Holidays have come to an end!

Hi there! Well, our lovely fortnight has come to an end, both in terms of Mum and Dad's visit and the weather! They left yesterday and today it rained!! We have had a wonderful time with them, it has been great to be able to go to places with them and to see them. The children have had a great time and we have felt like a fish out of water today! However, we are now eagerly waiting for Tim's Mum, Dad and sister (and her boyfriend a week later!) who are coming out in just under 4 weeks now. We had explained to Naomi that Granny, Grandad and Aunty Hannah were coming soon to soften the blow that grandma and Grandad were going home. This resulted in Naomi saying to me this morning "Granny coming today?"! Poor Naomi!

It is hard to imagine today that we were on the beach on Thursday! In February with beautiful blue skies and warm weather! We went back to Discovery Park with Fritzi and we had a fabulous day! Naomi and Fritzi built sand pies and threw stones into the sea before we had our picnic, whilst Dad carried Esther in the papousse! This was not an experience he had had before and he said he felt like he was pregnant! Mum, Ulrike and I laughed!!! I wouldn't want to give birth to Esther now - she is long and wriggly!! We have some very funny photo's of Esther in the papousse as Dad made her a hat out of a knitted hanky - I am afraid that I didn't think of a sun hat in February but it was quite warm! - and she wore it happily! She does look funny! Esther loved the sand and enjoyed running her fingers through it. She ate some of it, but not too much! In fact she ate a good lunch that day - makes a change!! After lunch, Dad built Naomi and Esther a boat to play in, which Naomi in particular loved and spent a long time in! I think Mum could have stayed on the beach all week, she was looking very relaxed and was almost sunbathing!! The need for a drink finally drove us back to the car and to the cafe at church. It was a special day!

In the evening Tim managed to talk Dad into going with him to buy a 2 seater sofa he wanted for his office! Well, this small 2 seater turned out to be too big for the office and is now sitting in our family room! It is enormous and managed to fit all four adults comfortably on thursday night! I am not too keen on the colour or pattern but it is comfortable and was a bargain! Honestly never trust anyone to go shopping on their own if they are tempted by bargains! You never know what you might end up with!! It was very funny! The futon is now in the bonus room, waiting Aunty Hannah!!

We had a frantic day on Friday trying to fit in too many things! Mum and Dad wanted to buy me a sewing machine for my birthday and so we went to look for one on Friday morning. we found one that is just great for a new sewer like me - not too complicated but also does things like button holes really easily! I am going to firstly make a toy bag for Esther and then I am going to make some curtains for Naomi's bedroom. I am going to have a couple of lessons to help me get to grips with my machine and a pattern. I don't expect to be able to make bridesmaids dresses for the girls but I would like to be able to shorten things and to make curtains. I had a go on Saturday evening after we picked it up and I am cautiously optimistic but you shall have to watch this space!

After the sewing machine shop we went to Naomi's gym class - Mum took her in as I stayed in the car with a sleeping Esther and she was amazed at how much work we have to do!! It was nice for Mum and Dad to see Naomi doing her gym! Naomi is never going to represent Britain but she does love having a bounce on the trampoline and doing her forward rolls! We went to Gym class this morning too and there was a little girl (less than 3yrs i would think) who was streaks ahead of all the children - she was confident and very able! I wonder how far she will go?

After lunch on Friday, Mum and I went to a Fabric shop to find some material for Naomi's curtains. We were there ages as there was so much to see! Finally we made it home and had to pick up Dad and Naomi very quickly so that we could drop Dad off at Microsoft so that he and Tim could go Microsoft shopping! Mum, the girls and I went to collect the mug that Naomi had made Dad for his birthday and to do a bit of shopping. We ended up being very late leaving and Esther was hungry and I got very stressed with life! I had a bad headache and was not in a good mood at all! Esther is erratic in her sleeping at the moment and thursday night had been bad! I hope she is not too bad tonight!

On Saturday, we went into Seattle and Mum and I left the girls with Tim and Dad and we went shopping. We went to this wonderful shop called "Cold Water Creak" and we found some wonderful clothes. We had a lovely shop and it was fun doing a fashion show for Dad and Tim later! Naomi, Esther, Dad and Tim went on the tram and the monorail and went back to the fountains that had wetted Naomi and I a few weeks ago! They had had a good afternoon too!

On Sunday, Mum and DAd took Naomi into SEattle whilst we went to church and then after a quick meal we had to take them to the airport to say goodbye, which was very sad!

Today we have had a quiet day, going to the Gym class this morning and going to buy shoes for Naomi in the after noon. Both girls have had funny tummies today and so I hope that they are better in the morning. They have been mostly OK in them selves, though. Hopefully we won't have too bad a night! Apart from this they are fine! Esther is nearly pulling herself up to standing and is getting very strong on her legs.She enjoyed standing behind her walker on Saturday morning! She is dreadful at rolling over the moment you lay her down; changing her nappy is a real challenge! Naomi is fine and loves to play with her Thomas trains - she is thomas mad at the moment! Still, it could be a lot worse!! She made me laugh this evening. She was complaining that her spoon was muddy and she needed a new one. Well, I was feeding Esther at the time and wasn't quite sure what she meant. When I turned round she was calling the beef stew that was her tea, "mud" and the spoon had dropped into it! What she thought i was giving her for tea I don't know, but I did manage to get her to eat it in the end! Charming! It wasn't t hat bad!!

Anyway, had better go now, will write again soon!

New bike!

Hi! We can't believe the weather we are currently experiencing here. It is so warm and sunny with cloudless blue skies. It is more like June or July rather than February! For anyone coming here to go skiing it is hopeless but for us who just like to go outside to a park or whatever then it is glorious. Mum and Dad can't believe it but are slightly worried that they will get 2 weeks of rain when they next come in June!

Yesterday we went to the Zoo! We had a fabulous day which both the children really enjoyed! Naomi walked round most of it for about 4 hours and Esther refused to sleep, not wanting to miss out on the children or the animals! Naomi's favourite animals were the farm animals; Esther liked the donkey and the fish and Mummy liked the giraffes best! It was very busy as the children are on holiday here but it wasn't too cramped! Naomi got scared by the cow that mooed loudly - typical Naomi, afraid of the unexpected bless her!! Esther smiled and smiled at the donkey and the rabbits!! We saw lions, jaguars and elephants and they were all close enough to see well, which is good! Both children crashed out in the car on the way home and slept and slept! They had had a busy day!

When we arrived home, Naomi's new bike had arrived - a Christmas present from Grandma and Grandad. Grandad very cleverly put it together and Naomi had a wonderful hour chasing us around the house on her new bike! She can just about push it along with her feet and is attempting to peddle! She isn't so good at getting on or off it yet but she can at least move it when she is on it! It also has a handle for Mummy to push but Naomi still has to steer! We likened it to Mummy having to learn how to drive a bigger car. I had to learn to give myself extra room to steer and park and get round corners and Naomi is having to do the same, although I had less crashes than she has had so far!! She loves it and will soon be whizzing around on it no problem. The old bike is going to be reconverted back into a walker for Esther who will hopefully be needing that soon!

Today, I had a doctor appointment in Kirkland and dropped Mum and Dad and the girls off to explore for a couple of hours! THey had a lovely time wandering past the shops and to the park as well as throwing stones into the water! This afternoon we went to the park and Naomi was able to have her first ride on her bike outside! Grandad did a good job pushing, but Naomi is finding it difficult to steer and look ahead, resulting insome very sharp turns!! She also has a bell but hasn't yet learned how to ring it very effectively!

Naomi was very concerned today as poor Fritizi is poorly. Naomi wanted to ring her which I thought was very sweet but completely impractical - what would either one say? Hopefully we will see them soon as Naomi was very upset that they couldn't get together!!

anyway, that is all for now, I'll write again soon!

Grandma and Grandad's visit Part 1

Hi! And a huge apology to everyone who had hoped that I would have written twice before now! I am very sorry, the evenings have just rapidly gone since Mum and Dad have arrived and I don't know why as Mum and Dad have done more than their fair share of clearing up. I am sorry and I hope that this blog makes up for it!

Well, we have been having lots of fun since Mum and Dad have arrived! Last week we mainly took them to see our usual places so they saw what our normal week looks like. We have been blessed by the most glorious weather since their arrival apart from last Monday. Last week we set off to go shopping on Monday morning and as we left I said "Oh it's sleeting". Well during the next five minutes after we left home, the sleet turned into a thick swirling snow storm which made the I90 impassable and we crawled along to the next exit and came home. By the time we reached home it had cleared and the sun came out and it has been gloriously sunny ever since! I was mightlily relieved as we have the most enormous hill running up to our estate and if the weather had been really bad I don't think the car would have made it up! I didn't fancy carrying the girls up!

On Monday afternoon we went to the Library and found some books for the girls; we also went to the park in Issaquah which was very chilly and we were not there long!

On Tuesday, Naomi and I went to her Gymnastics class which we had swapped from Friday and it was interesting to see how different people run it! I am getting used to them now, although they are not getting used to me or my philosophy for Naomi just to enjoy herself through the running, bouncing and climbing that she can do there! I still feel quite deviant every time we go, in as much that I am not training my child to be a gymnast but just letting her have fun!

In the afternoon we dropped Mum and Dad off in Seattle much to Naomi's distress. Cries of "My friends' gone" accompanied me all the way to church from there on! They had a wonderful afternoon wandering through the shops and taking the monorail to the Seattle Space needle where we met them a little later. We had a good afternoon too and I was relieved that we were able to find somewhere easy to pick people up and drop them off, which will be useful for future visitors!

We went to our group on Wednesday morning, where we were doing "Love". Naomi made a flower and Esther enjoyed the singing. In the afternoon, Mum and DAd took the girls to the park whilst I went to sleep; we have been having some dreadful nights with Esther the last 10 days or so. She changes from this delightful, smiley little girl to this screaming, unconsolible child the moment you put her in the cot! Needless to say, we are getting a little fed up with this and need to persuade her to have a better sleeping pattern very quickly. We have formulated a plan which involves getting her used to her cot and getting her out of the 2am breast feed in the hope of getting some more sleep! I think she has been very unsettled by the transition into her proper cot once the screws arrived with Mum and Dad last week!

On Wednesday evening I went with another lady from church to visit a Somali refugee family that I am going to be working with twice a fortnight. I am going to be helping the ladies with learning English and living in America. They have lived in a Refugee camp in Kenya for the last 13 years and so every aspect of life here is very different! They were showing me their worksheets on Wednesday - one was about money, what a dime, nickel and a quarter was for example and I am afraid I was no help to them whatsoever. At this point the other lady stepped in!!!

On Thursday Naomi went to a craft shop to paint a piece of pottery with our Eastside Mothers club. This was great fun - I wanted a go! SHe made a mug for Grandad's birthday and a tile just to cover with paint! We saw Fritzi and arranged to meet them at our local state park in the afternoon. The girls had great fun feeding the ducks and then playing on the climbing frame, although I don't like that one there very much as it is too big! Fritzi and Ulrike came back to our house for a cup of tea and the girls carried on playing, mostly very well! Naomi is quite experienced at sharing now!

Friday was a bit of a non starter really. I had to pop out to the doctor in the morning and left Grandma and Grandad painting, playing with the playdough, doing puzzles and going to the park. They did a lot in the couple of hours I was out!! They had great fun I think! In the afternoon we were going to go out but we had a mini flood which left us needing to sort that out before we could go anywhere!

In the evening, Tim and I went to a hotel to have a meal and a night out without the children. We stayed in a nice hotel in Seattle in the University District. We had a delicious meal at an Italian Restaurant and a very nice bottle of wine! We had a lovely lovely undisturbed sleep on Friday night and with trepidation I rang mum to see what sort of night they had had. Dad said that Esther had woken up at 10pm and at 5 am but that was all. I was thinkning how well she had done until I came home and discovered that she had been awake until 11.15pm and ended up sleeping in Mum and Dad's bed all night!!! She ended up there this morning too and spent half an hour pulling Grandad's eyebrows, poking his eyes and sticking her fingers in his belly button!!

Tim and I came home on Saturday lunch time much to our children and parent's relief! In the afternoon we went to the mountains to see if we could find some snow! There was some! We managed to find enough to do a little bit of sledging and to make a snowman! Tim, Mum and I had a go on our round tray sledge thing down quite a steep hill that ended up in a large muddy puddle at the bottom. Well, first time round we all managed to avoid the puddle although we were not very elegant or graceful going down! We had no way of steering this thing so we just span round and went backwards down this hill. I laid down a bit which made it look even funnier! Mum was taking a video and was laughing at me so much that she just took the snow!! I had the last laugh! Anyway, Naomi and Tim went down a baby slope and we made a snowman much to Naomi's delight! Just as we were heading back to the car, Tim said that he would like another sledge. Well, of course, this time he ended up right in the middle of this cold, wet, muddy puddle and soaked his trousers and his coat! He squelched up the hill and back to the car much to the spectators amusement and sat all the way home with Esther's blanket over his knees (I drove!). Thankfully we were not stopped by the police! When we reached home, he said that we had to all close our eyes so that he could make it into the house whilst still maintaining the little dignity he had left! WEll, I didn't and the sight of Tim bunny hopping across the garage to the door with Esther's little blanket around him made me laugh and laugh and I am not sure how good Mum and Dad were at keeping their eyes closed either!!! It was very funny! Poor Tim!!

We went to church on Sunday whilst Mum and Dad did a bit of sightseeing. It was Dad's birthday and we were supposed to be having a nice meal out. However, we ended up in the child friendly coffee house that we have been to before and had a wonderful bagel and cake for pudding! Naomi loved playing with the Thomas train set. Esther just loves to watch and it won't be long before she joins in too!

We went to a park in the afternoon and although the bit we were going to see was closed, we had a nice walk and the children had a good swing which was fun! In the evening we grownups had a very nice Chinese meal once the children had gone to bed, so we had a good day; I think Dad enjoyed his birthday!

Today my friend Becky came over and we went for a pedicure at one of the many nail bars that they have around here! We now have beautiful soft feet and colourful toes! We had a great chat and it was nice to be able to get together without the children being around! This afternoon we went to my 2 favourite shops - a very nice supermarket and a craft shop and bought some nice things!

The children are thoroughly enjoying Grandma and Grandad and Grandma and Grandad are thoroughly enjoying the children! Esther didn't take long to feel settled with them and Naomi just loves doing her puzzles with them and getting them to read her stories!

Esther has started to roll this past week, which now means that she is no longer co-operative when changing her nappy and can get herself sat up in her cot although she cannot of course get laid down again!! She is chattering away and is saying lots of sounds, some of which sound like Grandma and Grandad! (or so they say!!) She is very inquisitive and crawls everywhere and has started to carry things with her when she crawls so we are now finding socks or soap dishes in very funny places!

Naomi does lots of talking and loves to have an audience! She was having quite a monologue at tea time all about her jumper and her parents and a big plane!! Some of it made sense!! She said to me this evening "I've hurt my eye-bow (elbow!)" It did sound funny!! Naomi loves her bible stories and saying Amen before tea! Mum and Dad bought her a set of farm stories and I think they have read all of them at least twice! Actually I haven't yet read any so at least I will be fresh to them! I found a new tape for the car last week in the library - it was a "Learning German" one which Naomi calls the "Fritzi tape!!" Who knows, she may speak German yet!!

anyway, I had better bring this to a close! I will write again soon!

Take care!

Mum and Dad

Mum and Dad have finally arrived!!! Hooray! They arrived yesterday afternoon after a good flight, although they were slightly delayed which was very frustrating! We were all very pleased to see them! Naomi has been very excited all day today and Esther has got used to them quickly and has been giggling and playing with them too! It is really great to see them after so long; it has been lovely to catch up and show them our house and where we live!

Grandma and Grandad have come armed with goodies! So a big thank you to Grandma Beads for the fantastic Post man pat jumper - worn today with much excitement! - and to the GG's for the lovely book and a story CD which we can record on to a tape for the car! Believe me after the same 3 tapes for the last 6 weeks or so, Mummy and Daddy are far more excited about this than Naomi!Also a huge thank you to Aunty Helen and Uncle Niels for the bright pink castle! Naomi has been calling herself a princess this evening and thinks it is truly great. She is not too keen on sharing it right now - we will need to address this soon. Esther likes it but not too keen on the door being down!

Grandma and Grandad also brought a remote controlled duck, mainly for the bath but it works brilliantly on our wooden floor. Daddy waited patiently all day to have a go but as soon as the girls were in bed I heard a "quack quack" and I knew what he was doing! I think he wants to set up an obstacle course for it! I will keep you all informed!! The girls love it too and Naomi is getting the hang of the remote! Esther is just fascinated by it but was very wary at first!!

We had a pleasant morning and early afternoon in Seattle today showing Mum and Dad the Pike Place Market which was fun. Naomi remembered the flying fish and was still unsettled by them, which was a shame. However she enjoyed looking at the jewellry and pretty hair accessory stalls as we wandered round. Esther just loves the colours and people! We had a bagel for lunch and then did a bit of a driving tour around some of Seattle showing Mum and Dad the SEAttle space needle and the big troll that lives under the bridge!

Tim is back to work tomorrow and the rest of us are going shopping! I am sure we will have fun! We have a few things planned this week which is good! One of which is Tim and I having a night away from the children which will be lovely! I only hope that Esther sleeps better than she did last night - she was a shocker!

We had a busy couple of days from thursday to today really. Thursday we went shopping in the morning, managed to fit in a hair cut for Naomi and then met Fritzi in the afternoon. The girls enjoyed the park and seeing the animals and each other's company!! On Friday we went to Issaquah Tots in the morning and in the afternoon I did some house work whilst the girls played with Brooke - a young lady from across the road! You would be amazed at how much you can get done in an hour and a half!

Anyway, I am going to bed now after a dreadful night last night! I will keep you posted with what we are doing here whilst Mum and DAd are here!

Bye for now!!

Naomi goes shopping!

Hello! Just a quick note tonight as it is late! Also there is not a lot of news here! We have been doing our normal activities this week and have been enjoying cool but sunny weather. I do hope that it is like this for at least some of the time that Mum and Dad are here as it is so beautiful when it is sunny. THe mountains are visible and majestic and the landscape is wonderful. It is not so easy to appreciate it in the rain!

We have done a little bit of shopping today in preparation for Mum and Dad's visit. Naomi was able to push her own little trolley around, which she thought was great fun! I had to keep monitoring her trolley as she was putting all sorts of interesting, expensive and unwanted items in her trolley from a little wooden bowl to a large block of expensive cheese! She is not daft mind you, she found some white wrapped little Babybel cheeses and was adamant that she wanted the white ones as well as the red ones. She took some persuading that we had 2 big bags of red ones at home and therefore didn't need any more! She was very good at pushing her trolley although the other customers did have to watch out and Mummy had to keep up with her at times!!

Esther in all this was playing with a bag of lettuce, which she dropped on the floor. unfortunately I didn't realise this until we got home and there was no lettuce for my sandwhich, so I would like to apoplogise to the shop for leaving a manky bag of lettuce on their floor!!

We had a great morning on Monday morning as we went to visit the wife and sons of Tim's colleague. We had met briefly before but we had a great time on Monday chatting and the children playing. Naomi and Roman are big Thomas the Tank Engine fans so they enjoyed playing with the trains and Esther was fascinated by the little baby. She woke him up at one point - oops! Carrie had made popovers - like a thick yorkshire pudding. I have never had popovers before and only knew of them through "Little Women!!" They were quite nice!

We went to our group this morning and made a tooth puppet! The story was also about teeth. For those of you who know my repuslion of all things tooth related, you will understand that this wasn't my favourite session!! Naomi and Esther enjoyed it though!

Tomorrow we are seeing Fritzi much to NAomi's delight this evening when I told her and we only have less than 72 hours before Mum and Dad arrive. Naomi's latest thing for them to do is make jigsaws - her list is getting quite long - I am glad they are coming for a fortnight!!

Esther is fine and has started sucking her lips together to give kisses! She has been a hungry bunny today and has wanted to eat and eat! She must be having a growth spurt. Naomi and I were in the garden this afternoon and I had to stop Esther crawling out of the door! She is getting very inquisitive and quick with her crawling! She has been after Naomi's toys all this week, poor Naomi doesn't like it much! She has been playing a lot with musical toys the last few days, she bounces up and down to the music. She really likes music and I am keen to enrol her in some sort of music class in the spring I think.

Anyway, need to go to bed now! Night night!

Fun and Games

Good evening! It is Sunday evening here in Seattle, Monday morning for you all right now! Hope that you have had a good weekend and looking forward to a new week!

We are getting very excited here as my parents arrive on Saturday and so we are counting down the days until they come! Naomi tells me that she wants Grandma and Grandad to read her stories when they come and to go to our group and to church and the zoo, so we will certainly do those things! I hope that this week goes quickly although I have a lot to do!

The weather broke on Friday and so our glorious weather of the beginning of the week has now gone. This has meant though that there is snow again on the mountains which is good as we have had too many weeks without it! On thursday we went on a picnic to Seattle's Discovery Park with Ulrike and Fritzi and we had a wonderful day. For those of you who have seen the photo's you will know what I mean! I was amazed that we could be in such a beautiful place less than an hour from here.

If you have small children you can drive and park right at the bottom next to the beach, which is what we did - unsurprisingly, there wasn't too much competition for the 8 spaces, but it must be chaotic in the summer! We climbed across the driftwood and got Esther and the buggy down and the girls just had a wonderful time running and collecting stones along the beach. They also enjoyed throwing the stones into the sea to make them go splash and drawing large pictures on the sand. They climbed across the tree trunks and looked for shells and generally had a great time! THe scenery was fabulous - you look out across to the Olympics and it was just so peaceful and very pleasant. I felt very relaxed and priveleged to be able to enjoy a spontaneous picnic by the beach in February!

It wasn't as warm on Thursday as Wednesday but we were warm enough on the beach until we had our picnic. We found a large log for us all to sit on and it was chilly eating our lunch. Esther was Ok - she was really snug - and Fritzi and Naomi were running around so it was only Ulrike and I that got cold. Our church is a cafe during the week and was less than 10 minutes from the park, so we all went there for a cup of coffee and to warm up. It was great!

On Friday we went to our gym class and it was interesting to see how much better Naomi was this week to last. she didn't fuss when we had to do the "floor work (!!)" at the beginning and in fact enjoyed this too. She was then so much more confident and better co-ordinated than she was last week, it was really good to see! I am glad that we have managed to find it for her. Esther was good, just sitting and looking and playing with her toys but we'll see how we get on there!

YEsterday was a shopping day for bedding and towels and things and today we went back to a family's house after church for lunch, chat and for the children to play! It was a lovely afternoon, the children played nicely together and we all enjoyed a chat!

The children have been having fun and games this week. Esther is now crawling so fast that she is now chasing Naomi around which results in either Naomi getting cross or really enjoying it! It is funny to watch though!Esther likes the trailer for Naomi's bike as it has things to play with and so she chases after Naomi to get to that a lot of the time although sometimes NAomi and she are both crawling and chasing each other! Esther always goes after Naomi's dummy in the mornings which Naomi really doesn't like! I keep whispering "go get it ESther!!"

Naomi, Esther and I have been having fun playing with the farm this week. Naomi has been setting out elaborate farm tracks for the tractor to go on and Esther has been eating the animals - she's not a vegetarian then!! Naomi was getting cross with Esther for removing pieces of the track and kept on saying to her "go see Mummy Edder!" Naomi is talking so much now and describing things that she likes or dislikes, using words such as "lots and lots"; she is very sweet. In fact, since monday she was real sweetie all week! Sleep is a wonderful thing!

Esther is also making her wishes known to us more and more, either through her actions or particular sounds. YOu certainly know when she is cross for example! But the other day, Tim was giving Naomi a cuddle and Esther crawled over to him and pulled herself up to kneeling so that he would give her a cuddle too! (She had had one by the way!)

Naomi went very quiet yesterday morning and when I went into investigate she had laid the entire packet of nappies around in a pattern in her bedroom! SHe was very proud of herself and actually it looked very good! she likes her princess nappies at the moment!

Anyway, that is all our news for now! Hope that you are all well!

Take care!

Groundhog Day

Hello there! Welcome to a warm and sunny Seattle! It has been glorious here today - we went to the park with Fritzi today in just our jumpers and it was lovely! All the children enjoyed climbing and sliding and swinging! And they didn't have to worry about getting wet and muddy!

We have enjoyed getting back into our normal routines this week! We went to the Mom's group yesterday at church which was lovely and today we went to our group. It is good having Naomi going to this group as it gives me a chance to learn about what American's know as they grow up. For instance, today is Groundhog day. If you are looking as blank as I was this morning, let me fill you in! On 2nd February, a poor particular Groundhog is removed from its warm and cosy burrow and paraded round outside. If it sees its shadow, we will have another 6 weeks of winter, if not then spring is coming soon. THis even happens in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and people seem to think that it is a reliable method of weather forecasting! I will let you know! Apparently today it saw its shadow so we are in for another 6 more weeks of winter!

In the group today we learnt about Groundhog day and also made a groundhog in a pot. We also sang a song! It is all very informative!! It was very quiet at the group today but it was fun!

Naomim, Esther and I have visited a couple of pre schools this week and have another one on Friday. They all belong to the same lady and are run on identical lines. However, Friday's one is closest to us so we hope to send her there. I have been really impressed with the set up; it is a montessori school and it seems to be run really nicely, especially given that Naomi willnot be 3 when she starts. It emphasises the whole child and learning social as well as formal skills which is good. The teachers had a good report with the children and it was a calm and peaceful setting. We just need to enrol her now!

Anyway, we are getting excited about Mum and Dad visiting in 10 days time now; we now have a bed but as yet no bedding or towels - a trip to "Bed Bath and Beyond" is in order!! I just need to find the time now! Naomi wants Grandma and Grandad to read her stories when they come!

The girls are fine, Naomi has been a sunny character the last couple of days, which is good as she was a shocker on Monday! she was telling Tim to "do it gently" this evening - I think he was throwing balls into the bath a bit too vigourously! Esther is fine, although not sleeping too well, grr not happy about that! Tim is still coughing badly so what with Esther and Tim I am not getting much sleep!

Esther is crawling everywhere and really exploring her surroundings which is causing Mummy to have a few "where's Esther" moments! She is so fast! She is beginning to pull herself up to standing and is starting to move along the furniture if she is stood against it! She is babbling noisily and was saying "edder" this morning which made tim and i laugh! She is clever to say her name so early on!

We have started to toilet train Naomi but we are going very slowly. We are just at the stage of getting her used to sitting on the toilet for longer than 2 seconds! Nothing has happened yet, but we are being patient and hope that she will be out of nappies soon. Any tips would be welcome!!!!

Anyway, got a few phone calls to make so better go!

Take care and I will write again soon!