Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas! I hope that this blog finds you all well and that you all have enjoyed your Christmas! We have celebrated our first Christmas here in Issaquah and we have had a lovely few days. Tim has been off since last Thursday and was working from home on Wednesday so we have all enjoyed seeing a lot of him! Tim, Esther and I have all had miserable colds but we seem to be over the worst of them now!

Last week we had a few quiet days; we picked up Naomi's glasses on Wednesday and she looks very very cute in them! She has amazed us all by wearing them most of the time without complaint - a sure sign to us that they are working! She takes them off from time to time, mainly when they are filthy but other than than she has worn them without complaint. I think it helps that so many of her family wear glasses - she is by no means unique in that sense! She looks very studious in them and they seem to suit her face. Tim and I need to go and pick ours up at some point!

We had fun on Thursday going to Ikea, American style! Actually it was just the same as Ikea in Nottingham - same layout, same choice and everything! We all enjoyed our walk round - we were in desperate need of some uplighters for several rooms in our house - we have very few rooms with either ceiling or wall lights and we were fumbling around in the dark much of the time! Esther enjoyed being in the trolley and was fascinated by the lights and people and other fun things, whilst Naomi found a trolley to push around and thoroughly enjoyed finding things to fill it. Thankfully we managed not to buy any of them when we finally got to pay! We then went onto a shop called Fry's - Tim's idea of heaven! It is an electrical store that sells everything gadegety and fun for Tim, so he was a happy man!!

Friday was a quiet day at home, which was nice, Naomi and I enjoyed making several of her jigsaw puzzles which was fun. I was impressed at how much she can now do on her own and how much her concentration had grown since we had last done some of them in England. Tim and Naomi finished decorating the Christmas tree and we found stockings for the girls to leave out for Father Christmas before they went to bed.

Naomi and Esther enjoyed opening their stockings on Christmas morning - NAomi was particularly impressed with the sweeties in it! Esther was enjoying the outside of her satsuma before I took it off her! In typical Batson tradition, we left the present opening until after we had had lunch and Naomi had been for a rest! We all enjoyed opening the presents, Naomi wanted to play with everything the moment she unwrapped it and we had to persuade her to leave it for later. Esther just wanted the paper!! It was all very pleasant!

On Sunday we went to church and then stayed on in Seattle to do a bit of sight seeing. We had seen advertised and read that a place called the Seattle Centre was a good place to go this time of year with small children. We had a very pleasant afternoon there although Naomi and I got a little wet! There is a lovely big fountain between several of the buildings that make up the Seattle Centre and there is music to which the fountain sends out its jets of water. It is designed so that you can get right up to the fountain, which Naomi and I did, during a nice, quiet, gentle piece of music where the water was trickling gently over the dome. All of a sudden, the fountain burst in to life, sending out giant streams of water right above our heads, which came down right on top of us!! Naomi and I stood there for a minute or two whilst I worked out that we were going to get very wet standing there for much longer and so I picked up Naomi ( who was understandably not keen!) and ran back up to the top!! Tim and I were laughing and laughing, especially when this lady said in an amazed tone of voice "didn't you know it was going to do that?"! NO!!!!! She said "I thought you were brave!" More like stupid I think! It was very funny. Tim says it will teach me to learn Beethovens' 9th Symphony as it was the quiet part of that before the loud finale! Believe me, I will remember it now!!

There was lots to see around the Seattle Centre, there is a seasonal ice rink, Christmas decorations and a miniture train through a toy village. The girls enjoyed it!

Yesterday we decided that we needed to make the most of these days that Tim had off and so we set off to see another part of Washington State called Whidbey Island. Whidbey is about a 2 hour drive away from here, with a ferry crossing. I nearly (very very nearly) missed the ferry as Tim sent me out to buy fish and chips at the ferry terminal but I literally managed to board just as they were shutting the doors! It is a short crossing - about 20 mins - and so we were soon on the Island. It is a beautiful and peaceful place and we had fantastic weather - brilliant blue skies both days we were there. We had booked on Sunday night a cottage that was part of a hotel on the island, so we checked in there before going to find the beach!

The cottage was funny - it was like going on holiday in the 1950's as the appliances, furniture and crockery had definitely been around since then. The oven was really odd, you pressed a button down to turn it to the desired heat! It wasn't very warm, but it was OK and it was fine for the few hours that we were in it. The girls had to share a room, which made us very glad that they don't have to normally! They were good but they did disturb each other at times. Our view from hte cottage was amazing - we looked out on to a lagoon with mountains in the background. It was so tranquil and peaceful and pretty. Even though we were only there for one night, we felt as if we had been on holiday when we left today.

We had a very yummy breakfast this morning with apple compote followed by french toast. Naomi was a little concerned though as she thought that she had missed breakfast all together and was having lunch and wanted to know where her cheese and ham was! Bless her!! She was then drawing "miley faces" on the window with her sticky fingers- we then thought it was time to leave!!!

We went to find another beach this morning and spent a lovely time throwing rocks into the sea and walking along the many long logs that had been washed to shore. We came home after lunch - a long journey, but we all had had a great time and Mummy and Daddy had enjoyed the scenery.

We were singing in the car to pass the time and was singing Naomi's favourite song : "Old Macdonald" Naomi has come up with a verse of two of her own, which is requested every time!! It goes like this: "Old Macdonald had a farm e i e i o, and on that farm he had a (pause, wait for N to say pig) pig etc etc etc.

Next verse: OMHAF e i e i o, and on that farm he had a (N says Donkey) etc etc etc

Next verse: OMHAF e i e i o, and on that farm he had a lonely donkey so we sing eyore in a sad tone of voice.

Next verse: OMHAF e i e i o, and on that farm he had a lonely donkey doing a poo, so we sing, eyore thupp (blow a raspberry)

Next verse: OMHAF e i e i o, and on that farm he had a lonely donkey doing a poo, changing nappy, so we sing eyore, thupp change nappy.

Then we end it!!!

Honestly, where she gets that from I do not know. She does come out with phrases that I say though, either to her or to Esther which sound very funny. One is "Not keen on it mummy" which I said to Esther a lot when she was not eating much! She also says "Tiny little bit mummy" usually in relation to something she wants to eat and I am not really sure where she gets that from, it is not something I am conscious of saying to her. She also comes out with American words like "cookie" or "chip" (crisp) which sounds funny with her little English Accent (yes she still has it!!). Someone said to her "Naomi high 5" and she understood what he meant and gave him one - great as she had really sticky fingers from a Christmas candy cane!!!

Esther is fine and eating loads and loads - I can't believe the change in less than a fortnight! She is amazing. She eats toast and satsumas and weetabix and loved the chicken at the weekend. She even had tomato soup for tea. It is a bit of a problem when we are out as we have to check that there is not milk in the bread if we want to give her some, but so long as we avoid milk, her skin is manageable. It is a bit dry and itchy but it is not affecting her this time and we jump on it quickly. She is so smiley and beams at everyone especially when you are trying to feed her - I am for just below the nose and hope that I don't miss by too much!! She wriggles to where she wants to get to and enjoys being around Naomi. She is a determined little character but a real delight - as is Naomi!!

Anyway, that is all our news for now, hope that you are all well. I hope that you all have a peaceful and happy 2005. God Bless!

Part 2!

Welcome back to the Blog part 2! Hope that you have not been in too much suspense! WE lead very boring lives really!! Especially this week when it has all been unpacking! Well, the good news is that we have now only 3 boxes in the house left to unpack - there are plenty more in the garage but they are less important! We have done really well and although we still have a lot of cleaning and sorting out to do, we are at least looking straight and we can work on the rest as we go along without feeling that we are living in chaos, so that is good.

I think I need to go back in time a little and just fill you in on the main events of the last 2 weeks, before brining you up to the present day! Most of the last 2 weeks were spent in packing up the flat and slowly bringing things over to the new house or being in the new house for a short while to receive things like the washing machine or NAomi's bed for example.

We were able to continue with our usual activities though and NAomi, Esther and I went to our group on Wednesdays, which we all enjoyed. Naomi loves the story and singing time that we have there and Esther loves the singing, too. We also were able to enjoy an excellent puppet show at the Redmond Library - it was a mouse nutcracker story but the puppets and the puppeteer were wonderful and both the girls sat enthralled at the colours and the movement of the puppets. We spent some part of every day here at the house which was good as it enabled the girls to become more familiar with it before we moved in but as we only had a few toys and activities, we were very often only here for an hour or so.

We had to go to SeaTac airport a week ago to collect a parcel for Tim that had to be cleared by customs first. this was a truly awful afternoon for the girls and me as the weather was awful, the traffic worse and the address and directions completely wrong. The girls screamed and screamed as the time wore on and by the time we had collected the parcel and returned home, it had taken 4 hours, mostly all of that driving. not a good day! The parcel? Well, tht was a Waitrose Hamper (very yummy things in there!) and a set of Bulls horns for Tim's office!!

We had a lovely afternoon at the zoo with some new friends the Saturday before we moved in; Becky, Darin and Eli (5months) are also new to SEattle and so we are all new together!! WE had a lovely afternoon - it is a really wonderful zoo. It was interesting comparing the girls now to our first visit. Esther was much more aware of the animals this time and Naomi was able to express clearly the animals she most liked this time, something she couldn't do before. This time we heard a Cheetah making a funny noise - a bit like a cough - which has stuck in Naomi's memory as we have lots of "tiger, funny noise) from time to time. We also enjoyed seeing the birds and the storks, although Naomi was fascinated by the fact that they were on one leg!

THe following day after church, we went to the Pastor's house to celebrate his youngest daughter's 4th birthday. NAomi was very excited about going to Jedi's house. (Jedi is their son, about 16 months) The set up was great - the children had their party in the basement and the adults had a get together upstairs! It was fun! We had a busy day and the girls were shattered by the time they came home.

This weekend we went to the PAstors house again for the Christmas party - a very funny and very happy time! In the States, it is very popular to have a gift exchange at this time of year. BAsically you bring something and then put it in a pile. You are then allocated a number and you take it in turns to choose a present. You can also steal a present if you see something you like from someone else. It was very funny and great fun - definitely something I shall take back home with me. Some of the presents were very funny - Tim ended up with a tube of toothpaste! someone else had a box of noodles! It was fun though! The girls had a very late night as we didn't leave Seattle until gone 8pm! However, we had all had a great evening and they both slept well yesterday!

Esther is fine and is cutting her second tooth - I had forgotton how sharp new teeth are! She is so determined to move and is now standing really strongly on her legs. She shuffles a lot to get somewhere and also deliberatley falls forward to reach something. She can roll, although more often than not chooses not too. We have had a better couple of days with her eating - I have decided that she needs to be more hungry and so I have limited her breast milk supply! She is also taking the soya milk OK - she is enjoying that on cereal which is good.

We went on a little train today around REdmond Town centre to see the REdmond Christmas lights and Esther was gurgling with happiness all the way round. We also went in to see Father Christmas, which Naomi found a little unnerving but Esther enjoyed as he jangled a lot with his bells! NAomi just looked at him!

Tim and Naomi put up our little Christmas tree yesterday - it looks like a poor thing and needs some tinsel I think, which I shall have to find somewhere. I have spent so much time recently unpacking that NAomi was a bit fed up and ratty today, especially this afternoon, so tomorrow, I shall just unpack the last couple of boxes in Esther's room and we shall go out somewhere in the morning. Mum sent me some paper chains to make with Naomi - I think I shall do those with her too. Things should hopefully get better though!

Anyway, going to end it here - will blog again in a few days time! Hope that you are all well!

"Aha"

Good evening everyone and firstly a very large apology for a serious lapse in communication over the last 2 weeks. We were without a computer for about 10 days and moved into our new house on Tuesday!! Hooray! So the last few days have been very hectic. So, I am very sorry and hope to keep the blog updated regularly again from now on.

Well, we are now in our new house and it is lovely! We are beginning to see the house looking a lot straighter than it was on Tuesday and it has been great to see all our things again. Everything seems to have arrived in one piece, which is good and we are having lots of "aha" moments as we find things! In fact, I have heard NAomi say "aha" once or twice as she has found her dolly or her toys, so we must have said it a fair few times!! It sounds quite sweet coming from her though!!

One thing that hasn't arrived safely is Esther's cot as the screws have been mislaid so the poor thing is still sleeping in the travel cot. Hopefully we will find them but it is looking unlikely and so we will probably have to buy another one, which is a bit of a pain.

The downstairs of the house is almost unpacked - there is one box left - and although it needs cleaning and bits and bots sorting out, we are nearly there. Upstairs is another matter - there are clothes strewn everywhere and we need to make it look a little less like a pigsty soon! It is my job for tomorrow! Tim is doing a splendid job on sorting out the bonus room which also holds our office furniture so once the clothes are sorted out, we will be nearly there upstairs too!
However, despite the chaos, we are feeling at home here which is great. Having your own stuff in place is a great help and the house is in a lovely neighbourhood. I like the fact that we are surrounded by trees and mountains! One great thing about being here this time of year is that the Christmas decorations in and outside the people's houses are wonderful. We went for a short walk last night to see them in our immediate neighbourhood and Esther was amazed. She oohed and ahed all the way round. She was so excited - it was lovely to see. She was more excited than NAomi mainly because NAomi has seen them from the car, whereas Esther is still facing backwards and so normally misses them. Naomi enjoyed the walk with Daddy as much as the lights I think.

Since I last blogged, Esther is now fully better and is thankfully no longer on the amoxycillin! When we left the flat, I even saw pink medicine above the window - how it got there I don't know! She is back to her normal self now but still has good and bad eating days. I have decided that she is an independent soul because if you give her a piece of bread or banana or satsuma for her to feed to herself, she is as happy as anything but if you come anywhere near her with a spoon, she cries and wriggles and turns her head away! I don't know what to do with her! IT hasn't helped by the fact that life has been so chaotic here that it has been hard to cook nice meals for her that she can feed herself. I hope that this will improve in the next week or so! She can drink out of a cup, although slowly and this evening ate loads as it had been a while since she was last fed! She looks OK though!! Not wasting away!!

NAomi is fine and keeping us amused. She is obviously feeling a little unsettled by the move as she has said a few times that she is "shy of the house" and needs a cuddle. But after 2 minutes, she is "all better now" and off again. She has had lots of cuddles lately, which is lovely from a mummy's point of view! She is Ok in herself though and has really enjoyed seeing her bike and her toys again.

Naomi still really enjoys her stickers and likes doing them by herself or with us. She had found a little yellow duck sticker before we left the flat which I found stuck to her picture above the bed - the picture was of a pond! I have to confess that I left it there when we moved out as it was so funny to see this little yellow duck swimming in a pond!I thought that the new occupants might need a smile!

You won't be surprised to know that she has taken after her mother in recognising (or not) cars. She regularly talks about the beetle as being the new car and can accurately spot one that is "same as" when we are out and about. However, the fact that the Odysssey is also a new car has completely escaped her - to her it is big and beige (of course - is there another colour?!!) and so is the same as the Ford we had at the beginning!

Anyway, I am going to post this blog but I am going to leave you in suspense as I am going to leave it unfinished until tomorrow! "like an exciting episode of NEighbours", Tim says if there is such a thing, but I do miss it ........

Esther on the mend

Hi! Just a quick blog to say that Esther is a lot better today - no temperatures at all and has almost returned to her happy and chatty self. She has been feeding better and has even had some proper food today which was good. She absolutely hates taking her amoxycillin and spits it all over me, but I get at least half the dose in and it is obviously doing the trick, so I am a lot happier today!

We have spent a lot of the last two days in our new house and have begun to work out where we are going to put everything and what we need to buy. I have already used my new hoover , which is lovely although it has a very long cord which took me ages to unravel this afteronoon! We have also realised that our new car is a tight fit into the garage doors - I am a bit nervous about putting it in the garage! We are beginning to take things over from here and so we hope that this time next week, we will be properly in our house!!

Naomi is fine and is coming out with a new word at the moment "ploblem". Everything is a "ploblem" at the moment unless she is "inking". She comes out with these little sentences at the moment for example, "Edder's car, I ink" which is very funny. She has been very patient this week and I am hoping that this week won't be too unsettling until we move in properly.

Will blog when I next have internet and computer facility - until then, bye!

Bad week!

Hello everyone. Sorry for the lack of Blogs this week, we have not had a very good week and there hasn't been a lot to write about! Poor Esther has not been at all well and has been having extremely high temperatures every four to six hours. Once the paracetamol stuff is in her system, she is not so bad but then has gone down hill very quickly afterwards. On her 2nd trip to the doctors, he said that she had an ear infection and so have given her some antibiotics and today she seems to have picked up a lot. She has been interested in food and hasn't been sick like the last 2 days and so I am hoping that she is now on the mend. I hate it when the children are ill, it has been a really worrying week and I have played the role of anxious mother beautifully several times!!

As a result, we haven't done anything much this week. We didn't go to the Mum's group at church on Tuesday or to the Toddler group in Redmond on Wednesday morning. Poor Naomi, she has not had much fun either! Shehas been a super star though and has been helpful and kind to Esther all week. I am hoping that next week will be better for her.

One positive thing, though is that we completed on our house today and so we can move in over the weekend! Now that is good news! Our furniture has arrived in Oregan and so will be arriving in Seattle over the weekend so we hope to move in properly during the next week. I am so looking forward to it! We had a really stressful time finishing up all the financial stuff yesterday afternoon but it was worth it as we didn' have any problems today at all. The mortgege company have been useless - at least 4 different answers to the same question and each one ruled out by the next, so I spent an hour in the bank yesterday afternoon with a poorly baby and a toddler trying to sort out their mix up! I was not a happy bunny.

Anyway, hopefully things will now get better! I bought a fridge freezer and a hoover today so that was good. It just all needs to be delivered now.

One other piece of news is that it looks as if Naomi is long sighted and will need to wear glasses until her eyes grow out of it. We had been concerned that she wasn't looking at us properly and I took her to see the optician today. Both Naomi and the optician were very good and the optician feels that it would be a good thing for her to have glasses to enable Naomi not to have to work so hard when she is reading or drawing. I am relieved that this has been picked up early. At least if we correct it now, there should be less problems for the future. Now, if anyone has any ideas how I persuade Naomi to keep her glasses on, please let me know!!!

Anyway, I am unlikely to blog again until after we have moved in and the computer is set up, so you may have to wait a week or so. Sorry! Will blog as soon as possible! Lots of love!