Wednesday when we all went shopping she was keen to tell us that we were to have 2 trollies, one each for Naomi and Esther and Mummy was to push Esther and Daddy was to push Naomi! Tonight she told Tim that she didn't need a bath as she was clean!!

Naomi continues to be interested by all things toiletting related and even managed to do a "wee wee on potty" last night, which we were delighted with. Bless her she was so proud of herself and kept on pointing to the potty and saying "Maymee wee wee potty". It was a complete fluke but at least we have made a start!

Esther is standing up really well now and is very proud of being able to do so! She has also begun giving us kisses, very wet and sloppy ones, but kisses none the less and she obviously enjoys giving them to us! She also has begun to drink out of a cup with a spout and, surprisingly took to it very well. She likes drinking water and hopefully will be able to do it properly soon!

Completion on our house here looks likely on Thursday, so we will hopefully be in our own home this time next week! We bought Naomi a bed today and so that is a start! unless our furniture arrives soon, we will be sleeping on the floor! However, we have a contigency plan! We did some shopping yesterday so we now have a toaster and an electric hand whisk!

Anyway, I am going to end it here - hope you all have a good few days and I will keep you posted on the house front! Take care!!

Thanksgiving Eve

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! It is Thanksgiving Eve and we are sitting at home with both children fast asleep, which is nice! How long for is another thing altogether! Tim was home at 3 pm this afternoon, just in time to make playdough snails with Naomi and to go to the shops to buy some wine for the party we are going to tomorrow. The first Thanksgiving was to give thanks to God and to the Native Americans for a successful harvest at the end of the pilgrims' first year here. We too give thanks to God and to the Native Americans for their welcome, help and provision during our first 6 weeks here!! Gosh has it been only been that long - it seems like for ever!!

Typical Seattle weather has arrived this last week or so, wet, windy and very very grey! I am going to make sure that we get out to the park when we can as our days are going to be numbered! This week we did manage to go and feed the ducks on Monday but we haven't been able to go out again since! Yesterday we had a lot of house jobs to do in preparation for our move next week and so Tim sent me on a difficult quest to find the Insurance Company yesterday morning which took a while! We met a lady from New Zealand yesterday morning in the Chemist shop and we were talking to her for a while. She married an American GI at the end of WW2 and had moved and settled here. She was very flattering about my girls - so I liked her!! Naomi was systematically removing items from the shelves whilst we were talking - I had to put them all back! I then panicked that she had held onto something that we had then walked out with, but thankfully she hadn't this time!

Yesterday afternoon we went to the Coffee house again as it is a good place to go on a wet day and Naomi and Esther both enjoy playing with the toys there. We had a good time!

Today we went to the Toddler group again and we made a turkey which has very tickly feathers! Naomi runs into the lady at reception now and gives out her hands for her stamp. The lady is very friendly and knows Naomi's name! She was very enthusiastic about it being our first thanksgiving here, but then again she was excited a month ago when she realised it was our first Halloween!! MAybe she'll be excited about our first Christmas, July 4th etc!

This afternoon we had great fun playing with Aunty Hannah's play dough! Mummy and Daddy both made snails at Naomi's request! She enjoyed squeezing the playdough through the dough press and it made some interesting worms!!

Esther was really splashing in the bath today; I was sitting on the floor next to her to catch her if she fell and I got so wet! Tim took some photo's and when we move I shall upload the evidence. She was having a whale of a time and was sticking out her tongue to catch the water! She was funny. She is on an upward trend with her eating but continues to blow it at you most of the time. I had to explain to Noami today that she didn't need to blow her dinner at me too! Honestly, I need to buy a sou'wester to feed and bath my children!

We bought some DVD's with Naomi's birthday money: Kipper, Balamory and Maisy. We are currently watching all British DVD's in black and white as the TV doesn't recognise colour and Naomi is obsessed with watching Maisy. We can't understand the fixation. It is badly drawn, no colour and no story line but she adores it and we watch it every night! She always wants the same one too!! Agh! We keep trying to persuade her to watch either of the other two, but no joy!! Oh well, I am sure she will move onto to something else soon, hopefully before my sanity runs out!!!

Anyhow, that is all for now!

Soggy wellies again!

Hello everyone! It is Monday again here! The weekends go so quickly! This week is only a 3 day week for us as it is Thanksgiving here on Thursday. We are looking forward to a long weekend together, although we will be busy with house preparation I think! We are still hoping to move during that first weekend in December! Fingers crossed that our furniture arrives on time!

We had a pleasant day yesterday; we had a good service at church - we sang my favourite hymn "Be thou my vision!" Hooray! I think the words are great! Eugene continued to preach on Phillippians, which was thought provoking and interesting. Naomi and Esther settled quickly into their groups, in fact, NAomi was listing everyone she was going to play with yesterday morning during the journey to church and was very excited about seeing them. The leaders bring the children into the main hall at the end of the service during communion and Naomi ran to us delightedly yesterday! She was scoring highly on the cute scale then. I could see a lot of people thinking "ah"! However, the man in the car show room didn't think so later on - he was thinking "what a noisy child" as she was having a good yell! She wanted to drive the cars that we wanted to look at but we were mean and said " NO", which she didn't like much!

Esther was full of smiles yesterday and today, her skin is so much better and her mood has greatly improved. She also has been eating brilliantly both at breakfast time and at lunch time. I am going to introduce tea time for her tomorrow. If nothing else, sitting with us in her high chair when we are eating is good for her and she is eating loads and even once or twice has opened her mouth for the spoon, although that may have been for something else and I just took my opportunity! She is throwing herself forward to reach things now - we really have to watch what is around her as her reach is quite something!

We had a fun day here today. We went to feed the ducks and have a splash in the puddle for an hour before lunch this morning, which was a wet experience! Naomi's wellie boots are stuffed full of paper again! She got so much water in them today that when I pulled them off there was a loud suction noise! It made us both laugh! The ducks were disturbed today by this very irritating dog that kept on swimming after them and then came and shook himself all over us, Esther in particular. I was very cross with it!

This morning, whilst Esther was sleeping, Naomi and I turned the box that had become a car into a goal post! We made paper balls which we were kicking and throwing into the box! We also made golf clubs to try and hit the balls with! We had some success! We had great fun playing with it for a while! We were also doing some sticking, which is still Naomi's favourite activity! This book has 400 stickers ! Help!

Naomi was playing at going shopping yesterday and was reciting her Maisy book, where Maisy and Charley go and buy "apples, banana's, orange juice, bread, cheese, tomatoes and yoghurt!" She was inviting all sorts of people to tea! She loves 'cooking' in the kitchen corner at church! She was making me hot cups of tea this evening! She even was warning me that the water was hot!!

Well, that is it for now! Bye!

Shopping!

Good day! Hope that this finds you well! We are fine and I am having a quiet evening here on my own. Tim has gone to Borders this evening to look at and buy books. All Microsoft employees are receiving 20% off this week. I went last night and had a wonderful wander round the shop - you can buy a drink and sit and read the books there if you like, too. I chose some books for Tim and I and then a book each for the girls for Chistmas and for now. I bought Naomi "We're all going on a bear hunt" for Christmas, which she loved when we were on holiday - it is Barnabas' book - and we now read it at our group on Wednesday.

I had a little deviation before I got to the bookshop last night and went into one of the department stores and ended up buying 3 shirts for under £30 that were in the sale. I was very pleased with my purchases and very much enjoyed having a look at the clothes and trying a few on! A little retail therapy occasionally is always a good thing!! The shops are open so much later here that it is quite possible to go of an evening for a shopping expedition. The car park yesterday was full to capacity - I had to drive round a few times before I saw someone coming out!

I took Esther to the hospital yesterday which was an event in itself! I had telephoned last friday and had spoken to a nurse who had, in turn, put me through to a receptionist who had made the appointment for 11:45 on 19th November. However, when I turned up yesterday, Esther's name was not on any list to be seen, which was very frustrating since we had taken all morning out to go. In the end, they agreed that we could be seen at 1pm and I decided that we would go and grab something to eat. This is never an easy experience because the canteen was not built for a double buggy and I do not have enough hands to hold Naomi and our lunch at the same time!! Eventually we managed to eat our lunch and made it back up to the department. The lady who saw her was very nice and was able to prescribe some creams for Esther. We go back in 4 months time but sooner if she doesn't show any signs of improvement. It is too early to say whether or not there has been any improvement, but we hope that her skin is better soon. Naomi was happy in the hospital as there were toys to play with!

On the way home yesterday we called in at the Chemist to pick up the creams and then went on to Marymoor Park, one of the large parks around here. There is an excellent playground there and so we had a good hour or so playing. Esther loves the swing and Naomi is like a little squirrel climbing up the slide!! She thinks it is great!! All in all we were out for about 6hours in total! It was a long but generally fun and successful day!

On Thursday, we went to the Redmond Library for a singing session by a man called Eric Ode. He was great! Esther was enthralled by the singing and Naomi enjoyed joining in with the songs she knew. She was a little unsure of some of the puppets whilst we were there but was talking about them on the way home, so she had obviously enjoyed it! We saw a couple of people who we are getting to know, which was good too. We went shopping in the afternoon in a local Mall and it was nice just to window shop. There were a couple of Christmas decorations on display which the children enjoyed!

Today we have had to return the bus, which was quite sad!! I had got quite used to it and I shall miss it! We had to return it to the airport and had read in our book that we could go and see the planes from a lounge. Unfortunately, in this day and age, this was no longer possible so we had to watch the planes take off and land from the car park, which was fine but a bit chilly! AFter lunch we went to one of the parks that surround Lake Washington and we had a lovely walk by the lake; we had a great view of Mt Rainier today and there is obviously more snow on the mountains this week. The sun was setting as we walking and it was very pretty watching the sun reflect on the water.

Naomi has had an upset tummy his afternoon, but, proving that the Children's Nursing principle is still right, went down hill and back up again very quickly! She was fine by the time she went to bed! She was getting a little possessive of Tim today, and saying "my daddy" to Esther! We had to explain that Esther and she have the same daddy! She is such a chatterbox and using 3 syllable words sometimes although they are not very comprehensible! She looks at you so earnestly and cocks her head to oneside if she asks you a question - it is so cute! However, she also can be a little bossy boots at times and a real contrary mary! she loves to play rough and tumble and has great fun in the bath making sure that Mummy and Daddy get very wet.

Esther has been on a roll today with her eating! She ate a half jar of food at lunch time and then a good tea! We were amazed and gave her a big clap! she has been so smiley today too and I am sure it is because she has had a full tummy! She may even sleep through the night! (I doubt it!) She is so funny; she sees something on the table or on the floor and sets her mind to get it - you can see her thinking, "I want that!" and usually she gets there too!

Anyway, Tim has now returned with his purchases - we are now listening to Sting! By the way, I have read a really good book this week called "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" by Mark HAddon. It is excellent, very readable, funny and moving all at the same time. It is written through the eyes of a 15year old boy who is autistic. It gives a fascinating insight to how an autistic mind ticks and is a good story too. Definitely worth reading especially if you have contact with autistic children.

Potties

Hello there! Sorry I haven't written any entries for a couple of days, but I was busy replying to lots of emails last night and we really didn't do anything on Monday (apart from get lost!) that was worth writing about!!

Actually on a serious note, I get very frustrated with myself for always (but always) getting lost. It is not fun for either the girls or me and I get so cross with myself for not being able to read a map correctly and having to drive for miles without realising I am in the wrong direction or not knowing which direction to go in. It takes so much longer to do anything here - a quick errand becomes a whole day expedition and I want to do other things instead of driving round streets! I need to factor into my journey time "getting lost time" and, if I have to be somewhere else at a certain time, I need to ask myself "do I have the time to find it, buy it and get lost before I have to be at x" for example. I am sure it will get easier but it is so frustrating. The girls are generally so good, but it really isn't fair on them.

Anyway, getting lost aside, we did manage to achieve what we set out to do yesterday - that was to buy a potty for Naomi. Naomi is not yet ready to be potty trained but she is getting extremely interested in all matters of toiletting. We have lists regularly of who goes for a wee (etc!!) on a toilet - just hope that you are not on this list!!! And she is fascinated by sitting on the toilet. So yesterday we set off to find a potty and managed to find one that has a potty, toilet seat and stool all rolled into one! She thinks it is great!!

The man in the shop was very pleasant and helpful but was hopelessly confused when I used the term "fortnight". They do not use this word at all here and the man said to me "Excuse me mam, I don't understand that word". So I had to explain and then he understood. It is such a common word in the UK that I just don't think of it not being understood over here. At least he asked what I meant, I used it later without realising and the lady I was talking too just looked blank, but I didn't think till afterwards that it was "fortnight" that was the confusing word!

In the evening, when we had time to unpack the potty, Naomi had great fun removing her nappy and sitting on it. She is only on it for about 2 seconds, though! Today, I have spent a lot of time explaining to Naomi that the potty needs to live in the bathroom. This was all very well until I found her struggling to carry it to my bathroom at one point! She isn't ready yet to be toilet trained but at least this way, we can tap into her fascination with it and get her used to it before we start in earnest.

We visited our group today and made a furry sheep from cotton wool balls. The theme was Old Macdonald had a farm, which went down a treat with my girls. Naomi loves singing that song! We had a good morning and enjoyed meeting another lady who is British - we are both going to an event tomorrow so I will look out for her!

This afternoon we met up with our friend Jo in a little tea house in Redmond. It has some toys for Naomi and Esther was asleep for most of it! We had a good chat about life here and it was good to get to know her a little better. She also lives in Issaquah and so will be a near neighbour when we move. She likes the town, which is good and reassurred me that Issaquah really is a good choice to buy a house!

Esther is getting very strong when she is standing and can for a fraction of a second hold herself up. She then falls vertically backwards, without bending so you have to be ready to catch her but she thinks this is so funny, she was laughing and laughing yesterday! She also is laughing in anticipation of being tickled now which is very funny. I wave my fingers above her head and she giggles at me long before she gets tickled!!

Some good news on her eating front too, she is definitely improving and today actually was opening her mouth slightly for the food!! Hooray! She is no longer spitting it out and today actually ate something!! I feel that we might get there at last!!

Anyway, going to end here, will blog again soon!

Take care!

Potties

Hello there! Sorry I haven't written any entries for a couple of days, but I was busy replying to lots of emails last night and we really didn't do anything on Monday (apart from get lost!) that was worth writing about!!

Actually on a serious note, I get very frustrated with myself for always (but always) getting lost. It is not fun for either the girls or me and I get so cross with myself for not being able to read a map correctly and having to drive for miles without realising I am in the wrong direction or not knowing which direction to go in. It takes so much longer to do anything here - a quick errand becomes a whole day expedition and I want to do other things instead of driving round streets! I need to factor into my journey time "getting lost time" and, if I have to be somewhere else at a certain time, I need to ask myself "do I have the time to find it, buy it and get lost before I have to be at x" for example. I am sure it will get easier but it is so frustrating. The girls are generally so good, but it really isn't fair on them.

Anyway, getting lost aside, we did manage to achieve what we set out to do yesterday - that was to buy a potty for Naomi. Naomi is not yet ready to be potty trained but she is getting extremely interested in all matters of toiletting. We have lists regularly of who goes for a wee (etc!!) on a toilet - just hope that you are not on this list!!! And she is fascinated by sitting on the toilet. So yesterday we set off to find a potty and managed to find one that has a potty, toilet seat and stool all rolled into one! She thinks it is great!!

The man in the shop was very pleasant and helpful but was hopelessly confused when I used the term "fortnight". They do not use this word at all here and the man said to me "Excuse me mam, I don't understand that word". So I had to explain and then he understood. It is such a common word in the UK that I just don't think of it not being understood over here. At least he asked what I meant, I used it later without realising and the lady I was talking too just looked blank, but I didn't think till afterwards that it was "fortnight" that was the confusing word!

In the evening, when we had time to unpack the potty, Naomi had great fun removing her nappy and sitting on it. She is only on it for about 2 seconds, though! Today, I have spent a lot of time explaining to Naomi that the potty needs to live in the bathroom. This was all very well until I found her struggling to carry it to my bathroom at one point! She isn't ready yet to be toilet trained but at least this way, we can tap into her fascination with it and get her used to it before we start in earnest.

We visited our group today and made a furry sheep from cotton wool balls. The theme was Old Macdonald had a farm, which went down a treat with my girls. Naomi loves singing that song! We had a good morning and enjoyed meeting another lady who is British - we are both going to an event tomorrow so I will look out for her!

This afternoon we met up with our friend Jo in a little tea house in Redmond. It has some toys for Naomi and Esther was asleep for most of it! We had a good chat about life here and it was good to get to know her a little better. She also lives in Issaquah and so will be a near neighbour when we move. She likes the town, which is good and reassurred me that Issaquah really is a good choice to buy a house!

Esther is getting very strong when she is standing and can for a fraction of a second hold herself up. She then falls vertically backwards, without bending so you have to be ready to catch her but she thinks this is so funny, she was laughing and laughing yesterday! She also is laughing in anticipation of being tickled now which is very funny. I wave my fingers above her head and she giggles at me long before she gets tickled!!

Some good news on her eating front too, she is definitely improving and today actually was opening her mouth slightly for the food!! Hooray! She is no longer spitting it out and today actually ate something!! I feel that we might get there at last!!

Anyway, going to end here, will blog again soon!

Take care!

Driving test

Hello to you all. Hope that this blog finds you well and ready to start the new week! I hope your weekend was relaxing and refreshing! Ours was, in a busy sort of way!

Well, firstly I have to tell you that I passed my driving test on Saturday morning. This was such a non- event it is hardly worth telling you about but it was also quite funny so I will tell you about those bits! The lady who was my examiner was a large American lady called Patt who was the most miserable woman I have met so far! She was stroppy and not very good at communication either and so a few times she snapped at me because I hadn't followed her instructions. At one point she was so frustrating that I tutted at her - Tim says that I must be the only person to have tutted at their driving examiner in the whole world!!! But really she was so silly. She told me to drive up to the truck, which I did, only to then snap at me "not behind it, by the side of it." Well, why didn't you say so?!

Later she told me to drive up to the edge of the curb and leave the car as if I was going to get out, so I did and turned the engine off. "leave the engine on" she snaps. Miserable woman! Anyway, I passed but got told off for not stopping at the stop sign sufficiently! RUles and regulations -honestly!

After this, we drove up to the Snoqualmie Pass - a skiing region in the winter although no snow yesterday. Tim had said to Naomi that they would make a snowman but they couldn't! It was a beautiful drive and worth doing on a fine day, like yesterday to admire the views, but it will also be fun next year when the girls are bigger and we can go toboganning. We then drove to Squak mountain and had a lovely little walk round a children's trail looking at the trees and birds. We all enjoyed it very much! WE also got to see our new house from the outside which was good too.

We had a good service at church this morning, both children settled really quickly today and Naomi said to me "mayme no crying day" translated that means "Naomi didn't cry in the children's work today." She was proud of herself and so were we. Eugene (our pastor) had a long cuddle with Esther today - she was really good wtih him except for the fact that she was pulling at his beard and he returned her to us with almost tufts missing!!! He likes children - he has 3 of his own and would like more I think!

This afternoon we have had a really relaxing time in a coffee shop which was almost all play area with seats around the outside for the parents. We met one of Tim's colleagues there and his young family (his son is 3 weeks old and was born on Naomi's birthday!). We sat and had a very nice coffee and a long chat whilst the children played quite happily. It was very good coffee too and very relaxing! Hooray! Hopefully we will get a good night's sleep tonight too!

I have had 2 "new to America' experiences this week! I needed some bin liners on Thursday and so whilst shopping decided to pick some up. If you are looking lost in a shop, someone says to you"Hello mam, are you having trouble finding anything today?" To which I replied, yes, I was looking for bin liners. A blank look came over the man's face. Oh dear, i thought, he doesn't know what I mean and I don't know the American for bin liners. Suddenly he grinned and said "do you mean trash can bags" YES I said! And purchased the bin liners!!

Yesterday, i really struggled with the petrol pump, I couldn't get the damn thing working at all! Eventually after about 5 minutes, the cashier took pity on me and came out to help. She lifted up the handle to the 'pump on' position and petrol came out of it! It is so easy when you know how....

Anyway, going to go now! Will write soon!

Pleasant days

It is another Friday evening here in Redmond and I have just returned from a weekly shopping expedition. It was good to go on my own to be able to wander round and compare how much things cost. it was also nice not to have to keep stopping to entertain or separate the children - after last week, I was very keen to do just that!

We have had a really pleasant couple of days with the children. Esther's skin was good yesterday and she was a happy and sunny soul! Unfortunately she was bad again today but is now asleep having been soothed by her bath and thickly spread cream! Hopefully she will have a good night's sleep and will be better in the morning. We had a dreadful night with Naomi on Wednesday night - we were awake for about 2 hours with her! But despite that she has been happy and cheerful and hasn't been tormenting Esther as much which is good. She has said on a number of occasions during the last few days that she is "happy" which is great to hear!! She then also goes on to list lots of other people who are happy! So I hope that you all are!!

We went to our group on Wednesday morning, which Naomi enjoyed and then just went to the park in the afternoon. Esther was really giggling on the swing and Naomi was enjoying going on the slides and climbing frame.

Yesterday we did very little in the morning and then went to visit a friendly lady called Alex at her house. It was great to be able to sit and chat and allow the children to play with one another in an informal setting. We had a very nice afternoon!

Today we went to a fabulous session at the library - definitely the best story time session I have ever been to. The lady leading the session was quite young but she was brilliant. She was so enthusiastic and read the stories with such character that all the children were enthralled, including Esther!! We had 3 stories and some singing and an imaginative story telling time. She asked the children to say what they would like to be; we had everything from a spider to a princess and she demonstrated a mime for each and encouraged the children to join in. We will certainly be going back and I shall be looking out for one of the stories in particular!! But so will every other parent there I suspect!!

This afternoon we have had a quiet but very happy time at home. We have been singing and dancing and playing together as well as playing with CBEEBIES on the website. It has been great and the girls have been very relaxed and happy little people!

Naomi got herself shut in the cupboard the other day. I was changing Esther's nappy and she was playing with the nappies in the cupboard. Next thing I hear is "too dark, too dark" accompanied by frantic banging only to find her in the cupboard. Poor child, i just laughed. She thought it was funny too! We have been playing a new game too, she often says "mummy gone!" although I am in front of her and where I am supposed to have gone is another thing all together! Chance would be a fine thing!! Anyway, I then look for myself, under my arm, in my cardigan, that sort of thing, which she finds very funny.

Esther is so determined to be on the move, she is spending more and more time on her tummy! She loves her pots - just like Naomi did and she likes to bang and suck them! She loves to dance and was giggling when we were dancing this afternoon. I have started to sit her in the high chair when it is our breakfast and lunch time and give her some food. We had some success yesterday but not much to day. I will keep trying!

Well, better go now! Bye!

Blowing Raspberries

Hello! hope that you are all well.We're fine here. Still no improvement on Esther's skin but she has been a happy girl today, which is good. She is so determined. I won't be surprised if she is crawling before too long. She keeps reaching out to get things and then landing on her tummy. She is so funny! She doesn't mind it at first and then lets out this enormous yell! She will soon learn I think that she can move from that position and then she will be off! Help!

We have had a pleasant day today. Naomi has been a star and she enjoyed our trip to church this afternoon for the Mom's group. She played quite happily today although there were a few tears when I left the room. I was brave and drove to Seattle all by myself and it was fine. The only hairy bit is crossing four lanes of traffic in about half a mile. Quite something! We had a smooth journey there and back which was good.

On our way home, we stopped to feed the ducks. I think duck feeding must be a British past time as we never see anyone else and the ducks are starving. They fight over the crusts and swarm around our feet. Naomi gets quite nervous but once she is either in the buggy or I am holding her she is fine and enjoys it. They followed us up the path today which rather unnerved her as she was pushing her toy buggy and was a few feet behind. I had to go and rescue her! They were coming toward her which she didn't like!!

We got some lovely books out the library yesterday and have discovered that Esther enjoys books with animal sounds in, particularly a ssssss for a snake. She was really excited about the books this evening and was watching my face when I was making the noises! She's a star!

This evening, Naomi was playing rough and tumble with Tim and me (yes, I know that is a bad idea after tea and before bed, but it was fun!!), whilst Esther sat and looked most bemused!! She couldn't work out why we all had decided to have a mad moment!! Anyway, Naomi has learnt to blow very effective raspberries! She was blowing them on my tummy and they were really ticklish!! I blame Tim! Tim was then encouraging her to blow raspberries on me whilst I was trying to get her ready for her bath, so there she is with her head under my top, blowing wildly and giggling like mad!! Honestly!!

The chaos didn't stop there! Bathtime has long been a wet afair for parent who was bathing Naomi but Esther has now learnt how to splash in the bath and waves her arms deliberately up and down and looks very pleased with the result! It is a very heavy, very wet splash, which encourages NAomi to join in, resulting in parents as wet as the children, only dressed. Naomi is fascinated by her hand print at the moment and likes to put her wet hands on my trousers to see her hand print. I was so wet this evening, her hand print was not noticeable!

I know that people say that Seattle is a wet place but I always thought that was from the rain.........(Actually it has been lovely here!!)

Bye for now!!

Doctors

Hi there! It is MOnday evening here and I am going to see if I can attatch some photo's to this blog!Not a lot of news here. We went to Church yesterday which was good and we had a quiet day. After a bad night's sleep on Saturday night we needed it! Today I took Esther to the doctors and then we went to the Library in the afternoon.

The doctors was interesting - It is very different to the UK and they do / have done things today that has made me shudder and bite my tongue! In England, if you were new to the country (or if you had had your first child) then you would soon meet your health visitor who should guide you through the maze of clinic appointments, doctors and anything else you might need! They would ensure that the child was up to date with their immunisations and that the child's and parent's general health was good. There is no one to do this here and so I was left to wander in the fog a little and felt a bit fazed to be honest. I saw a lady at first who I thought was the doctor only to discover that she was a medical assistant. I think this must be a nurse too as she later gave Esther some injections.

The doctor when she came was OK but didn't really solve the problem and I had to really pin her down to answer some of my questions. The nurse, when she gave Esther the injetions didn't follow the UK procedure, which surprised me as it was quite an outmoded form of practice. Anyway, I am sure that I will work it all out soon!

Busy Days

Hello there! It is Saturday evening here and we have been playing around with this new blog site and so I hope that everyone has found the new site OK.

Well, we have had a busy few days since I last blogged. On Thursday morning Naomi, Esther and I went to the Eastside Mothers' club meeting in Kirkland. The guest speaker this month was a lady from the enviroment agency telling us all about poisons in the home. There was a long discussion about soda water and vinegar being good for unblocking drains which was a bit bizarre but not as bizarre as the assumption that was made that you sprayed your garden a few times a season with pesticides and that you treated your lawn with a spray fertilizer!! They'll get a shock with us!!! I never used a spray pesticide in Nottingham and don't intend to start now!!!!

In the afternoon we went to the park and had a good run around. The park is circular and Esther and I were chasing Naomi round and round. We all had a great time! In the eveining I went out for the most delicious chinese/ malay meal I have had in ages. It was yummy and so cheap too! We all had a fabulous evening. The people were great and we talked and talked. There were 7 of us and 4 of us were immigrants from various parts of the world, 2 were from different parts of the States and only 1 came from Washington State itself. We were laughing about different driving experiences, being a foreigner in this land and discussing the funny things our children do. It was nice to chat about shared experiences and to get to know each other better. They are a great bunch of people.

On Friday, poor Esther was a poorly girl, with no smiles or sunniness at all. We had a bad night with her on Thursday and the day was pretty lousy for her. Although we have now registered with a doctor (hooray!!) they can't see Esther until Monday. She has been coughing and coughing and last night we had to sit in a steamy bathroom with her to alleviate the coughing. She did eventually stop and then slept quite well and woke up her normal self this morning, which was a relief! We didn't do too much yesterday and Esther just slept and slept. Naomi and I did some painting and played and then in the afternoon we went food shopping which was awful. Naomi started off well but soon became bored and nasty to Esther, who was feeling rough, so we were the family from hell in the supermarket yesterday. I should think that they were glad when we left, I know I was glad to get home!!

Today we went shopping at the complex near our new house and then went onto Snoqualmie Falls. The waterfalls were spectacular and we were all very impressed. Naomi kept on wanting to see the water so we didn't get much further than the viewing point! Poor love, there were a lot of noisy Harley Davison motor bikes which frightened her, not helped by the fact that the bikers were wearing masks that made them look like Darth Vader. I was trying to calm her and was saying that "Grandma Beads had been on a noisy bike like that" (my Grandma!!) and trying to explain that the lady would look like a lady soon, hoping dearly that it was a lady underneath all that leather and not a man!! We would have all been shocked!! Thankfully it was! Naomi still yelled though!!

We drove home along the back roads, which was an interesting experience. The area is very rural and there is obviously little money. The shops and saloons made the town look like somethhing out of the wild west and it felt very foreign, if you know what I mean. Although it was a beautiful place to live in terms of scenery, I am thankful that we do not have to live there. I really would feel like an alien and would not feel as settled as I do in cosmopolitan Eastside.

Both children have been eating well today. Esther had some solid food whilst we were having a sandwhich at lunch time and whether it was the fact that we were all eating together, I don't know, but she did really well! She was actually swallowing some of it and even looked as if she wasn't hating every mouthful!! We were most impressed!!!

Puddles

I can't believe that we have nearly been here four weeks now. It seems such a long time and yet such a short time all at once! We have been very busy bees! We were looking at photo's of our old house yesterday and already it didn't feel the same. We are very much looking forward to our new house and all our stuff being in it!!

The elections are finally over! Perhaps we'll have something different on the news now? Maybe? George Bush is here for another 4 years, whether we like him or not!! I have met people today who are estatic about this and others who are severly disappointed. Seattle and Washington are Democratic in a political sense but Redmond is more conservative and prefers Bush. Hopefully supporters of both sides will remove these messy signs now!

We have visited our group today and we made owls! I chatted to a nice Chinese lady called Helen and Naomi and her little boy played well together which was nice. This afternoon we went to the park to feed some very hungry ducks. Naomi was a little overwhelmed by them especially as she was a bit slow in letting the bread go and I was worried that they were going to peck her in their hunger! She wouldn't have liked that much! We were surrounded at one stage! The park is very pretty and is at the bottom of the road from our apartment. The park is on the shores of Lake Sammamish, a sizeable lake. Naomi had her wellies on and wanted to splash in the "Big Puddle"! I had to say no! But we did find a slightly smaller puddle than Lake Sammamish to splash in and she got so wet! At one point the water was coming out from inside her wellies!! She had great fun!

Esther rolled over this afternoon from her front to her back. I think it was an accident as she was rather shocked! She hasn't been too well today! I hope she is better tomorrow.

Night night!

Ian's Big Nose

Hi there! Hope that you are all OK. We were under the weather yesterday but are fine again today. We had a very quiet day yesterday as a result. Naomi had great fun with her playdough, whilst Esther had a lovely long sleep. We tried to find a duvet case for Naomi yesterday, only to have no success at all. Apparently they do not do duvet's very often here and those that are around are larger than the British ones. I never thought that that would be a problem!

We spent the morning at home today as Tim was taking ( and passing!!) his driving test and then this afternoon we went into Seattle with another lady and her daughter to our churches mom's groups, which was good. I hope to be brave enough to drive myself next week! It finally stopped raining later on today and we went outside our flat in our thick coats and boots to do some splashing in the puddles! Naomi thought it was great fun, it gave us some fresh air and a bit of a run around, having been stuck indoors for the previous 2 days.

The girls' skin is still bad; I managed to buy some more Aveeno today, although they have several different varieties here, so finding one that was similar proved a challenge! I do hope that it clears up a bit for them in the next couple of days.

Naomi was telling me about what they had been doing in Church on Sunday and I was asking her if she knew any of the children's names. Yes, she said, Ian (true) and then went onto say something intelligable but ended up with something like "Ian ...... big nose"! Well, we were both giggling at this because I repeated what I had heard, which she thought was very funny. However, I didn't come any closer to working out the mystery until today when I asked the children's leader whether there was an Ian with a big nose.! We now think that Naomi was saying "big noise" as he is apparently a little tear-away!!