Sunny afternoons in the garden

Hello there!

I am going to make this quick as it is late! We have not done much this week until today! The weather was beautiful on Monday and Tuesday and so we have sat out and played in the garden in the afternoons! The children have really enjoyed playing with the water, helping me clean and generally having a good time! They have had their babies to push in the buggies and chalk to write on the stones! I must buy some sand for them too!

I have had some nice all-fruit juice lollies in the freezer since last summer and the children have enjoyed eating them in the afternoons too! Esther especially beams and beams from ear to ear and says “nice” with much emphasis!! I am glad to have found a treat that she can eat!

We have done our usual activities in the morning, which has been good! Esther enjoyed her music class yesterday! She was very good whilst we were shopping too; mainly I think because she was eating the shop’s cookies that you can pick up! She also enjoyed getting all the stickers to herself and spent a happy ten minutes or so sticking them on her shoe, her knee and her nose!! Funny girl!

Naomi has been enjoying doing some chalking outside in our together time this week (and I was glad of the change from the playdough cooking!!) It is common and acceptable here to draw on the pavement outside your house and they even sell “sidewalk chalk” to allow the children to do this! I can’t quite do it without feeling that I am doing something terrible but all of our neighbours do and certainly Naomi has enjoyed it too! However, the main drawback for me is the fact that she wants me to do the drawing so that she can add bits to it and so now the entire neighbourhood knows that I can’t draw for toffee and must also be wondering what on earth these funny objects are! They are probably whales or dogs!! I had to draw a whole family of whales on Monday – including the baby!! I don’t know!!

Today we went to Mum’s group in Seattle and then came home. I spent the afternoon trying to clear up for Pam and Ken’s arrival tomorrow and got most of it done!

We also saw another family with children this evening who are here to decide whether or not they want to move here. The original plan was that they would follow Tim home and they would stop off and buy a chicken, some bread and salad for tea. Well, there had been an accident on the I90 and it took them about 1.5 hours to get home! Consequently the girls and I went to buy the dinner and it was very late before we ate or the children were in bed!

However, I hope that we were helpful for the family and that they enjoy their stay here! Our 2 were good in the shop though! They were in a car trolley and they both had their straps on as I said that all drivers needed to wear their seat belts! Well, just as we were finishing, Naomi wanted to take her belt off and so I said “No, the policeman might tell you off”! She didn’t believe me that there was a policeman until the man stacking the shelves said that there was a policeman that might be round the next corner! After that she believed it and didn’t ask to take it off again! Well done, man!! The children were also giving each other big hugs in the trolley, much to the other customer’s delight!

That is about it for now!

Chatterbox children!

Good Evening from Seattle!

We hope that this finds you well. We are fine although tired – we’ve had a busy weekend! Just want to let you know too that our clocks have not yet “sprung forward” and so for this next week, we are 9 hours behind you! This is more of a problem for me as I may think that it is 10pm rather than 11pm but in case anyone fancies an early morning (for us) phone call, please don’t make it too early!!

Also a Happy Mothers Day to all mums’ reading this! We don’t have ours until May so we have not celebrated it today here!

Our weekend has been very full but fun! Yesterday it was Maddie’s 3rd birthday party, which we attended and helped at. It was a busy morning as there were lots of families but the children were all good and enjoyed themselves especially Barney, the special visitor! The parents were not as impressed with him as the children but mainly because we could see that his head kept on falling off and that he was hopeless with the children! Esther was a little nervous of him and was much happier when he left. Naomi was OK and Maddie is convinced he is the real one!!

In the afternoon, Esther and I went to bed for an hour and then we had a quiet afternoon at home, whilst Tim managed to do some jobs. Unfortunately for me, Esther was very clingy and I didn’t get anything done at all! Never mind, there is always tomorrow!!

Today, we went to church this morning and both Tim and I were doing our respective classes. After this we went to Factoria Mall for some lunch and then spent the afternoon in the KidsQuest children’s museum – a great place for children, especially toddlers! There is a huge water play area and Esther got drenched, so much so that I had to take her back to the car and change her! Thankfully she did that bit last! We then went to Vanessa and James’ house to think about our proposed holiday. No plans yet though!

On Friday we went to Kent to see our Russians and discovered that one of them is also pregnant with a baby due in October! We were both laughing and happy for one another!! It is her 3rd too! In the afternoon I did some clearing up.

On Thursday Esther and I went to the library for a story time which was fun and then went to the Hairdresser in Redmond that specializes in children’s’ hair. Esther has been looking like a street urchin recently and I wanted to try and improve her! They have done a good job and I am trying to put a slide in although she is not too keen!

After this we met up with Tim for lunch and had a good hour with him or so! The children were so delighted to see him at lunch time – Naomi said when he came home at tea time “I have seen 2 Daddies today” meaning of course, that she had seen Daddy twice! I thought it was very sweet!

In fact, Naomi has come out with some gems this week that have made me giggle! She said on Friday that she didn’t like the stoppy road, showing that, despite all evidence to the contrary, that she has some Batson genes after all! She was also expressing her dislike of having to eat her lunch in the car, which she does on the way home from the Russians if we haven’t had it at a house. As much as I appreciate the fact that she can tell me this, I am afraid I cannot do much about that one! It only happens once a fortnight and I think she will have to put up with it!!

Naomi has been giving me kisses that are “for the baby, Mummy” which is very lovely and she is very good at telling people that I am pregnant. She said to one of the ladies who looks after her on a Wednesday morning that “My mummy has a baby in her tummy but it is smaller than your baby!!” (This lady’s baby is due in June!)

Coming home from Mom’s group on Wednesday we gave a homeless man some breakfast bars which then prompted many questions such as “why doesn’t he have somewhere to live mummy” and “why does he have funny hair” and “what does he have up his nose!” The last one really threw me as I hadn’t got a clue either!! IT looked like purple sticks! Any ideas? However a really good question on Friday morning whilst I was negotiating a nasty junction in the rain was “Who is God?”!!! She certainly keeps me on my toes and is a real chatterbox! She waves her arms around when she gets going and will tell Esther that she has to be quiet as “I am talking to Mummy”! Bless her, she’s a star!

I was impressed with one of Esther’s sentences this week. It was a 4 word one that went “Edda coat dirty, wash”. Admittedly, it doesn’t have much structure but the words were there and it made sense to me at least! She obviously remembers going to the UK – or at least the plane ride - as she was looking at a plane in one of her books and said “Edda plane, no bed, knee” which means that she obviously remembers that she didn’t have a bed to sleep in and had to sit on Mummy’s knee! I was impressed!!

Esther was truly delighted on Thursday to see the Geese return to Issaquah Highlands! When we first started taking Naomi to school they were there every morning but they had not been there for several months, much to Esther’s disappointment! Well, they were back this week and so we hope that they will stay around for a bit now!

One of Esther’s favourite words is “ug” (hug) which she will say to you accompanied by outstretched arms. It always results in a hug of course but the funny thing is that she walks towards you with her arms outstretched and it strongly reminds me of some Egyptian mummies in a very early computer game that we used to play called “Roland on the Ropes!” She is funny!!

Anyway, that is all for now – need to do the ironing before I go to bed!

Have a good week and I will write on Wednesday!

A patter of tiny feet again!

Hello there! I hope that you are all well. We are fine and have some exciting news! I am 9 weeks pregnant!! The baby is currently due 3 days before Naomi in October but since it will be delivered by Caesarian Section I can choose the day!! That is the main reason why I have been feeling so tired lately and also nauseous, but I hope that that will soon pass! When I was pregnant before I could always rest in the daytime but that is almost impossible now!

Still, the baby seems fine – I had an early scan last week to check dates and to check that everything was OK and so we hope for a smooth pregnancy!

We have had a quiet afternoon today, which was lovely! Naomi and I played at schools this afternoon for a while – she was the teacher, naturally!! I was a good student and did as I was told and we did some music and some (pretend) painting! After her (very short) rest, she and I played with her playdough cooking set and then Esther woke up and played too for a short time! We also read lots of stories and the girls did some magic painting!

This morning we went to Mom’s group and it was Becky’s Baby Shower and Yvonne’s birthday. I had been asked to make the cake and so had made a one that looked as if it was a table with a table cloth that was set for a tea party! I made little plates, saucers, cups and napkins out of fondant icing and then had 2 biscuits for the little cakes on top of the cake! I was very pleased with it and so was everyone else! Tim took a photo last night and when they are uploaded I will try and post one! It was nice to make a “grown up” one for a change!!

I finished decorating the cake last night; I had made all the crockery on Saturday and when I finished, I asked Tim to take a photo for me, which he did. However he used his tripod to take a really good shot of it and it was still up when the children came down this morning! They were really fascinated by it and were using it as a house! Tim was teasing them and said that it was a rest for his chin and demonstrated as such! Although we did explain it was for his camera, it obviously didn’t sink in to Esther as she pointed to it this evening and said “Chin” again!!

Yesterday, Naomi had school in the morning but Esther’s class was cancelled ast he teacher was unwell. She and I did the shopping instead and we are going to go to the Library tomorrow for a toddler story time session instead. I think she will enjoy that too!
In the afternoon we met up with Rosie and Ulrike in the park, which was great fun!

On Monday we had Gym class as normal and then met up with Vanessa in the afternoon at the park too.

Well, that is about all the news for now! Will write again on Sunday!

From the Mountains to the Sound

Hello there! This is probably going to be a fairly short blog tonight as we have had a busy weekend and I am tired! The children have been waking up during the night and it has taken a while to get back to sleep again! You get out of the habit of disturbed nights after a while!!

We have had a lovely weekend! Yesterday we went up to Snoqualmie Pass to take the children to the snow; we went with Ulrike and Leif and the children and we had a lovely time! The children all really enjoyed themselves – even Esther, which was a great contrast to the last time we went! Esther was really enjoying going down on the sledge and went on her own, using the “look no hands” approach to sledging!! She was beaming from ear to ear!

Naomi and Fritzi also enjoyed the sledging but also spent a long time building a ‘princess castle’ out of the snow!! But Naomi was brilliant and had a go on Fritzi’s skis and she did really well! I was expecting her to be a bit nervous but she wasn’t at all and just really enjoyed herself! I was really proud of her!

Today it was another beautiful day and so we decided to take a Harbour Cruise around Seattle. We had splendid views of the city and of the mountains and, although Esther was not as interested as Naomi we all had a good time! We saw some Sea lions which were a bit hit with them both – Esther wanted to see them again but I am not sure that the captain would have been so keen to turn the boat around just for her!!

On Friday we had a very quiet day as the car was in the garage. The girls and I spent the morning painting, which they really enjoyed and did it for an hour without losing interest in it! I now have to decide what to do with their art work!! They produced rather a lot of it!

Esther and Naomi have been enjoying watching the children’s cartoon, Pingu (about a Penguin living somewhere snowy!) Esther loves it and calls it “Piggu” and even does a little Pingu wiggle and flaps her arms around! IT is English so watch out for it on the television!! It is funny and very slapstick comedy – perfect for my two – and they love it!

Esther is also fascinated by bellybuttons at the moment and each bath time she is not happy unless she has seen all of our belly buttons and had a good giggle about them! I have no idea what it is that is so fascinating but she thinks that it is funny anyway!!

Well, I am afraid that is it for now – will write on Wednesday!

Edda too

Good evening!

Hope that you are all well; we are fine here and have been enjoying our normal routines this week. We have had Gym class, school, and music class as normal and in the afternoons we have been at the park with friends or on our own.

The children have been making me laugh this week! Naomi has been telling me all sorts of funny things! And Esther has just been chatty which is funny too as she comes out with some odd comments at times!

Naomi went all serious yesterday afternoon during our ‘together time” and told me that at school she is not allowed to stand up! She was standing up at our table at home and had obviously been doing that at school but according to her, if you stand up the teacher will come and make you sit down! I had to chuckle – she was so funny! I was very good and said that if that was what school wanted then that was what she had to do!

Today she was telling me all about a little girl at Mum’s group who snatches toys and pulls hair! She is only a baby but Naomi was very put out by her I think and was keen to tell me! Esther had obviously been on the receiving end of the hair pulling as she was pulling her hair and saying “ow” whilst Naomi was talking.

Esther is a chatterbox like her mother, grandmother and Great Grandmother!! She was funny this afternoon as she had found the parasol for the buggy. She was wandering round the house with it half open over her head – we could only see her feet so I don’t know how she was seeing where she was going! But, anyway, she was saying “rain’ rain” which was very funny!

The school students here finished some important exams today and so they were out celebrating as we were coming home and one of them didn’t have a tee shirt on. Esther’s comment was “uh oh. No clothes!’ We get a lot of ‘uh oh”; we also had “uhoh, chair ‘tuck’ this evening too!

It is tempting to call Esther “Edda too” as that is what she says most of the day! She hates to be missing out on anything and if Naomi is doing anything then “Edda too” wants to too! She is lovely!!

Naomi and I have been enjoying our together time with the play dough cooking still. We have been eating pancakes this week and it is such a good way to spend time chatting with her. We also looked at the wedding photo’s yesterday afternoon which was good too! She enjoys those sorts of things a lot! She likes to play with my model houses – she builds a road and imagines all sorts of things going on!

She has a teddy shaped vitamin in the mornings and it takes ages for her to eat it as she has to play with it, put it in a house (her juice cup) and imagines it has a whole life of its own before she can eat it! I despair some mornings!! Thankfully she does eat it and doesn’t seem to mind that she has just eaten her friend of the last 15 minutes or so!!
Anyway, that is it for now! Will write on Sunday! Have the ironing to do but am going to watch Harry Potter whilst I do it so that should make it a little more bearable!!

Spring Day at the Park

Hello there! Hope that you are all well. We are fine here!

We have had some amazing hail storms yesterday - so much so that they were warning you not to go out! Thankfully we were in doors and Tim was in the car! Tim said that the hail stones were an inch in diameter which is quite something! Today we have had sunshine again and it has been almost warm which was pleasant, especially after a mostly cold and wet week!

We have had a couple of quiet afternoons this week, which has been great! We have been able to spend some time playing all together and reading stories. I was also showing the girls some
gymnastics on the television that I had recorded for them which they enjoyed. It was good for them to be able to see what they can aspire to in Gym class at any rate! On Thursday afternoon we also popped into the shop to buy a few bits but I foolishly let both girls push a little trolley each - it was hard work trying to keep up with both of them! Esther is also a real shocker
at adding or removing things from the trolley as well; you have to be really careful that you end up with what you intended when you leave!

Naomi had had a good morning at school on Thursday and had enjoyed playing with her friend Ella, who is a bit older, I think. She came home singing snippets from a song that they had been
learning at school but I don't know it and she can't remember most of the words which is a shame! Esther and I had a good morning playing, doing jigsaws and reading stories on Thursday too.

On Friday the girls and I went to Kent to see our Russian families; in the end we spent all of the time with just one of them as the other family with small children are currently visiting
ther Grandmother in Michigan and were not there. Our latest family are fairly self sufficient and I didn't see them this time! On Friday afternoon the girls and played for a bit but I
also managed to do some housework which was good; Brooke was unwell and unable to come, which was a shame!

On Friday night, Tim and I watched a film - Elizabethtown - with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. It was a true romantic film and I enjoyed it although the story line was a bit weak, leaving many ends loose and not tied up! Very frustrating!

On Saturday, we all went to Costco in the morning and did a big shop; in the afternoon Vanessa, James and the children came round to discuss our proposed holiday. The children had a
marvellous time playing and we managed to come up with some ideas!

The children have been playing a great game this week. They pack up several of their toy and my paper bags and they "go on a big plane"! They then cart these bags around downstairs before usually leaving them in the lounge! I have spent all week looking for things in the bags and removing the bags from the lounge! Naomi instigates the game but Esther follows along quite happily! If Naomi doesn't have Esther to bring with her on the big plane, then she takes along "toman and Bibi" who are her 2 imaginary friends! They come everywhere with us and do lots of interesting things!! They are often sick at the minute - not sure why - and Toman's mummy has a baby in her tummy. She talks about them so much and we have to refer to them so much that I find it difficult to remember that they are only imaginary friends some of the time! I am sure that one day I shall meet them!!

Esther is preoccupied with the baby dollies having sore bottoms this week too and spends a lot of time wiping their bottom and if possible applying cream! I am careful to leave the creams out of her reach but had not banked on Naomi reaching them and creaming up baby herself! Thankfully, it was on a hard dolly and so will come off in time! It is very funny! Esther's language continues to come on and she can now express some things quite clearly! I threw some advertisement papers for her music class away the other day and she very firmly said "No bin" to me! When Tim picked her up the other morning just before 7 she said to him " no bed" so you see, it does have its disadvantages!! Esther loves singing though and loves to join in and so we often have a sing song in the car going to places!

Naomi's behaviour has dramatically improved toward the end of the week - not sure what was going on at the beginning and she is a lot more responsive and cheerful! Thank goodness! It was hard work keeping on top of her to try and snap her out of it when she did start to go downhill! most things are a phase though - or so I hope!

I was reminded yesterday why so often people with small children are only friends with other people with small children! Now we have excellent friends who are the exceptions to this rule, but they are very unique people! Yesterday though, when Vanessa, JAmes and the children were visiting, Esther decided that her nappy was too full and so removed her trousers, undid her vest and removed her nappy. This was bad enough but the she brought the full nappy and gave it to James who accepted it with much gratitude! I apologised immediately but thankfully he is used to little girls! I mean really Esther!!I then put a clean nappy on and she was happy!

Today we went to church this morning and took with us Paromita, Saptak and their son as they had requested to come with us. We had a good service and then by chance ended up in a pleasant Indian restaurant near to the park we were going to. The food was good but the waiter very grumpy, which was a bit of a shame. Paromita and Saptak also enjoyed the meal and it was an extra bonus that we found it for them! We then went to the park where the children had great fun playing with the ball and at the play ground. Volunteer Park is a nice size and there are plenty of different things to do there; we had a good day!

Naomi had obviously been listening to her story today at church as she was able to tell us all about Moses and the burning bush! She had decorated a light bulb (?) this morning too although I am not quite sure what I am supposed to be doing with it now!

Before I close I thought I would just update you with how the giving away of the brown bags that we were selling last week at church was going. I have given away all but one of our bags now, so much so that Esther in particular shouts, "man, bag" when she sees anyone walking along the pavement! Even if they are waiting for a bus!! We were talking about the bags on Wednesday at Mom's group and one of our group was sharing the experience she had had with one of the homeless people who hang out near church. At the end of the evening service, he had come in to thank the church for the bag and was clearly delighted with the bag of goodies, particularlly with the socks as he held up his trousers to show that he was already wearing them! It has been such a great way to both raise money for those suffering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina last year and to practically help those who are homeless in our society. As an added bonus it has helped the children experience giving.

I thought I would just share this experience with you as some of you may wish to use it for your own fund raising / church giving idea. I know that we are all keen to share it here and there is no copyright!! Good luck if you do and let me know!

Anyway, that is about it for now! Will write on Wednesday!

Classes

Hello there! Hope that this finds you all well. We are fine! Our lovely weather has come to an end though and it is cold and miserable! It has poured with rain today and we have got soaked just running from the car to the door! It is due to continue for a bit, which is a shame as last week was so lovely!

However, in practice it has not stopped us doing anything! We returned to Gym class on Monday which was greatly enjoyed by the girls! I was relieved too that they were both relaxed about waiting for each other; I was worried that since, they had not done that for a month or so, that they would have forgotten that was part of the morning!

On Monday afternoon we went to see our friend Paromita and her son and we did managed to get to the park for a very short time that day; it was bitterly cold and we didn’t stay long though! We saw their new apartment which was quite nice and then came home for a late-ish tea!

On Tuesday Naomi went to school and Esther went to her ‘dub-dub’ (music) class! Naomi went into school so quickly on Tuesday morning that we didn’t have time to give her a kiss, which upset Esther a lot! She spent the entire time in the car between school and music class going, “Nay nay, kiss” and making a kiss sound! She was so pleased when we picked her up and she could deposit the kiss!

Esther was delighted to return to music class and smiled and laughed the whole lesson. There is a new set of songs this term and she seemed content with them, which is good! She enjoyed the other children and was especially pleased to see Henry and the teacher! We had a good time and I was grateful for a new set of CD’s to play in my car!

Yesterday afternoon we met up with Rosie and Ulrike and the children at the boat and had a good play there for an hour or so before coming home for tea. In the evening, Vanessa came round and Tim and I went out for a little while to have some time together and a browse in a book store! We had a good time!

Today we went to Mum’s group in the morning, which I enjoyed although the children were both very upset at leaving me today which is unlike them! This afternoon we went to see Vanessa and the children in their new house. It is a lovely house and much like ours and it is great that they are now so close to us! The children played well and we had a pleasant afternoon.

Unfortunately Naomi didn’t behave so well when we got home which rather spoilt an otherwise good day! She gets herself into these moods when nothing you do will stop her from yelling and shouting and screaming and generally being extremely unpleasant. She is so good most of the time but when she gets into these moods she is dreadful. It is usually when she is tired but this doesn’t make it any easier to deal with! Hopefully we will have a more peaceful day tomorrow!

Anyway, I will end it here but will write on Sunday.

Our first week back

Hello all! Well, we have been back here nearly a week now and we have surprised ourselves at how well we have fitted back in – both here and in the UK. It is quite nice to have a foot in both countries as it were!

We have spent this week recovering from the traveling and getting used to being back here but we have managed to see many of our friends and it has been wonderful to catch up with them again! Naomi, Esther and I were so keen to see Maddie, Vanessa, Fritzi and Ulrike that we saw them on Tuesday afternoon, which was fun! We went to feed the ducks in the park but there were lots of large puddles! The girls all had their wellies on but ended up very wet and muddy! Still, they enjoyed themselves!

We made it to church on Wednesday morning for our Mom’s group and spent the morning making out bags of practical items for the homeless. The idea is that people buy a bag and give it to a homeless person but the proceeds of the bag go to financially support a group of people who are going to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina last August. I don’t know how many bags were sold at the evening service today, but we had made 200+ bags and had sold 140 of them by lunch time! It was an excellent way to help both our local and wider community!

The weather has been glorious this week, which has been a kind reminder of how beautiful the area is around here! We have seen the mountains and spring is definitely on its way, which made Naomi very excited – she is definitely a summer girl! Her face lit up on Wednesday as she told me that it was very warm and nearly summer, bless her! I know it can get cold again but we have enjoyed the warm and sunny weather this week a lot!

The children and I went to the park on Wednesday afternoon, which was great; we were there a while as we had a long time on the playground and then went to the benches so that Naomi could play at being a teacher!

On Thursday Naomi went back to school but settled in very quickly I think. She says that there are some new boys in her class, but she was not unsettled by this, which was good! In the afternoon we met up with Vanessa and Ulrike and the children and went to the little zoo not far from us. The children were all very happy there and spent a long time feeding the Alpaca and looking at the reindeer. Esther’s favourite were the parrots though and she could have spent all day there if we had let her! She was fascinated by the way they talked and made sounds!

On Friday I took the girls to the park first thing (we were there before 10 am!!) but I was brave and took both Naomi and Esther’s bike. Esther did really well at trundling her little bike and Naomi can peddle extremely fast now! We had a short time at the play ground and then had to take Naomi to see the Ophthalmologist. The doctor is very pleased with Naomi’s eyes and says that they are stabilizing, which is good. After the next visit, we are likely to have longer between each visit, which is good!

We had a very quiet afternoon on Friday; I was supposed to be doing some housework but none of our babysitters could come and in practice I really couldn’t be bothered! We all played together all of the afternoon and it was great fun!

One very exciting thing for Esther on Friday afternoon was that she did her first wee on the potty!! Yippee! I hope to get her toilet trained this summer! She was very proud of herself and I was proud of her too! I said to her that we had to tell Daddy when he came in from work and he had been in all of a second or 2 before she had told him that she had done a wee wee in the potty! It was very funny!

This weekend we went shopping yesterday to a Factory Outlet Mall in North Bend which was a fantastic place to go for bargains! Tim and I did very well! There is also an Oshkosh there which I like for the children and so I shall have to go again for them later in the year! Good to have an excuse really!

Today we went to church this morning and then had a picnic with Melinda and Chad at the Japanese Gardens. The picnic was fun and the gardens very pretty; we also popped into the child friendly café round the corner afterwards which was great as it allowed the children to play whilst we chatted about their forthcoming trip to Europe!

Tomorrow we start our normal week again, which will be good; I feel ready for it now and I am looking forward to it!

Until Wednesday then…. Bye for now!