In other news ….

….. we are on the move again. Just over 3 years to the day from arriving in Canada we will be packing up our house and leaving our lovely friends behind to live in California. Diesel has been offered a really exciting new opportunity at Head Office and in the current economic climate we would be mad to turn it down.

I’m hoping that this piece of news will explain my lack of posts recently …. my life is a constant round of house viewings and various different phonecalls to do with the relo. Supposedly we have a relo consultant but frankly I just think that makes everything so much harder.

My 5 minute sneak off has just been shattered by Graces wailing so I had better go downstairs and find out what Patrick has pressed on the television!

Its bleak outside

Looking out of the window now I could be in England. It is wet, it is windy and despite the fact that the temperature is 6 degrees it feels cold. Not -20 cold but damp cold that gets into your bones – yuck! That said I am not too bothered as we are off on our holidays on Friday and looking forward to spending a week in the sun in Florida. It feels slightly strange sorting out summer clothes and suntan lotion but we are all really looking forward to it.

We have had an enormous amount going on in the first part of this year and it probably won’t let up until May / June so the timing is perfect. This term seems to have been the hardest for Grace too. Its been long, very cold and we’ve spent alot of time indoors which is something that my children don’t really enjoy. They are outdoor kids and our trips to the park recently have been really appreciated by everyone.

This term has been very successful for Grace personally and she has really turned a corner. Her teacher and I have put in alot of effort but we can see the rewards in her growing circle of friends and her ability to now hold her own in groups in the classroom. Never boys though – interesting how that stereotype has started early! She has lots of playdates with her new friends and it is cute to see how affectionate they are with each other. She is still very creative and will make up stories with her stuffed animals and barbies – yep Barbies, her new friends have introduced her to them and Polly Pockets. I don’t mind the Barbies too much but the Polly Pockets have the smallest shoes – I’m sure Patrick has eaten some already!

Patrick has settled down at nursery much better although the other day they did talk to me about the trouble that he has with transitions. Basically, he gets so engrossed in what he is doing that he doesn’t like it when they tell him to down tools and move on to the next thing. I think its just him so am glad that he goes to nursery so that he can practice this stuff before he starts big school proper. We can see at home that he does get completely absorbed in whatever he is doing – painting, playing cars / trains or doing puzzles. I certainly don’t want to take away from his long attention span – mostly because it allows me to get things done when he and I are alone together!

I am also happy to report that we have been pretty healthy with only a couple of minor sniffles. We are almost out of cough and cold season so lets hope our week in the sun builds up our reserves to get through the last couple of months.

Its all in the words

Things are changing in the Dempster household as we race ever further away from life with two babies.  Patricks speech is going from strength to strength. I have to say that mine is better, he has worked out that I am a good student and if he points to something enough times then eventually I will say what it is! That aside, his favourite book is Old Macdonald and he loves to have you sing the song and then he tells you which animal is on the page. Interestingly he is not one for single word answers and so will say “its a cow” “its a sheep” etc.

So whilst Patrick has started saying more words Grace has started reading them. She has been exposed to reading books since she started school but only really started to show an interest after christmas. As is Graces way that meant that she picked it up really quickly and she is rattling through the site words and reading simple sentences. Mum bought her a collection of books at christmas and she loves to read them before bedtime. Of the 12 books she is up to 8 already and very keen to finish them. I find it interesting to watch how she learns, especially how much of it at this stage is memory and pattern based. She reads the words in her books but struggles to read the same words in a different setting.

The increase in words and spelling has made us laugh too. If we want to say something in front of the kids I have become quite quick at spelling out the words. Unfortunately now you can see Grace trying to work it out. The other day I was reprimanded when she told me “Mummy, if you speak like that then no-one will understand you!” Fun times.

As today is Valentines we have already started with pink smarties and mini rolos. Sadly, neither are for me but I’m sure Mr Dempster will be coming down the stairs with an enormous bunch of flowers any minute ………….. okay, so maybe I won’t hold my breath!

Ear Ear

Patrick had his tubes inserted on Wednesday. As you can imagine this caused much concern in the Dempster household although only from Mummy! After what felt like a million pre operative appointments and a couple of pre pre operative ones we were all set to go. I knew the procedure would take less than 15 mins, I had been prepared to expect an IV (erghhh) and I would have to give Patrick nil by mouth from 7am that morning. I can tell you categorically that was the worst part of the whole day. Diesel was away and I had to get Grace fed and off to school whilst starving Patrick, it didn’t go well. The worst point was when he just lay on the kitchen floor in front of the cheerio cupboard and sobbed. Once we’d got Grace to school things calmed down and I managed to distract him until we had to leave for the hospital.

At the hospital he was the star of the show. He is such an entertainer and had a smile for all the old ladies waiting for cateract operations. We met with a nurse to get him admitted and I’m ashamed to say that some of my fears rubbed off on Patrick as he bacame very quiet and then screamed and wriggled when they tried to do his obs. I did manage to get him undressed and into his gown and the nurses all came out to say how cute he looked.

I walked him down to the operating room and handed him over to the theatre nurse. Obviously he was not best pleased and the walk back to the waiting room felt very long, but true to her word the Dr was out within 15 minutes to tell me she had finished. I was allowed to go and see him in recovery and although he was a little distressed he quickly calmed down when I got him and I spent a very familiar 20 minutes cuddling him and listenning to all the beeps and noises of the machines.

Less than 90 minutes after the Op we were on our way home and he has continued to surprise us ever since. His hearing is clearly improved and his speech is getting better day by day. He has had a couple of funny moments in the last few days and seems to be joined at the hip to me but then Daddy has been away and things have been a bit strange so I guess its not surprising.

All in all a worthwhile process we think especially as he never ended up with that needle!

Blink and you’ll miss it.

At least thats how I feel about 2009 so far. Whew, this feels like the first time I have had 5 minutes to sit and update this.

Christmas was fun again this year although slightly marred by illness. Grace got sick on the last day of school and almost missed her concert but she rallied and we were really proud of her. I was quite expecting her to just stand on the stage and do nothing but as it was she was really excited and hopped up onto the stage with her friend Alana. She ended up standing in the centre of the stage and sang the whole song even adding a little leg action during the arm movements. All things considered I think she enjoyed her first term at school but was certainly ready for a rest.

Both children really enjoyed Christmas and seemed to really appreciate all of there presents. It was a bit much for Patrick coming so soon after his birthday and I have hidden away some of his things to bring out later in the year. We spent some lovely times with our friends and generally chilled out as a family – it was great.

2009 started at speed and I’m still trying to catch a breath. Grace went back to school on the 5th and although she was a little reserved after the break she seems to be settling backin now. Patrick had his ENT consult and we were shocked by his hearing test as he really couldn’t hear us at all. Especially me as I speak too low. (Diesel made a very uncharitable comment about how lucky he was ………….) Anyway,  this hearing test and his history of ear infections has won him a set of tubes in his ears. They had space in January and even though Diesel is away alot we decided that the sooner the better so he goes in on the 21st. It is a very simple procedure and he will only be put out with gas so I am not too worried. My main concerns are the food and drink deprivation pre surgery and how the poor little chap will cope with all the noise in our house when he gets home.

Diesel is also travelling 3 weeks out of the 4 this month. He is on his way back from Victoria, BC at the moment. Will be downtown for 2 nights next week and then in Thousand Oaks for the majority of the following week. Its been a while since he had a schedule like this and Grace had a tough day on Tuesday. She seems to be back with me now but I’m sure will be very pleased to see him later. The weather has been particularly cruel to me this week with alot of snow shovelling and now 2 days of -18 temperatures. It was so cold on the walk to school yesterday that my eyelashes froze. You should try it – its quite an experience!

Happy Birthday Patrick

So our big, bouncy, smiley baby boy turned 2 on Tuesday. I’m guessing that means that the official end of infancy means that we can’t call him baby anymore – shame. If you saw him you would see that there isn’t very much of baby Patrick left, he really is a proper little boy. He had his 2 year check on Monday and still maintains the 75th percentile which means a whopping 29 1/2 lbs in weight. You certainly know about that when he throws himself at you! I am sorry to report that his height has levelled out and rather than being very tall he is now an average height. In terms of his development he is way ahead of where he should be physically but a little bit behind where he should be in terms of his speech. To be fair, we think that his numerous ear infections have contributed to this and have an appointment with an ENT specialist in January to discuss tubes and a referral to the speech therapy centre at some point next year.

He is still a contented little chap although we are seeing a bit more of his steely core, particularly when we try to get him to do something he isn’t keen on. He likes to run around and his Doctor commented on what a ‘busy’ little boy he is. He is extremely physical and likes to run, jump and play rough and tumble. It can be quite exhausting and I have picked up a niggly shoulder injury from our escapades which doesn’t ever seem to have time to heal!

His attention span to sit and read books and do puzzles suffers on occasion but build him a track or get out his cars and he will sit and play contentedly for hours. Just recently we have started to introduce him to his big boy bed and he loves the theatre of bedtime. He jumps into bed, pulls up his covers, tucks them neatly around him and then listens intently to his story. He is increasingly sleeping through the night and it is only when he gets cold that he wakes up. Interestingly (and I hope this doesn’t come back to haunt me!) he doesn’t wander during the night. When he gets up in the morning he will stay in bed and read his Thomas books for about 30 mins and only then will he come looking for us.

We had his birthday party at Balls of Fun which is his favourite place to play. It is perfect for busy boys, a large unit filled with a play structure and more balls than you have ever seen of all shapes and sizes. He loves it so much that he wasn’t keen to come in for snack time but felt better when the birthday cake came out. He LOVES you singing Happy Birthday to him. He trys to bury his head and look all shy but the cheeky grin gives it away. He doesn’t actually seem that interested in present openning, despite his sisters best efforts to show him what to do! What was inside interested him much more, although I have squirelled some things away to be bought out later in the year.

Whilst his temperament is quite balanced and independant he is also quite a sensitive little chap and loves cuddles with Mummy or Daddy. When he is sitting next to you he likes to be touching and will hold hands when we sit together on the couch.

After a blip caused by his constant illnesses nursery continues to go well for him. The reports I get are good and he comes home with lots of crafts and paintings which is nice. Markers are currently banned in our house due to Patricks delight in drawing on things other than paper and then biting the tops off the pens! He only goes to nursery 2 mornings and week but I think it has done him good in turns of building his independance. In September he was starting to get a little too attached to Mummy and nursery seems to have balanced that. I think it has also helped him to learn how to play and share with other children. His rather dominant big sister had given him the idea that just taking things and running was the only way to win, but nursery and our playdates are giving him the idea that others ways may be more productive. In saying that, he has no problem in standing up for himself and the other day Diesel had an interesting episode at the train table in the library when a bigger kid decided to pick on Patrick as an easy target. Apparently, Patrick just watched while the kids peeled the train out of his hand but then punched him square in the chest to get it back. Clearly, we are not delighted that he hit but pleased that he will stand up for himself, even with bigger kids.

In summary, it has been an interesting year for us getting used to having a little boy around. Balancing both of their very differents needs has at times been very challenging but I think we are just about holding our heads up.  Patrick is good fun, a very sweet, loving, cheeky and adventurous little chap.

Christmas is coming

Try as I might there is no escaping it. People here have had trees and lights up for weeks, I love christmas but cannot get my head around decorating before December. As the 1st is tomorrow and we have little intention of doing it today it looks like I will be able to stick to my guns. Last night we went to the official turning on of the christmas tree lights in Bronte which was really sweet. Not many people were out this year and the rather desperate plea by the head of the business association to ask us to go shopping probably tells you alot about the economy. Finally this week the Canadian PM admitted that we are also in recession. I have never seen as many sale bargains at Christmas before and I just hope that it doesn’t make the situation worse.

Despite our recent run of bad luck on the health front I am happy to report that we are all healthy at the moment. I am just hoping that this continues as I have to take Patrick for a hearing test in 2 weeks and they can’t do it if he has another infection. Now he is healthy he is back to really enjoying nursery and whilst I think he looks to be a bit of a handful the reports I get are positive and that he does everything they ask him to do. He seems to be taking more of an interest in arts and crafts and our display line is now full of his masterpieces rather than his sisters.

Grace has fully embraced the idea of christmas and will pretty much ask for anything she sees on the television. I tried to outsmart her the other day by pre-empting the ‘I would really like that from Santa’ when she commented – “Mummy, you can’t have everything you know!”. Its reasurring to know that at least she hears what I’m saying even if she doesn’t put it into practise.

The christmas tree lighting ceremony has nicely marked the start of our christmas calendar. We will all be going to the german christmas market in Kitchener next Saturday and then on Sunday it is the Amgen kids christmas party. I am hoping that the Santa photo will be as good as last years but that does require Patrick to sit still for more than 2 seconds which can never be guarenteed.

I have found a fabulous babysitter and so Diesel and I are gradually starting to get a social life which is fun. Grace really likes her which makes life alot easier although it is quite painful on the pocket adding $50 to your night out. For the first time this year we have actually been able to say yes to christmas party invitations at our friends so we are looking forward to that.

Having Patricks birthday in December does mean that I put Christmas on the back burner while I focus on that. We are having his party at Balls of Fun which is his favourite place to go mad. He actually has quite a few little friends his own age which is nice and he seems to be really into birthdays, cake and candles so I am really excited to see how he is this year. Fingers crossed that we don’t have the storm that we had last year!

The House of snot

Truely, it is unbelievable. I’m thinking I should count the number of boxes of tissues we have been through since September. Starting school for both Grace and Patrick was an event. My concerns were all around making friends, settling in, separation anxiety etc etc, what I hadn’t factored on was the amount of germs that these kids share. Patrick has been sick since he started school in September. We have had one weeks grace thanks to a dose of antibiotics but other than that the poor little chap has had a constant runny nose, cough and fever. It all came to a head this week and I got him into see his paed whose first words were – oh my goodness, he really isn’t well is he? Anyway, the constant ear infections have won him some more antibiotics and a trip to the hospital for a hearing test with the view that he may need to have tubes. I’m left wondering why there always has to be something with one or other of them? Because you have kids says my Mum!

Grace was also off school on Monday as the cold seemed to really take it out of her. I think she has been fighting it for so long that she just couldn’t any longer. Luckily she hasn’t developed a fever and so was back to school yesterday, albeit feeling a little sorry for herself!

So, its a rainy end to the week but Grace is slowly improving and Patricks antibiotics seem to be kicking in so lets hope they are both healthy for the Santa Claus Parade on Saturday and Daddys birthday on Sunday x

Happy Halloween

Of all the holidays that I never really thought I would embrace Halloween in Canada has been a real revelation to me. The ramp up starts in September which means that I have to be really careful about which shops I take Grace too as some of the decorations are really gruesome. In our house we very much go for the Disney take on Halloween and its all cheery pumpkins and animal costumes. This year I managed to wrestle Grace away from the pink unicorn (it is way too small for her now) and so she chose to be a giraffe. I did buy Patrick a Thomas the Tank engine costume but he didn’t really get the idea and kept ripping it off.

The kids were allowed to wear there costumes to school for the first part of the day and it was really funny (and quite interesting) watching them all line up. It was very easy to spot the kids without older siblings as they were dressed as Giraffes, cowboys, princesses, dinosaurs and firefighters. The ones with a more ‘worldly’ view went as vampire princesses, power rangers and some quite scary witches. It will be interesting to see how Graces view of Halloween dressing up will change next year. We all ent out trick or treating but Patrick only lasted 3 houses before I gave up and brought him home to man the front door. It wasn’t that he was scared or ran off, rather that he wanted to go into every house that we knocked on and then screamed the place down when I wouldn’t let him go in. He didn’t seem bothered about coming home and was instead quite happy to sort out his loot on the front steps. Grace didn’t stay out very long as I think she encountered one movement activity scary witch too many and decided to quite while she was ahead.

I continue to be intrigued by the number of children here that chew gum. Obviously, I haven’t lived in the UK for over 2 years now but when I left I’m sure that I didn’t see 4 year olds with gum in there mouths. This Halloween we have had buckets of the stuff. I’ve taught Grace that it isn’t a very nice habit and its bad for you so we just put it back in the bucket and the bigger kids get it. It set me to wondering though as to why gum is so bad so I looked it up. All the old wives tales from when I was a kid about it staying in your stomach for 7 years are false (clearly!) and there is even a study that says that some of it may prevent cavities as long as it is chewed for more than 20 times. I am left wondering if it is something that I may have to back down on in the future as I just don’t have a good enough reason other than the fact that I don’t like it. Maybe its the old ‘don’t talk with your mouth full’ rule but I do find it repulsive, especially with little kids.

Talking of the difference in cultures. One of Diesels colleagues was talking to a member of the US team who in his ignorance was telling him all about Halloween in the US, what the kids do and what a big deal it is. When he’d finished he asked if it was celebrated in the same way in Canada. Not one to tolerate fools Diesels colleague replied – “oh no, its much more for adults here. We just stand at the door and give out maple syrup and beer.” The american believed him too!

Muskoka ka ka

Phew time is flying almost as fast as Patrick can run! In the thick of school, nursery, gymnastics, sportball, mums group and playdates and my weeks are marching by at an amazing pace.

We have had Diesels parents with us for the last 2 weeks which has been lovely but also busy. We did get the time to take good advantage of our live in babysitters and managed to replace a tap, lay some flags, winterise the garden and go and look at some flooring and even squeezed in a night out. You know how much we adore our children but its only when you have help that you realise just how much you can get done when they are otherwise engaged.

We’ve done a bit of exploring in the last couple of weeks and finally went to the mennonite market at St Jacobs www.stjacobs.com. I have to say it wasn’t at all what I expected as rather than the mennonite crafts and produce that I had expected to dominate, they were all concentrated in one place and the rest was the usual market dross. We did go for a drive around to see the farms and saw lots of horse drawn carriages – shockingly, 1 had pneumatic tyres which we all agreed they didn’t have in the 1800’s!
Next off to Niagara on the Lake where Diesels parents spent a couple of days in a really lovely B & B which was the first house in the town and looked out onto Lake Ontario.

When I went to collect them we went over the border in the US and saw the Falls from the other side. I have to say, completely different from the Blackpool treatment that you get on our side. Instead its a rather nice park that you walk through to look at both of the Falls. The American being much more impressive up close than it is from across the river, still doesn’t top the horseshoe though. I never get tired of looking at it and hearing the sound of the water. Probably just as well, noting the number of times I’ve been in the last couple of years!
We really enjoyed Thanksgiving weekend which we kicked off with a stay at a cottage in Muskoka. We were so lucky with our timing as the fall colours where at there most vibrant. I guess its pretty well known how beautiful the fall is in Canada but I would truely recommend that you experience it. Firstly, you cannot imagine that the colours really exist in nature, Secondly, the contrast of colours in the trees for as far as you can see makes for an amazing landscape. It was a gorgeous sunny weekend and that just makes everything even better. I’ll post all the photos later and apologise if you get fed up of yet another tree. We tried (possibly unsuccessfully) to capture the beauty and majesty of it all.