California

So here we are. After a very horrible last week in Canada spent with the movers packing up our home and then saying some very emotional goodbyes, we packed up our children and travelled to the land of fruit and nuts. We cleared immigration in Canada with no problems which meant that when we arrived we just went straight to the hire car. The children were amazing on the flight, Patrick slept most of the way and Gracie watched a movie. When you are 2 and 4 it is hard to take on the enormity of an international move. We have told the children that we are living in a holiday home initially and they seem to be okay with that idea – Grace especially as she is sleeping in a double bed at the moment. Luckily, our move coincided with Diesels company 4th of July shutdown and so he has been around all week which has been great. Our number 1 priority was to get the children settled and I think we have managed okay on that. Patrick was a bit iffy at first and struggled if he couldn’t see both his parents at the same time and Grace has made some comments about not having a real home and clearly she misses her friends very much. On a positive note though the appartment complex is really great and we have been making good use of the pool and gym facilities. Grace has surprised us again in the water and on the first time in the pool she was already swimming in her armbands on her own and happy to get her mouth under the water. To try and maintain this momentum I have booked her in for a 3 week course of swimming lessons which start tomorrow, if shes going to be a Californian girl then clearly she needs to be comfortable in the water.

Not ones to hang around we have also managed to find, put in an offer, and get it accepted on a new house – phew. We hadn’t really intended to buy one this quickly but decided to use some of the time whilst Diesel was off to do some hunting. The first one we saw we fell in love with, particularly as we never expected to find something in our price bracket that had already been remodelled. Unfortunately, the day after we viewed it someone else put in an offer so we were forced to act. Despite the fact that I am feeling a bit rushed I am delighted to have the house. It is walking distance to the school we had already enrolled Grace in, it has all the bedrooms upstairs (which isn’t common here) and the list goes on. We are due to close 4th August so will have plenty of time to decorate the childrens rooms and get them settled before Gracie starts school on 27th August.

As for this part of California – it is undeniably beautiful. There are mountains and fabulous views everywhere and just over the other side of the mountains is the Pacific – wow. The weather has been stunning this week, mid 20’s every day but no humidity and no bugs so it is lovely to sit outside.

We are all desperately sad to leave Canada but after week 1 we are feeling confident that the next chapter for the Dempsters will be a good one.

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

All the first days are over

I am now officially the mother of a child at school. In fact I have one at school and one at nursery so this week I celebrated my first 2 1/2 hours off in ……………… a long time! Thankfully both seem to be doing really well. They have something called graduated entry into Junior Kindergaten (JK) here and just for the record I’ll precis whats happenned so far.

Day 1 – 30 minute ‘interview’ to meet the teacher. Ms Wenzel was great, she showed Grace around the classroom and Grace got so excited at one point that she said to me ‘Mummy, why haven’t we been here before’. I’m not surprised that she loved it. The room is nice and bright and filled with all of Graces favourite activities – painting, drawing, sticking, playing house, a library ….. the list goes on. In fact, she didn’t want to leave and said that she hadn’t finished playing when it was time to go.

Day 2 – 8.30am – 11.30am with 5 classmates. We walked to school and managed to get there on time (it is only at the end of the road so there should be no excuse!). Ms Wenzel met us at the gate and Grace looked so tiny walking across the playground with her huge backpack. She looked apprehensive but went willingly and then that was it, they closed the doors and my little girl went to school. Obviously, I handled the situation with my normal pragmatic attitude and cried all the way home.

Day 3 – Friday 12th September, her first full day – 8.05 to 2.35pm. Grace seemed to be really excited having told us all about what she did on the 1/2 day. She seems to really love her teacher and despite our concerns over the ratio of kids to teacher seemed to have spent alot of time doing activities with her. Grace spoke about her interactions with Ms Wenzel much more than she did with any of the teachers at Early Years. By all accounts the day went well apart from a brief spell of tears over a lunch mix up. They have 2 nutrition breaks in the day and the kids have to differentiate between their break time snack and their lunch. Ms Wenzel actually got confused and took the wrong one from Grace and as she doesn’t have the confidence to speak up she cried. To be fair to her teacher, she realised and rectified the situation and apologised to Grace but she wouldn’t eat anything. Ms Wenzel actually called me to apologise to which I thought was really impressive. It clearly wasn’t too big a deal for Grace as she didn’t mention it on the way home. We did have a very tired little girl that night and she certainly slept well.

She had a two day week this week and things seem to be settling down well. I get them up at 6.30am and even with the normal messing about we have managed to fit in breakfast, dressing and some playing and still be out of the door without too much stress by 7.50am. On Wednesday Ms Wenzel called me over to tell me that she had had to ask Grace to be quiet in circle time as she was busy chatting with another girl. In itself that seems like quite an innocent statement and even at the time it took a moment to sink in but then …………………. HOORAY! YES! SHE IS TALKING IN CLASS!!!! You can only imagine the worrying that is done in this house over Graces Selective Mutism and to have achieved this breakthrough so early in the school year feels like nothing short of a miracle. I came away that day feeling really confident that we can overcome this and Grace will eventually talk to her teacher too.

Patrick also started nursery (clearly I am a glutton for punishment!) and that seems to be going well. The very large Thomas train table in the middle of the room means that he has gone in every time without even looking back. When I went to collect him on the first day he was still in the same place that I’d left him so I did have to question whether he’d moved at all! Obvioulsy, he can’t tell me how he’s doing so I asked the teacher on Friday. She reported that the class is settling down really well and that they all move between activities with no problems, tidy up when asked and sit and listen to the stories and songs in circle time. “Even Patrick?” I asked incredulously but apparently so! Its a really nice little class with 12 children and 4 teachers with an age range of 18 – 36 months. Its only 2 1/2 hours, 2 mornings a week but we felt that Patrick could do with some independant time away from me and his sister. Also, and this is a really scary thought, because he decided to surprise us in December that puts him into the previous school year so he will go to JK in 2 years so the more preparation we can give him the better.

In other first days we had Gynastics for Grace and Sportball for Patrick. We thought long and hard about the childrens activities to make sure that we found things that they were interested in and would suit their personalities. Gymnastics is a very small class at a small gym with a lovely coach and whilst very anxious to start Grace seems to be enjoying it. Her favourite so far is the balance beam – I’m sure we will see even bigger smiles when they wheel out the trampoline. Patrick and sportball was a bit of a no brainer really. He goes with Daddy on a Saturday morning which is nice for Diesel. They go to a gym and run around with bubbles, balls, hoops, balls, balls and more balls. Diesel was saying yesterday that they are talking about ’stepping up’ the skills that they will be attempting. You almost have to laugh at the enthusiasm and give them a quick reality check – Patrick is 21 months old and has pretty impressive ball skills but I think it is almost impossible for a child his age to bounce a basketball! Still, back on planet earth, they have a really good time together and both come home feeling exhausted – maybe Diesel more than Patrick! We did learn a lesson this week as Grace and I went to watch but when Patrick saw us he cried and wouldn’t play so Mummy can’t go anymore x

Apologies for being so lax on pictures – they are on Diesels camera so I will bug him to upload them later.