Mum and Dad have arrived!

Hi there! Welcome from Seattle. Mum and Dad have arrived!! Yippee! We are all delighted to see them, Naomi especially! She was so excited yesterday and today that she has been jumping and jumping. A lady in the car park saw her and said "someone's excited!!" We agreed!

We spent this morning at home, playing, reading stories and in the garden. This afternoon we went to Kelsey Creek park where we could see "pigs oinking!" and other animals. Esther loved the cows and the chickens! The girls also enjoyed their time at the playground too. We are off to the Orcas Islands tomorrow and so we are getting sorted out for that this evening too!

Yesterday we had a leisurely day at home doing last minute jobs before going to the airport and collecting Mum and Dad in the late afternoon! We were able to meet them at the tip of the escalator and so we saw them as soon as we could, which was great!

On Friday we went shopping in the morning and then Brooke came round in the afternoon to enable me to do some clearing up. It was a fine afternoon and so they were drawing with chalk on the ground and playing in the garden for a while.

We had a super morning on thursday. We went to the park with the East side Mother's group and met some lovely ladies and their children. The park was great too! One lady was an English lady, with a daughter the same age as Naomi and the other was an American lady. The American lady had an older child and then triplets -14 months apart! CAn you imagine it?!!! She was still sane too!! Interestingly Naomi, the triplets and the English lady's daughter all were born within 3 months of each other and we all had children who were wearing glasses. We were comparing notes on how many pairs of glasses we had got through - I was relieved to see that we were about average! We really enojoyed meeting them and hope that we will be able to get to know each other further.

Naomi made us laugh yesterday! She was watching Tim go to the toilet and said to him "It is easier if you sit down Daddy!!!" She is so funny! She told him tonight that his face was soft here and here but it was rough on his chin! He shall have to shave before we come home on Friday!

Anyway, I must end it here and will write next weekend with our news from the Orcas Islands! Bye for now!

The mouse is nearly at the cheese!

Hello there! We are getting very excited here as Grandma and Grandad arrive in just 3 sleeps time! We are looking forward to seeing them! Naomi is counting off the days and can see the mouse getting nearer and nearer to the cheese on her calendar chart in her bedroom!

We have had a lovely day today! Our friend Jo came over this afternoon to come to the park with us and she ended up staying for tea and to help put the children to bed, which was great! Tim is in the Orcas Islands tonight and it was great to have some help and some company! It has been a pretty miserable day weatherwise today but we did manage to get to the park! This morning the children and I went to a pet shop where we could see lots of fishes, parrots, rabbits and mice. Esther was fascinated by the large parrot sitting loose on a perch in the store and it was beautiful and Naomi liked the rabbits and the fish! Both girls were fascinated by a bright yellow fish that was called a cow fish. Esther kept on saying "moo" and Naomi was trying to work out why it was called a cow fish! It was a great place to visit in the rain and free!!

The weather in contrast to today was beautiful on Monday! We went to Naomi's gym class in the morning and then to the park in the afternoon. Yesterday we went over to Seattle to Carkeek park with some friends and the children had a marvellous time splashing in the creek and playing in the sand. Thankfully we could just come home when it got too messy! We did some painting when we got back - more mess! But the children both enjoyed them selves. Esther even managed to do some too!

Esther is a bit rashy and itchy today - a reaction to the chicken pox vaccine I expect. she is not too bad in herself but we'll see how tonight goes! She blew a raspberry on my back yesterday completely on her own initiative! I was amazed! She thought it was funny! It just goes to show what effect an older sibling has on you! It is interesting watching her play as she plays differently to Naomi at the same age in some respects. For example, she will make feeding noises and try and feed her baby and copies Naomi giving the baby kisses. Naomi loves to use the sponges in the bath to give stamps, which Esther copies too; these are just little things that Naomi didn't do at this age but Esther copies from Naomi!

Naomi continues to chatter away and tell her stories! She is was telling me today that her imaginary friend (Ally!) is coming on the big plane with Grandma and Grandad! She will also say to you now "I love you mummy or daddy" which is very sweet! They are both adorable!

anyway, going to go to bed now. I am not sure when I will write again as we leave early on Monday morning for the Orcas Islands and I may be too busy on Sunday to write; we return on Friday and so I shall definitely write in 10 days time to update you on our activities! Until then! Take care!

"Why mummy?"

Hi all! Hope you are all well and that you have been enjoying the warm and sunny weather that you have had! It has been nice this weekend here and is lovely today. They forecasted rain all last week and it never came, so we were happy! Better that way round than to forecast sun and for it to rain!

We had a lovely weekend. It was Father's Day here too yesterday (Happpy Father's Day by the way!) and we were able to share it with Becky, Darin and Eli which was nice. Becky and I met on Saturday afternoon for a Women's Tea at church which i really enjoyed. It was great to spend some time chatting with people I don't normally see and we had some lovely sandwiches, scones and tea! The men met up with the children here and they all went to the park. Becky, Darin and Eli stayed over on Saturday night, which was great and Becky and I then cooked a traditional full English Breakfast (UK) or a Farmer's breakfast (US) for the guys on Sunday morning which they thought was great! So did we actually, especially at 2pm when normally I am starving and yet this week I wasn't! After church we went to a party to celebrate a second birthday and then came home!

Unfortunately Friday for me was a bit of a wash out as I was unwell and spent all morning asleep! Literally, I woke up at 12:45pm! Thankfully Tim was able to take the day off and look after the children (the system allows for days such as these!) and they had a great day! THey went out in the morning and played in the garden in the afternoon. Tim took some wonderful pictures of Esther! Although still feeling very weary, I am now feeling much better but just need to take it easy for a day or two.

We went up north on Thursday to help a lady unpack into her new house. We met Sherrie and Macey for a day at the zoo a couple of weeks ago, but despite various attempts we hadn't seen them since. Naomi and Macey wanted to see each other again and so it was a good opportunity to allow them to play whilst Sherrie and I unpacked her kitchen things! We had a baby sitter too so we really got quite a bit done! Sherrie's new baby comes in August, so she is keen to get things straight before then!

The children are fine. Esther had a rash yesterday as a result of her immunisations last week but so far, no high temperatures or signs she is feeling miserable, which is great! She is becoming more and more steady on her feet but still likes to hold on with one hand. She is generally a happy soul but she has a temper and is very good at making her disgust felt! She and Naomi love to make mountains out of the cushions and launch themselves at them! Esther especially loves the feel of things that are soft and gentle!

Naomi has reached the stage of "why?"!! It was so funny going to the party yesterday; we were waiting for the bridge to be lowered yesterday and we had a string of "why is...!" I was just thinking last week that she hadn't got to that stage yet and then it hit us!! At tea time last night she was asking Tim "Why is the ant alive?" She is funny! We get so used to Naomi words that we sometimes forget what the proper ones are! Naomi calls her fan in her bedroom or the car "the wind" and Tim came down and said to me last night " I have turned Naomi's wind off!" It was only when I giggled that he realised that I would probably call it a fan myself!

Becky and I had an amusing episode on the way to Seattle on Saturday as we passed a naked male cyclist with body painting all over him! A fertility fair was being held in one of the areas of Seattle and apparently he came from there! I was most surprised and amused that he was wearing a cycling hat! I can think of other essential body parts that would have also needed covering, but apparently not!

Naomi and I were also laughing this morning whilst we were in our gym class; we could hear what we thought was a dog barking and the sound clearly came from inside and it was making Naomi nervous. I was also a little nervous as Esther was in her buggy a little way from where we were and I didn't want the dog surprising her. Anyway, we couldn't see anything but a few minutes we heard the sound again. This time I spoke to the teacher and said "is there a dog"? She laughed and said no, there was a grandfather present in the viewing gallery and he was sneezing! Well, it definitely sounded like a dog, but we were all very amused and relieved that there was no dog!!

Anyway, had better go and do something useful as the children are either asleep or resting. Will write soon!

My hands are broken!

Good morning! I have to be honest and say that I am not sorry that I didn't blog last night because Tim and I went to the cinema to see the new Batman movie. It was fab!!! Since it was the first film that I had seen all the way through in one sitting and in a cinema in 18 months then it might as well be a good one and it was. The story was good, the special effects marvellous and it was very well done! Very enjoyable. Our friend Melinda came to babysit and the children were good and slept so all in all it was a lovely evening all round!

We are fine here and have enjoyed a few quieter days this week. On Monday we had to take Esther for her 12 month check and immunisations and then went onto Naomi's gym class. In the afternoon we didn't do anything except play in the garden, which was fun!

On Tuesday we had to do some shopping in the morning and then went to the park in the afternoon and yesterday we saw the chiropractor in the morning and went to the park with Fritzi in the afternoon. It has been fun!

The girls have enjoyed spending some time at home and are looking forward to grandma and Grandad visiting soon! Esther has been enjoying singing recently and her favourite songs are "If you're happy and you know it" and "Oh the Hokey cokey!" She knows the actions to If you're happy and you know it and goes "Ohh" when you sing the Okey Kokey! She is very funny!

Poor Naomi fell over on Monday and very very slightly grazed her hands. Howver, anyone hearing her would have really wondered what was going on because she was crying "My hands are broken!!" Poor love! But it was quite amusing!

We have had our first basket of farm produce this week and we are enjoying the most wonderful tasting fruit and vegetables although some of them are unusual - what is chard for example. However they have all been tasting delicious and the strawberries were amazing!

Hope you are all well!

Will write soon!

Parties!

Hello everyone! How are you? We are fine here! It is nearly bed time here! poor Naomi gets very confused about the time difference! We were speaking to our friend in England this morning and Naomi was amused that it was Maddie's tea time when we had just had breakfast!

It has been a grey few days here but we have been able to get to the park when it has been fine. I managed to get my car fixed on Thursday which was good. I maintain that the car is driving better since it's new battery but Tim thinks that it is unlikely!

We had planned to see our Somali ladies on Friday morning but they were not in when I phoned so we didn't go! At least I found out before we had left! We will try again this week! Instead we went to Home Depot for advice on fixing my blind and to order one for our guest bedroom! The man was very helpful and I think I now know what to do to fix the blind! So much for it being a five minute job. Esther kept on calling every man she saw "dada", much to my amusement! On friday afternoon we went to the library with Tim! We met a deaf lady who was lipreading in the library - she was very chatty and friendly, but struggled to hear and lip read our English accents. I had to sit on my hands to stop trying to sign to her - BSL would be no help here! It was very frustrating!

On friday evening Tim and I started to watch the film "The Blues Brothers". It was very funny! We liked the music too but the best parts were definitely the car chases! Marvellous!!
Yesterday we had a nice day - I went to the hairdresser in the morning and then the girls and I did a bit of shopping whilst Tim also had his hair cut! In the afternoon, Naomi and I made some cookies for a graduation party that we were attending in the late afternoon; we both really enjoyed making the cookies. She especially enjoyed licking the bowl, but isn't that the best part?!

The party was to celebrate a friends graduation from University, which was fun! THe children had a great time playing with some of the other children that were there although they didn't know them. They were soon running around the room with balloons and generally causing chaos!! Esther found a little friend (Ella) just a couple of months younger than her and she was so sweet - she kept on putting her arms around Ella to give her a hug! It was lovely!! She ate loads too! Although it was very funny, Tim was holding her whilst she was eating a slice of pitta bread and she kept posting into his shirt breast pocket and then eating it from there! She did this for ages until Tim realised - he didn't find it as funny as me!! Ian big nose was also there, sporting a new hair cut. Naomi said to Tim "That boy's like Ian" Tim said "But he is Ian!!" Naomi was not confinced!

Tim and I had a very chaotic morning with our girls in the nursery at church this morning! I think every child that could attend did today and there were lots of children! We stayed on after church to celebrate Zoe's birthday! The children enjoyed eating pizza and sugary cake!

Esther made Tim and I laugh the other day! One thing only some of you may know about me is that I have a tendancy to stick my tongue out when I am concentrating! It comes from my father and I was doing it on Monday night during my first attempt to mend the blind! Anyway, Esther was sitting on our bed on Friday morning playing with my alarm clock and there she was with her tongue out just like me! Tim thought it was hilarious!

Naomi has been swinging from being delightful, like when we were making the cookies, to dreadful like this evening when we were trying to get her into the bath! She comes out with some wonderful things and keeps us entertained! She currently likes putting slides in my hair or Esther's hair and she is very gentle. She still loves playing with her trains and with her baby! She is not sleeping too well, so hopefully she will improve with some sleep!

Anyway, had better go! Will write soon!

Flat battery!

Hello there! Sorry that I didn't get to write the blog last night - it was a combination of children struggling to settle, a huge pile of ironing and too little sleep the night before, which meant I needed to go to bed!

We are fine though apart from that and we had a better night's sleep last night which was good! We think Esther is teething again which upsets her system!! Poor little girl! We have had a quiet few days really, which has been good for recharging batteries a little! A few of our usual activities have stopped now, so we are able to be a bit freer about our week, which is nice. It is nice to be busy but it is also nice to have some unstructured time!

We went to Gym class on Monday and I was impressed at how well Naomi can now jump with 2 feet together! She loves to jump and jump. She also loves the sensation of rolling over a soft tube which she leaps onto and over very quickly and does not pay any heed to her mummy asking her to go slowly and gently!! She is also learning to climb well and to throw balls into a hoop! I get Esther out of the buggy just before the end and she loves the parachute time. She squeals and giggles in delight! She saw herself in one of the wall sized mirrors the other day and thought that was great fun!

On Monday afternoon we went and did our 6 weekly Costco shop which was good and then in the evening I started to mend the blind in the lounge that needs rethreading. I had been told how to do it but it was not quite as straightforward as it seemed. I hope to finish it in the next couple of nights!

On tuesday we had a lovely messy morning at home playing with (and nearly in) a cornflour and water paste! It was very therapeutic and great fun but rather floury and messy, despite a large area of newspaper!! It all hoovered up easily though, which was good! The children both really enjoyed the texture of it and the fact that it 'magically' changes back into a liquid!

We were all set to go to Church for our last Mum's group in the afternoon only to discover that the car battery was flat and we weren't going anywhere! The children were very upset but it couldn't be helped! Tim was able to jump start it later on and I am taking it to the garage this afternoon to get a new battery put in! Hopefully that will do the trick! Instead, Esther had a good sleep, Naomi and I read and played and then we went to the park in the afternoon! It was nice to have a more restful day!!

Yesterday we went shopping in the morning and then to our local park in the afternoon, with Fritzi and her friend. WE had a good time there and the children enjoyed feeding the ducks and playing on the playground.

This morning Becky and Eli have been over and we had great fun in the park before coming home for a very chaotic lunch!!

Esther has been funny the last couple of days! She has started to point to me and then to the object that has fallen on the floor with the clear message that she wants me to go and pick it up!! It is really sweet although a little cheeky!! She also has started saying "oh", with a very serious face, if something has gone wrong - either caused by her or not! She also can go "ooh" in surprise!

Naomi is enjoying playing with her trains at the moment and spends ages on the floor with the little bit of track that we have! She is learning to dress herself and the dolls too and has now mastered putting her own socks on which is good! Her sandals, which I really only bought for the beach and the garden are worn all the time and have velcro which is great because she can put them on herself! I think I may have to buy her a properly fitted pair to wear and relegate these for the beach! THey are a big hit!

anyway, I had better go and clear up from lunch - how do 3 children make so much mess?

Drummers

Hello there! How are you? We are fine! We have had a pleasant weekend although it has been cloudy and chilly! Since we have enterend June, the weather has not been warm at all!

The weather has not been too bad today though and we found a lovely park to visit. Volunteer Park is in the centre of Seattle and it is a beautiful place for a picnic or an afternoon visit. There was a bicycling event on today where there were many races round the course; we enjoyed watching the cyclists whizz past us on thier bikes! It was almost like watching the Tour de France!!

The park has wonderful views of the city of Seattle as well as a water tower that you can climb up and look out of and a Conservatory. Naomi did very well climbing the 100 steps to the top of the tower - her "I can't do it Mummy", turned to "I can do it Mummy" as we got there! There were fantastic views of the Puget sound, Seattle centre, Bellevue as well as the park itself from the top of the tower. There were also percussionists playing African drums, amongst other things, at the top of the tower and their sound resonated throughout the park. One of the men let us look at his drum; he had one from Ghana and the girls, especially Esther, were fascinated by it and the bells that were attached to the rim. Esther really wanted to stay and play all day I think and the man was very kind and let her hit it! She was very happy! Naomi was more reserved!

We then walked to the conservatory and saw lots of tropical plants. Naomi enjoyed touching some of them but I was nervous that she was going to touch the cacti! She particularly liked one that was soft and we kept walking round to find it! There was also a tree that was older than Grandma Beads - Naomi was amazed!!! We all enjoyed our afternoon and I think we will go back again as there was lots that we didn't see in the park.

Yesterday was a bit slow to get started! Esther was awake at 6 and Naomi had been awake for a couple of hours in the night, so I was tired. Esther and I went shopping at 8am and then came back and went to bed! In the afternoon we went and did some boring shopping - Home Depot (like Homebase!) and Target (no similarity!!). Naomi has been so succesful with her potty training that she was able to go and buy a train as her reward! She was very happy! I also bought a new toy - a hand held carpet cleaner, which I have yet to try but hope it will do the trick!

On Friday we went to see our Somali ladies, but there were not in! That will teach me to phone first!! Instead, we indulged in some retail therapy - I bought some things for the girls! We went to a new-to-us shopping mall and it was lovely!! It is called Factoria Mall and it is just off the I90. We barely saw any of it but I liked what we did see! I hope to go back soon! Perhaps Mum and I can have some time one evening when they come at the end of the month! The girls liked the mall too as it had a large soft plastic boat to play on! Esther climbed to the top in the few seconds it took me to remove my bag off my back!! Naomi has learnt to jump well recently and now likes jumping off everything!! They had fun! Brooke came in the afternoon and I managed to do some house work!

Thursday we went to the zoo with Fritzi and her friend. We saw the usual animals but I have decided that next time we go, we should park in the opposite car park and start off with the bears and tigers as they are the animals we rarely see, much to Naomi's disappointment! We got to see the elephants at the same time as the keeper was talking to a group of people about artificially inseminating the elephant to see if it will produce a baby elephant!! Esther was very tired by this point and I didn't fancy Naomi hearing some things that she could relate to, which would have resulted in complex questions later and so we left at that point! I will have to wait to see if the elephant is "with child!!"

The children's fun game of the week has been to remove all the cushions off the sofa in the play room and use them as a bouncing area! Esther likes to lie face down on them and then roll off, whilst Naomi likes to jump on top of them! It keeps them amused for ages! Naomi loves playing with her trains and Esther is starting to enjoy putting shapes into the right hole!

Well, that is all for now - we have a busy week ahead of us, so I shall write with more news on Wednesday, all being well!

Glass Dogs!

Hi there! Hope this finds you well! Ironically it appears that we have been experiencing similar weather the last few days, with blistering heat last week and then rain and cloud this week! It is set to remain unsettled here for the rest of this week I think!

We are fine here, although Esther is teething again and subsequently not sleeping very well! I can't make up my mind if it is just her teeth (which will resolve itself) or if it is a more long-term problem that needs us to help her resolve it! The thing is, I know that she can sleep through until the morning when she wants to, which makes it harder when she doesn't. So if you start getting sent emails at odd times of the day or night, you know why!

We enjoyed our bank holiday monday this week - hope that you did too! We visited Tacoma and went to the museum of glass, which was quite pricey, but good fun! We were able to see how the glass was made - the artist was making "bee butts" - her name not mine, which Naomi thought was funny! She was quite fascinated by process, which was displayed onto a big screen. The furnaces and craftsmen were at the bottom of a tiered theatre, which meant that we were able to see what was going on safetly. I realised how little I know about making glass! However it was enough to satisfy Naomi!!

Much to all our delight and amusement, the main display was all about dogs!!! Esther was so happy she spent the whole time going "woo woo, woo woo!!" It was amazing what glass can be made into - there were dogs in all sorts of poses as well as pictures and sculptures! The children really enjoyed it and we certainly couldn't have picked a better exhibition!

After we had been inside we then went across the glass bridge which has an amazing sea sculpture ceiling in part of it! The colours of the glass jelly fish were gorgeous!

Naomi obviously has a very set idea what a museum should look like as she was very upset when we left to go home as she wanted to go to the musuem!! She took some convincing that she had already been!

Yesterday was a day for goodbyes! In the morning, I had an appointment with the chiropractor and I am glad to say that my back and my neck are feeling a lot better. My neck has certainly got more movement in it which is lovely! I am still going regularly but hope I will be able to only go when it flares up soon.

In the afternoon we went across to Seattle for our Mum's group; we had to say goodbye to a lovely family that we have got to know as they are moving to Portland! Naomi will miss the little boy, Ian especially on a Tuesday. From there we went to Bellevue to meet up with Maddie and Vanessa as they flew back to England today so that Vanessa can have her baby. We are going to miss them very much. Maddie wanted to give Naomi something to look after until they return and gave her an enormous Barney!! I hate Barney!!! The children sadly don't!! It was a lovely thought of Maddie's to give something to Naomi and very helpful as it helps Naomi to understand that Maddie is coming back in September and that it isn't goodbye for good! Vanessa gave me her breadmaker to look after! I am looking forward to making some proper bread soon!

Today we did a little bit of shopping in the morning and then met up with Fritzi and some others in Marymoor Park in the afternoon. We only had a short time there today but are probably going to the zoo tomorrow with them, which will be fun!

Naomi made me laugh today! She was asked by the hair dresser to close her eyes as she was trimming her fringe. Naomi replied "No, I want to stay awake!". Later she was shouting "It is snowy mummy" but it turns out that it was only a bush with white flowers. She is not too sure though!! She is a real star with her potty and we are very proud of her!

Esther is fine and very noisy!! She is roaring like a lion, mooing like a cow or barking like a dog every time she hears or sees a picture of the appropriate animal! She has really got the hang of nodding her head, too! She is so delightful in the day time, it is such a shame that she is less so at night!!

Anyway better go!