babyblog

Love/Hate

Having a tricky relationship with my house.

Hate the mess. Hate the lack of finished-ness of it. Hate the lack of space as a result of the lack of finished-ness. Hate the bathrooms/kitchen. Hate the heat in the afternoon coming through the windows. Hate the fact I can't walk without having to go up a giant hill to get anywhere (or back). Hate the tarantulas. Hate dusting/cleaning the new wood floor all the time.

Alternatively love the fact I'm 30 seconds in the car from civilisation (and good civilisation at that). Love the location. Love D's school. Love the utility bills! Love the view. Love the greenery. Love the new round-the-corner leather sofa. Love the boys bedrooms.

Some days I feel quite blue about the whole thing. Others I feel really good about it. Hopefully this will all settle down at some point in the not too distant future and find a happy medium. A friend was bemoaning today the fact that she felt isolated (she's out further from town in a place where one could almost afford the Canada style house but be stuck in sub-division land with not much going on, and far from 'life') and I felt alot better about this location.

A combined gas and electric bill of $80 (read it and weep Canuck friends!)

They brainwash them early

As well as learning the Pledge of Allegiance and saying it every day at school, Dylan came home yesterday telling me how 'a long time ago before you were born, Mummy, England were bad guys and they had a war with America, and they tried to capture the flag, but America won, and now England are our friends'.

I told him to tell the teacher they deserved it.

A load of rather scary books by Tess Gerritson

If I'll feel Homesick when I go home for Christmas

Dusting the wood floor, endlessly

The way Harry nods whenever I ask him a question - as if he knows what I'm asking

Harry - 14 months

Dude!

You seemed to have changed no end over the last month, it's quite phenomenal to observe how a little guy can grow so much over a few short weeks. Last month you were just learning to crawl, this month you're standing up ALL THE TIME. You love to stand. You stand up against tables, chairs, sofa's, kitchen cupboards, me, the TV, basically anything that will support you. You've begun to inch your way along things too...just a couple of steps but you're getting the idea.

When standing you enjoy getting your hands on anything within arms reach, or alternatively shouting for anything which is not. You also delight in emptying cupboards and drawers, oh and standing up dangerously in the bath full of water, trying to reach toys on the outside.

You've had / got a bit of a cold at the moment and sleep is proving challenging, day time especially. I'm trying to get you to nap later in the day else you will happily sleep from 9am to 12 noon and then struggle through the afternoon without a rest. Which is exhausting for you and me both. As I type you're in bed, shouting in protest at being put down for your nap... go to sleep!

You've taken an interest in Boohbah this month and also in Teletubbies. We have recorded a few on to the DVR so that if we need you to have some quiet time, you will sit still and watch..... well that's the theory. In practise your interest maintains for about 10 minutes :-)

We also started a Kindermusik class at the Pro Club which you *love*. I have a suspicion that you may have inherited a few of your mothers musical genes (as opposed to your tone deaf brother!) because you love nothing more than to sway to the music or shake instruments in time with the beat. You certainly take more interest than the other children in the class do. Of course the challenge with you is when it comes to giving those instruments back.... oh the protesting.

The other thing that has happened this month is an awakening of that part of your brain which develops language. OWWW sounds in particular. You comically repeated the word 'towel' after me the other day, typical that your first word is something obscure! But you're babbling all the time with some lovely noises and trying to speak to us, it's great!

Anyway, you're still not sleeping so I am going to go, cheeky chappy, and try to convince you that sleep is a good idea for tired babies.

Love you lots

Mummy xxxx

Unclean

I've got some kind of nasty virus. It started a couple of weeks ago with my feeling utterly exhausted all of the time. Then I got a kidney infection. Then my finger got infected and started oozing green pus. Then I got a sore throat and a fever. Then my toe got infected and started oozing green pus! All in all incredibly run down and messed up. I finally went to the DR and he said it was some kind of Staph infection and prescribed antibiotics. I'm starting to feel a little bit better, yesterday and today I woke up not feeling as though I needed another 10 hours sleep although by mid afternoon yesterday I was thoroughly exhausted again and fell asleep on the sofa at 8.30pm.

Basically the whole thing is probably to do with the stress of moving, becoming run down without realising it, my body objecting to it all even though emotionally I've felt pretty good about the whole thing. Still, antibiotics will work and I will be back to normal (whatever normal is or was!) shortly, I'm sure.

In other news, D is loving school alot, he's doing exceptionally well so far. The teacher has noticed his 'outstanding and phenomenal' reading ability and is testing him with an Accelerated Reader programme which Dylan is loving and has apparently 'gone mad for'...... he's just done 4 tests so far but got 5/5 in a Grade 3.6 test so will be moving upward from that again. He's also playing football (soccer) weekly, with games on Saturdays, and doing really well. He's not the star player on the field by any means but he's dogged determined to be with the ball and his footwork and dribbling skills are coming on no end. He's also grasping the concept of passing to another team member and is really doing well out there. His obesssion with next door neighbour continues, as does it vice versa. We (the parents) are pleased to encourage it.

Harry grows and grows, stands all the time, is inching his way along furniture and is a terror of the highest order, into EVERYTHING. His favourite activity is to trash Dylans bedroom. He's loving Teletubbies and BoohBah in the morning, and is very noisy and shouty. I have to organize some new clothes for him from the bag of 18-24 mths downstairs because hes' pretty much grown out of all the stuff we have up here!

On the DIY front - G has finished the laundry floor and it looks excellent. Still a couple of small things to do but otherwise it's brilliant. We're now starting on drywalling the downstairs playroom..... gulp!

Home for Christmas

Decided, while in the shower this morning, that it would be nice to be at home for Christmas this year. We haven't done that, since emigrating. We have made lots of new Brit friends here most of whom seem to be going home, but mostly I think Christmas in a strange new world is difficult unless you've got strong friendships so it'll be nice to get some TLC from the family. Also, I think it'll be lovely for the boys, they'll be spoiled (I hope!) by family members, and H in particular is changing so quickly that I want them to see him. We end up with 3 whole weeks back home... flights were booked shortly after getting out of the shower. Should be fun!

All's quiet on the blogging front

I keep meaning to write more so that I can look back one day on what the whole emigrating process was actually like (once time and memory put a rosy tint on the whole thing), but I'm just too damn busy surviving to do it.

Steve, if your'e reading this, did you get my email thanking you (belatedly) for my birthday present? I sent it yesterday after finding it in a box, in a box, in the garage, unopened!

Hard week

It's been a long tough week in many ways. Firstly obviously the house has been alot of work and we still haven't scratched the surface. I feel completely overwhelmed by the amount which needs doing. The bathrooms need replacing QUICKLY because they're just scuzzy, the kitchen needs replacing QUICKLY because the inside of the cupboards smell like old people (and the outsides are ugly), the laundry room smells like cat piss which is peculiar becaus ethe previous owner didn't have cats but it looks like we might need to rip up the floor and re-do it. There is mess and boxes everywhere. We havent' even begun to look downstairs, where probably a thousand boxes reside in rooms which you can't even enter due to the volume of unpacked shit. The hot tub thermostat is fucked and it's either too hot or too cold, and the smell of cholorine occasionally wafts upstairs (going to have to switch to a chlorine free version of the chemicals) if the door is left open, which combined with the smell of cat piss is depressing me in a big way. Basically we're cramped in on the one level at the moment and I am feeling the strain.

Dylan started school this week. He's had a shit summer, poor guy, with moving constantly around and not having anyone of his age to play with. He was very nervous about his first day as we lined up outside with all the other parents and children waiting to go in. The school is fantastic, brand new, big, lots of facilities, lots of money, lots of amazingly good teachers, lots of very interested and involved parents. One feels bad showing up half asleep in scruffy clothes when the other mothers are kitted out in their pre-gym flashy clothes or their gucci's, may actually have to brush hair in the morning from now on. Dylan cried in the line up to go in but soon overcame it as the teacher encouraged him to come into the classroom. He had a good time and played with the boy from next door at the various recesses, and got his own (healthy) lunch at the cafeteria which costs us 2 bucks a day but beats making packed lunches any day. He's soon settled in and seems to be enjoying himself. Not sure what the level of the students is at this stage there but hopefully he'll be challenged.

I've been out with friends a few times this week, at least, to alleviate the stress of the move. That's been fun. I find I am missing the ease of the street in Canada, missing the swarm of kids that Dylan could play with every day, probably because I'm feeling a bit daunted by all of this at the moment. I think the whole 'I just emigrated' thing is finally beginning to settle in. I do feel mostly positive, I just miss the known rather than having to combat the unknown every day. I also miss my canadian big, new built & easy to maintain home. Dylans happy mind you, he's over next door at the moment and wants to play with Philip every day as soon as he gets home (and does!). Harry is also settling into his new home, likes his new bedroom ( the boys rooms are all we have finished so far) and seems happy.

Aside from that all, it's been good. Except for Hurricane Katrina which I've been following with some horror on CNN over the last couple of days. Here's hoping those people are going to be rescued from the appalling situation they are in currently and that the American govt. gets off it's arse and helps them.