My apologies, young man, for the lateness of this 22 month newsletter, but I have been a) busy and b) suffering somewhat with RSI and not so good with the typing!
This month has been the month of the babbling and the month of the asserting yourself.
There's hardly a minute of the day when you're not saying something these days. When walking along the street you're shouting happy sounds, laughing, running, and generally making everyone passing by smile. When at home you talk continually, stringing all the words you know together into unfathomable sentences which obviously mean something to you based on the tone of your voice but obviously make no sense to the rest of us, other than to make us smile! A typical day will see you walk around saying
'wowlookadatshoescoolwowcoolohyeahshoesbirdquackquackdylanmummmmmmmmmmmmmummmmmmmmball!ball!!ball!dat!dere!dere! on! (one) do! (two) be! (three) poor! (four) pive! (five) sick! (six) yeahhhhhcoolshoes' and suchlike. Or you'll come up to me with a very serious face and say 'Mum?' Yes Harry? 'ummmerrflavjewuoqwiueowqieuoiwuqe?'. Yes Harry. 'Ok!'
In the last week or so you've decided that bed is the enemy. With the exception of last night you've screamed bloody murder every time anyone tries to dare suggest that you should be in bed. This usually goes on until something like 10pm when you finally cave in and go to sleep. Exhausting, to say the least. The last two nights you've also woken up crying, this morning at 4.30am and deciding that you were getting up and that was that. Yawn.
We are also having the onset of the terrible twos screaming tantrums when anyone dare suggest that you do something that you don't want to do. Like have your nappy changed. Or get dressed. Or walk in a certain direction. Or not pull everything in the shop off the shelves. How long does this stage last again? :-)
It's a good job you're so cute really isn't it, because any screaming fits can easily be forgiven when you give me a big hug and kiss and ask for 'baby' (your favourite teddy) and give it a big snuggle. Or when you run up to me , arms flung wide, for a cuddle. Or when distraught, the only thing that can comfort you is flinging yourself into my arms and getting as much love as you can get to make you feel better. Or giving me a kiss when I ask for one.
Pretty soon you'll be turning 2, and I am struggling with that. I can't believe you're not my little tiny guy anymore and that you're this big person in your own right!
Love you, big man
K xxxx
We went to see 'Chicago' last night in Seattle. And I'm sorry Joanna, but I hated it! I struggled to stay awake! The set was static and uninspiring, the music equally so, and despite some good singing and acting it failed to move me at all. G felt the same, as did our friends. The highlight of the evening was going the pub afterwards.
This morning I am mostly exhausted. It's been a busy week socially (can't complain). I went out on Friday night with a bunch of girl friends to a couple of bars in downtown Seattle and got in very late. Last night we got in around 1am, and I've had to be up early to take the kids to their swimming lessons. Also, every minute of the week prior was also filled with activity with friends. Next week promises to be similar, and I'm constantly quite amazed by how hectic life has become since moving here, there never seems to be a minute to sit down and worry about having nothing to do. I am obviously not complaining about this!
I had a great weekend! On Saturday for my Mothers Day present we went and booked a 10 day vacation to Cancun, Mexico...... 10 days of lying on the beach and playing in the carribean sea.... woooooooooooooooooh!!! G and I worked out that the last time we went on a proper do nothing / relax beach holiday was 1997 so it's definitely long overdue. I cannot wait! Dylan is also very excited!
On Sunday (actual Mothers day) the boys presented me with cards. Dylan had made one at school which had a photograph of him in and was very lovely. Harry had 'made' one at the Pro Club Daycare, they had taken a photo of him and stuck it to a Mothers Day Poem about him, so sweet! G had also bought me a card and a massage with a Massage Therapist which I had last night - bliss!
We're having a heatwave here at the moment - it was 90 degrees yesterday and felt like an oven in the house upstairs. Today we are definitely investing in an air conditioner of some kind. It's phenomenally expensive to get it installed in your home here, something like $12,000. Most people go for window units or portable units, if they bother at all. It's weird because it is as hot as it was in Canada, and it is hot for a long time..... May-October, so I'm not sure about this 'you don't need it, it's not hot for long enough' mindset that seems to exist with most people who live here. It's bloody stifling! At least it's not humid though - which makes a huge difference.
We have discovered birds nesting in a small space in the roof of our living room. The ceiling is cut out to the roof (in a high V shape) so it's not an attic up there, just a small space. The babies have obviously just been born and are squawking for food constantly and they are VERY LOUD indeed. We see the Mum and the Dad popping in and out with food for them. I want rid but I can't bring myself to kill the little babies, but at the same time I am sick of the tweeting, so I have started leaving bread out on the deck - doh! I figure at least they'll be quiet if they're well fed. When they're old enough to fly away (a couple of weeks) we'll block up the hole.
We also seem to have bats on the roof. They're not nesting within the house, just in a crook by some siding in the chimney. Very strange sight at night with them circling around, not to mention very scary. I don't like them. They're harmless, apparently, but horrible. I'm told not to report them to anyone incase they're an endagered species because someone will come and put a protection order on them and then we'll have to declare them if we ever sell.
Bloody wildlife!
Meanwhile, Harry was ill over the weekend with a fever, and vomiting, and now seems to be left with the remnants of a cold. I have now got a fever and feel crap. Great.
I'm feeling pretty good with the change to Cymbalta, for those who were asking! I didn't have any negative side effects or withdrawal during the change over and I've certainly stopped with some of the nastier ones that the Zoloft gave me (sweating!).
I also feel alot happier in myself and positive, less resentful of things or people, and generally more relaxed and *human*. Hopefully this will continue!
I'm also feeling less lethargic - I have been doing a million things with the kids, going to various parks and taking them to all kinds of fun places during the days. Tomorrow night I'm out with friends too which I'm looking forward to.
Today I'm still with the remnants of a migraine that I gave myself yesterday by eating chocolate on an empty stomach. Having said that, my migraines have been significantly fewer and less frequent since I did a number of things to try to rid myself of them. Firstly I started taking magnesium supplements after doing some internet research which showed that women can get depleted levels of magnesium thus causing headaches. Secondly I cut down on sugar. I did give it up for a couple of weeks but it's been sneaking back in, bad me. Must give up again. Thirdly the Cymbalta is reported to help with some reports of headaches and pain - so it could well be related!
The last few weekends with G doing nothing in the way of DIY have been really great. We've been ensuring we all hae some excellent 'family time' and having alot of fun doing it. This weekend was no exception.
Typically, after being in the high 70's all week, it decided to be miserable and cloudy all weekend. Despite this we decided to check out 'Alki Beach', which is on Puget Sound in West Seattle. It's one of the summer hot spots, apparently, so we thought we'd have a drive and check it out, maybe getting some fish & chips for lunch. It was indeed very pretty with a fantastic view of the Seattle skyline and as it had stopped raining we decided to stop and have a play on the beach. Popped into a local shop and bought the kids a couple of cheap kites to fly and they had an absolute blast. Well, Dylan did. Harry was more interested in throwing stones into the sea (which later developed into a stone fetish which involved picking them up and throwing them at anything and everything including and not limited to the car, a restaurant window, and passers by).
The kite flying was great fun though - so much so that after a brief Fish & Chip lunch (British? Don't bother) we drove to the nearest Kite Shop where G inevitably had to spend an arm and a leg and buy a super duper stunt kite. We then drove down to 60 Acres, a park very close to our house, where you can fly all kinds of things - including kites - in some great winds as it's a valley with a bit of a wind tunnel going through the center.
We spent a good hour or two there - Harry running wildly and happily through the fields, Dylan flying his kite with determination and glee, and me flying G's while demanding he pick it up and launch it for me every time I crashed it (often!).
We returned to the field on Sunday morning as the winds were high and had another couple of hours of fun before Harry's nap time. During this fun G managed to spiral spin his new expensive kite and hit the ground with such impact that it broke. After nap time we drove back to the shop to get it fixed :o) and picked me up yet another kite because I wanted one of my own (just a cheap diamond but with 2 strings so that I can do pretty loops!). Upon returning to the field unfortunately the wind dropped so I haven't been able to fly it yet! But what a great fun family activity. All enjoyed it - even little H who has a tiny kite of his own but mostly loves being outside and having space to run around.
As an aside, Saturday night was also fun. We have a couple of new friends who are so nice and have a similar take on life to us that we feel like we've known them forever! We went to dinner and then to see Mission Impossible 3, had a great time :-)
You know when you have a baby, your first baby, and it's all so exhausting and overwhelming? I for one think it gets harder as they get older. When they're small their needs are so simple for the most part but as they grow and develop strong personal preferences and personalities it becomes more & more of a challenge to know exactly how to handle every eventuality.
Harry is definitely into the Terrible Two's now. If he doesn't want to do something he's not backward in letting you know it. If you're trying to convince him to walk in a certain direction you get screaming tantrums, refusal to cooperate, sitting wherever he lands. If you take him in a shop and mistakenly not have him in a stroller he loves to show his disapproval by immediately removing the nearest shelf of everything it contains. We're also having some trouble at bed time currently. It started with the teething - the molars. They were hurting him and when he went to bed he would gnaw on his fingers and make them hurt more. We ended up bringing him out of his room for a cuddle and of course the inevitable has happened, he's now realised that he can protest about going to bed. Every night this week we've had screaming fits for at least an hour while he goes mental at the sheer audacity at the fact he's been put in there against his will.
Dylan meanwhile is into arguing. With *absolutely everything* that I say. From the simplest of things to the biggest debates, nothing I say is right and must be disagreed with. Sometimes quite clearly just for the sake of it! And on top of that nothing may be answered in any tone but a sullen or snappy one. I do lean towards the reasoning with him tactics but they take an awful lot of patience and it's extremely easy to find yourself angry and losing your temper if you're not careful. Similarly in the event that someon does lose their temper with him (usually after he's been asked to do something / not to do something 15 times and ignored us every one) he looks so hurt and distraught and as though he is unloved that it breaks your heart to see. Any advice from parents in similar situations would be greatly appreciated. How to deal with a 7 going on sulky teenage boy!??
In other less interesting news, Harry is now in a Stokke Kinderzeat at the dining table instead of the large cumbersome (golden) high chair that preceeded it. He likes it so much that he can sit at the table with the rest of the family, and the dining room has alot more space than it used to!
Dylan meanwhile has had glowing reports back from school after his handwriting and concentration levels have improved dramatically since we have been working on them at home and he seemed to make a concious decision to actually try!
G continues to be busy at work (grrr) and I am dropping subtle-as-a-brick hints that for Mothers Day I want to be 'surprised' with some vacation tickets for a much needed relaxing beach holiday!
Me - I'm muddling along. Medication wise I'm feeling OK and I've noticed some improvement in my general sense of wellbeing, in that I feel more 'alive' than I did. On the other hand my shin splints are killing me so I am definitely going to have to lay off the jogging for a while in favour of the elliptical trainer (ugh).
At the gym this morning I noticed a quite distinct difference when pounding the treadmill which I can only imagine relates to the medication change.
One of the side effects of the Zoloft has been *sweating*. Alot. All of the time. Horrendous, especially at the gym because as soon as I've exerted myself I've found myself drenched in sweat. Even if just walking somewhere. Or going inside from outside. Also, when I am sweating away like the proverbial pig on the treadmill, my heart is up in the 170's.
Anyway - today I sweated considerably less. Considerably less. And my heart got up to 160 tops. Big difference, not to mention much more comfortable.
Will see how it does Wednesday.