Pam and Ken arrive!

Hi there! Hope that this finds you all well; unfortunately, Tim is not so well today, although better than yesterday and so he has not been at work today and isn't going in tomorrow. We are hoping that he is selfish and keeps it to himself and that he is better soon. He is brighter today though and so  I think he is on the mend.

Other than that we are fine and have had a lovely two days with Pam and Ken. I collected them on Monday from the airport with Silas and Esther as Naomi was in ballet and they are doing well with adjusting to the time zone difference. The children have been delighted to see them - Silas has been giving them beaming smiles and the girls are keen to have hugs and stories!

Yesterday we went to Kirkland for the day and had a lovely walk around the lake for a short distance before heading back into the town for a sandwich. We found a good looking restaurant but it was not a good lunch spot and I wouldn't go there again! However we did return to the train store where we went when Mum and Dad were here which was fun and we also went into a gorgeous photo gallery with some amazing wildlife photography. Naomi fell in love with the most expensive framed photo there (it was about 4' long) but it showed that she had good taste! In the end I bought cards with their favorite photos on so that I can buy frames and frame them for their rooms!

Today Esther had an extra music class as we missed the one when we went to Vancouver and so I took her there whilst Naomi was at school. This afternoon we met up with Elisabeth and Amy at Pine Lake Park which was great! Pam an d Ken had a good read by the lake whilst the children played and we had a lovely afternoon. It has been warm and sunny today which was a pleasant surprise!

We had some funny incidents this last week! Firstly, when I collected Esther's antibiotics on Thursday I was told that she would need to take one and a half spoonfuls or "3.5 ml's!" Pardon I said! The pharmacist then looked at the syringe and said "Oh no, I mean, 7.5mls"! I thought that was terrible that the pharmacist got it wrong! I think she should stick to the spoonfuls and I'll work out the dose in ml's for myself!!

Last week when the girls and I went to the park, they were playing at houses, in particular Grandma and Grandad's house. I was impressed at how much they had taken in as they were playing in the smaller young children's area and saying "this is Grandma and Grandad's flat" and then pointing to the larger, older children area and saying "this is Grandma and Grandad's proper house where you can stay Mummy!" They had fun and surprised me how much they understood of my parents current living arrangement!

Esther was very put out yesterday when Grandad was holding Silas when we were at the park. She wanted Grandad to play with her on the slide and so said to Ken "you give Silas to my mummy and you come and play with me!" Poor Silas! He was having a good cuddle too!

I have been making fruit purees and (mainly) vegetable purees for Silas this weekend and was very upset today when he clearly didn't like the carrot much. he took in a large mouthful (well, for him!) and then preceded to blow it at full blast at me! So now I am covered with carrot and need to wash everything once again! He thought he was very clever!

Anyway, going to bed now! Take care!

Wednesday Onwards!

Hi! As you might have guessed, this blog covers from Wednesday onwards! Hope that this finds you well! We are fine.

On Wednesday morning, whilst Naomi was at school I took Esther to see the ophthalmologist that Naomi usually sees. I haven't been concerned about Esther's eyes at all but given that Naomi has now worn glasses for over 2 years, I wanted to double check that Esther didn't have a less obvious problem. I was pleased to learn though that her eyes are fine and she was very good. They put the drops in her eyes to dilate the pupils and these took a long time to wear off, which caused her  a few problems but otherwise she was fine!

After we finished at the doctors, we met up with Vanessa and Alex at the Little Zoo as it was such a glorious day and we had a good time with them. The older children were at school and so we didn't tell them that we had been! In the afternoon I took the children to a park for a long play which they enjoyed and it was lovely to be outside for a while!

It rained pretty much solidly from Wednesday evening until today really so we were glad that we had been out on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday we had a bit of a frustrating morning as poor Esther needed to go back to the doctor as she had a urinary tract infection I think. She wasn't acutely sick like Naomi was a year ago but she had been complaining of a sore bottom for  a few days and then cried as she went to the toilet on Thursday morning. It took 2.5 hours to see the doctor and to collect her prescription and we had an appointment. It frustrates me how long it takes to see a doctor here and it also astonishes me that the Americans put up with it when they are usually so driven by efficiency and speed. I can't get used to it! We have had a lot to do with the Immigration Service recently as we are changing our status so that we can stay here a bit longer and they are slow and frustrating but I can understand that a bit more as the average American doesn't come into contact with the Immigration Service but the doctors every one sees and so why do they accept it and not demand a better service?

However on Thursday afternoon we met up with Vanessa and the children at the boat and we had a good play time. Esther had two lots of antibiotics on Thursday and by Friday morning she was a lot better. oddly though, when I phoned for the result of the urine sample on Friday they said that she didn't have an infection but I was not convinced as the antibiotics have clearly worked and so I am going to give her a 5 day course and see what happens.

On Friday we had school, gym class and then Dub dub! it was a busy day but it was fun! In the afternoon we just stayed at home and played and did some jobs and things and it was good!

Yesterday we went shopping in the morning and then went to Maddie's party in the afternoon; it was a good party and the girls enjoyed it very much! Today we had lunch with Melinda and Chad on the spur of the minute and then had a great time at a lovely park near church that we shall definitely revisit! We have had a better day today as yesterday we were all tired and the  girls were fractious but today has been much better!

Well, that is it for now! Keep well! 

Vancouver with Helen and Niels

Hello again! Hope that you enjoyed yesterday's blog and that you are waiting expectantly for today's!!

So, on Thursday we had a quiet morning at home after Helen and Niels left to collect their hire car. In the afternoon we met up with Maddie and Alex at the park and had a damp but great time! Later that evening, Tim met up with James for a meal out whilst I did the ironing.

It was our intention on Friday to set off around 10:00 as it can get very busy at the border but unfortunately, Tim really didn't feel well (something he ate the night before I expect!) and so it was nearer 11:30 before we finally set off. To make matters even later, we had to go via Microsoft to collect Tim's wallet and then I made a couple of wrong turns (I really had no idea what I was doing on Friday!) and so it was quite late before we really got going. However, we made it to Vancouver around 5:00 pm which wasn't too bad and we had already stopped on the way to stock up on teabags and chocolate as well as milk and bread that we needed for the weekend.

We really liked the hotel that we stayed in. We had a suite with a bed in a separate room as well as a pull out sofa bed for the girls. We had a fully kitted out kitchen too, which was great and so we were able to have breakfast and tea in the room each day. Helen and Niels had a room 2 doors down but they didn't have any kitchen facilities. It was in downtown Vancouver and you could walk every where, which was great. I would definitely stay there again.

On the Friday night, the girls took forever to go to sleep. I was really cross with them! Naomi said in the morning that they were talking for so long because  they were fascinated! Great!! They actually slept really well once they were asleep and didn't wake up very early so in fact they weren't too tired or grumpy, which was good! They were better on Saturday night although they decided that they would swap sides once they had got into bed, which confused us!

We had a slow start on Saturday morning. Niels and Helen had been to the comedy club the night before and so they were not around very early. Niels and the girls played a great game of hide and seek which was very impressive given the difficulty of finding different places to hide. At some point during the game, we had pretended that we could hear a cat meowing, so the girls were pretending to be cats that were hiding. Niels at one point escaped to hide in their room, and then phoned our room and said "meow" to the girls when they answered it ! It was extremely funny and had us all in giggles!! Anyway, after this game, the girls were then playing a game of "Housekeeping" which involved them knocking on either our door or Helen's door and calling "Housekeeping!". They thought this was great but the real housekeeper was extremely confused! Naomi was desperate to hang the door sign onto the door knob to let the housekeeper know that she could come and make up the room and was very proud of herself when we finally said that she could!

It was (unsurprisingly) very very wet in Vancouver on Saturday but we tried to brave it anyway. In hindsight we should have gone to the Aquarium but there was supposedly some Celtic festival going on in honour of St. Patrick's Day which we thought would be fun to see but it was so wet that they had decided not to open. In the end we took a trip on the Sky train and visited this brilliant place for the children. It had separate themed rooms including Dora, Bob the builder, princesses and an enormous Thomas area. The girls loved it and we tried to persuade them to open one near here!

In the evening, Tim and I had a delicious meal out, whilst Helen and Niels looked after the children. On Sunday, the weather was better and we went to watch the St. Patrick's  Day parade which was fun! We like parades! Esther was not keen on the clowns or the large foam characters though and burst into tears whenever any came down the road. This was actually quite often, which was a shame!! She enjoyed the dancing and the musicians though!

We had slow journey home for a variety of reasons and so weren't home very early. However, the children slept well last night and so have been OK. Yesterday, I let Naomi have the morning off school as it was the last day that Helen and Niels were going to be here and also because I was full of cold and not functioning very well! We all went to buy a camera for Niels in the morning and then Naomi went to Ballet in the afternoon, which Helen enjoyed watching and it gave Niels a chance to try out his new camera!

Silas is nearly rolling over! He has landed on his tummy once or twice but doesn't then know what to do with his arms! He is so mobile though and especially now that he can reach stuff when he rolls I am already having to be really careful about what is around him. I am thinking about whether I need to barricade either him or the girls in somehow to stop him eating or choking on the little playmobile pieces. The girls adore the playmobile people and play with them continually but they do come with lots of little bits!

Silas has also progressed to eating home made purees this week which he loves and today had a lunch (carrot) and a tea (apple). He has had a shocking cold (like me) and has been very bunged up. He has been hungry as he is finding it hard to breathe and feed and so has been filling up on solids a bit more I think.

He was very sweet this evening and is starting to giggle, which is a lovely sound! He and Naomi have a special relationship and it is great! They are all lovely though! Silas slept this morning for 3 hours 20 minutes!! I was astonished and then he didn't sleep any more for the rest of the day! I hope it was a one off though as it stopped us doing anything this morning!

Well, that is about it for now; I will write as normal I hope on Sunday! Until then, lots of love to you all!

Naomi goes commando

Hi! Welcome from Seattle and Helen sends her sincere apologies for keeping me occupied so that there hasn't been a blog entry for over a week! It has been a busy and fun week and I am sorry to say Goodbye to Helen and Niels in the morning. They are off early so they have said goodbye to the children already and I hope that I am up early enough!

As you can imagine, we have done loads and so there is a lot to write about! I shall try and finish it tonight but if not, I shall write it in stages! Last week, we did local things until Thursday when Helen and Niels then collected their car and went a bit further a field. We then all went up to Vancouver on Friday for the weekend.

Helen and Niels went to Seattle for the day on Monday on the bus as the children and I had our usual activities. They bought the girls some very pretty hair elastic bands that had long ribbons and netting attached to them. The girls then loved wearing them and enjoyed playing at getting married (to Uncle Niels) over and over again!

On Tuesday we all went to Discovery Park for a picnic, but it was bitterly cold and windy and we didn't stay too long. We then went to Quest for a cup of coffee which was fun. Helen and Niels were meeting their friends in Redmond around 5 ish and I had agreed to take them to their meeting place. As we were a bit early, I took Helen and Niels to Idylwood Park first and the girls had a great play for half an hour.

It was very funny watching Esther and Naomi playing in the park with Uncle Niels. Esther would say to him "say raaagh" and Niels would chase her! I am not sure which was funnier, either Niels chasing the girls saying "raaagh" or watching Esther chase Uncle Niels saying "raaagh!"

Unfortunately, our journey took significantly longer then it should have done and we were very late in meeting their friends. It also meant that I wasn't going to get home for ages so in the end I bought the children a meal for them in Whole Foods which they enjoyed. I bought Silas a small pot of pear puree which he thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, he was very cross when I stopped feeding him! It was the first time he had had anything other than rice so it was a big day for him!.

Whilst the children were eating, a lady came up to me and said "let me meet the other Silas". I was astonished! I asked her what she meant and it turns out that her baby son (born in mid November) was also called Silas! I couldn't believe it! I never thought I would meet another Silas!  I think the lady thought that Silas might be the next hip name! I hope not!!

On Wednesday, Naomi went to school in the morning and the rest of us had a relaxing morning.  When we got home we all webcammed Mum and Dad and, after lunch, Naomi came up to me and said "Mummy, I don't have any knickers on!" I was a bit puzzled as she had her tights on and so she obviously hadn't just taken both off. Eventually we worked out that she had gone to school without any knickers on and had just worn her tights to school. It was very funny and we were all laughing, although poor Naomi buried her head in my lap as she was embarrassed! I was surprised as she doesn't usually forget and I couldn't understand how we managed to put the tights on without noticing!

In the afternoon we went into Bellevue Square. Helen and Niels did some shopping whilst the girls played on the boat for a while. Helen and Niels stayed on for a while and I took the children home for tea! Poor Helen and Niels had a slow journey home on the bus though!

We have had a major break through for Esther this last week. We had read in a magazine that the soya milk is not so good for children as it doesn't give them enough calcium and that if the child is allergic to ordinary milk, then to try lactose free cows milk. We have been giving it to her on cereal and we can now use it in sauces and she has been fine; no reaction at all! She still prefers the soy milk to drink as she likes the taste ( it is vanilla flavour and sweeter than ordinary milk) but it is great to have a ordinary option!

One final story to end this chapter with, the first weekend that Helen and Niels were here, they nearly got moved on outside Starbucks in Seattle! They were waiting for me as I was getting a drink for us all and they were waiting with the children, sitting on the ledge. The security officer came and tried to move them on but Helen refused, saying that they were waiting for me in the shop! The lady backed down but I was surprised that she thought that anyone with 3 small children could be called loitering!

Will finish the rest off tomorrow! Until then ...

Helen and Niels ...

Hello! Helen and Niels are here! Hooray!! I picked them up on Friday night and it is lovely to see them! Their plane arrived on time and so we were home about 10:30, which was good, especially as then we sat up and talked for ages!!

Yesterday we went to Snoqualmie Falls as one of the things that they hadn't managed to do on the East coast was to see Niagara Falls. We had a good walk and the children managed to walk down and up the very steep gradient very well. The hardest part was the stairs as you start on your way back up the hill to the carpark, after that the girls were fine. We then drove into Snoqualmie to see the trains and to have a cup of coffee in the book store, which was fun! Silas enjoyed being in the carrier forward facing with Daddy and Esther and Naomi collected sticks, catkins and pine leaves on the way up. Niels and Helen were great at helping the children up the hill!! They both walked all the way though, so that was great!

In the evening, Melinda and Chad came round for dinner as it was the only chance that we were going to all have to do it! We had a great fun evening but are tired today as the clocks went forward one hour last night and so it was suddenly 12:20 when we went to bed!

The girls and I didn't get up for church this morning (their body clocks definitely were not on pacific summer time!) but Tim did. The rest of us met him in Seattle this afternoon. We went to the Bodies Exhibition which is where the real bodies have been preserved to show the organs, blood vessels, bones and muscles. It was very interesting, you could see the nerves, the blood vessels and areoli in great detail. The girls enjoyed it and were fascinated to see the parts of the body in side that they don't normally see. Naomi was keen to see the heart and Esther was fascinated by all the belly buttons and preceded to show me hers! She was also fascinated by the fact that they all had "wee wee's like Daddy and Silas" and was confused as to why they didn't have any clothes on!

Still, it was an interesting experience for them and they were not at all fazed by it. They were very good and, tempting though it was to touch, they did refrain from touching the bodies!! It was good to be able to show them things like the heart, the brain and the stomach for example and to talk about what each bit of the body did. Once it was clear that the girls had had enough, I took them and Silas downstairs to the foyer and they had a snack and we read stories for a while, until the others had finished looking round. It was very busy and very hot and to be honest, I think we all felt better once we had left the exhibition room.

It was quite late once we got in and the girls watched the end of 101 Dalmatians (with Glen Close) which they enjoyed very much!

Tomorrow Helen and Niels are going to go to Seattle on the bus and the girls and I are going to do our usual thing. Hopefully we will go out somewhere on Tuesday and after school on Wednesday but I am not too sure where as the weather is terrible here at present!

The end of last week was fine; the girls and I went to the little zoo on Thursday morning with Vanessa and the children. Poor Esther was being very brave and feeding the Alpaca by herself until it bit her fingers. She was not hurt, mainly shocked but it did upset her, poor thing. We went to see the parrots and the macaws which cheered her up as one of the macaws were playing peekaboo! In the afternoon a new girl came to play with the girls whilst I did some clearing up in preparation for Helen and Niels' arrival! On Friday it was school and music class as usual.

Silas is fine and rolled over from his tummy to his back this morning for the first time! I shall have to see whether he does it again or whether it was a one off! He is smiling and chuckling at us a lot now and both Helen and Niels have had some lovely cuddles with him. He has been sitting in his bumbo to eat his baby rice which I think has gone down well but yesterday he blew his rice at me, which was not so good! He has certainly enjoyed the attention that is for sure!

Anyway, that is all for now - I probably won't write for a few days as we are off to Vancouver on Thursday and will need to pack!! Hope that you are all well!

Friends!

Hello! Hope that this finds you all well! We are fine here! There is not too much news, so far this week, so I expect that this will be quite brief. On Monday we did our normal things but it was a hard day. Esther was in a major difficult mood - no idea why! - and she drove me and Naomi mad all day! She tormented Naomi whenever she could and then threw a wobbly in Safeway! Ah well, she has improved over the last 2 days! Today she was lovely so that was good.

In fact, the girls were brilliant this afternoon at working together to do a jigsaw. I was playing with Silas and was watching them at work and they were really good. I was very impressed! Silas is hungry a lot at the minute, especially in the early afternoon. He has fed and fed then and gets cross because there isn't as much milk as he would like! I think there is enough but he will be better when he is on 3 solid meals I think! I need to try and make some purees for him over the weekend so that he can have something other than baby rice! 

yesterday we had a busy day; we went to the bouncy place with Naomi's friend, Riley and his sister, which was fun! The children enjoy being together which is nice and I get on well with their Mum! After lunch we went to the park with Fritzi, Caitlin and the boys. we have a new member, a lady called Cyndi who has a daughter called Midori and a son called Noah. Midouri is Esther's age but they haven't really cottoned onto each other yet!

Today we were going to see Elisabeth and Amy but Amy has hurt her back and we were unable to go. This afternoon we had Naomi's school friend over for a couple of hours, which was fine, but I found her mother harder to talk to and there were long gaps in the conversation! I was glad that Silas was there!!

Esther was chatting and chatting this evening and eventually I said to her that for someone so small, she talked a lot and she looked at me and said "I know Mama"! Honestly! She really does have an answer for everything! Naomi  also manages to make the retelling of an event longer than the even itself, which is quite funny and remembers things so long ago that my brain has to work very hard to keep up with her sometimes!! Esther dropped her juice the other day and said "figgle ticks!!" It was very funny!

Well, that is about all! We are eagerly awaiting Helen and Niels on Friday night and are looking forward to them staying for a while! We are off to Vancouver next weekend, which will also be fun!

Olympic Sculpture Park

Hi! How are you? We are fine and have enjoyed some definite warmer weather this weekend, which has been great! Spring is in the air! Hope it is for you too!

We had a lovely quiet day on Thursday after our busy start to the week. We woke up  to a sprinkling of snow on the rooftops and the grass but it was soon sunny although cold. I took the children to the little zoo, which was fine but I was disappointed to find how few animals were out and visible, once we got inside. It was obviously too cold for most of them  but there was nothing to indicate this before we went in. Never mind., the girls enjoyed feeding the Alpacas and Silas was watching the animals.

After lunch on Thursday we went to the Liquor Store, which I don't like and certainly don't like taking the children into. I have only been in it twice since moving here and wanted to buy some Raspberry liqueur for a recipe I was making on Friday night. Both times I have been in,  the other customers clearly dislike the children and they are an odd bunch of people anyway!! However, it is the only way to purchase something like that (you can buy beer, cider and wine without having to go in!) and so my only choice was to omit it from the ice cream I was making and I didn't wish to do that!

Once we finished there, the children and I went down to they toy shop to buy a birthday present for a little girl who turns one next week. The lady in the shop greeted me like  a long lost friend which made me think that I had spent rather too much money in the shop this year!! The children enjoyed playing whilst I chose and bought the present. As it was a lovely afternoon we had a short wander around the village before hading home.

On Friday, Naomi had school and Ester had music class, which she enjoyed. After school, we went to Ulrike and Fritizi's for lunch we was fun for a  couple of house. In the afternoon I did some preparation for a romantic dinner that I was cooking for Tim that evening. I had seen the recipes in the Sainsbury's magazine and fancied recreating it for us! It was a very tasty meal with a delicious dessert that was extraordinarily easy! Basically, it is just raspberries mixed with liqueur mixed into vanilla ice cream and it is delicious!

Yesterday we spent the day with Victoria, James and the children. We had a lovely day an it was great to see them after so long! Today, after church we visited the Olympic Sculpture Park with Chad which was fun. we spent ages in the building that holds a "nursery log" which is basically the trunk of a  fallen down tree that has been housed for us to be able to enjoy. Much to the ladies disgust, I lifted up a couple of stones to reveal bugs to show to the children. I was re-directed to a tray for such exploration only to have a good hunt and find nothing! At least when we had looked in the real thing, the girls and I had found several little bugs very quickly!!

Naomi was funny in the week. We had been out in the afternoon and when we returned to the car, she said to me "Is it lunch time now?" I had to explain that we had had lunch and that it was in fact tea time!She thought it was very funny! They were both finny the other day though, as they were playing at "power outage : and were living in my laundry room that has no windows with their chairs and their babies!

Silas has learnt to blow bubble and has been laying in his cot or car seat blowing them merrily at us hm!

Well that is all the news for now and I am going to bed!