End of Week 1!

Wow, we've made 10 days, which in some aspects seems to have flown by and in others to have gone very gently and slowly.

It was a very strange week last week. Part of me thought I would be crawling the walls very quickly and would therefore spend most of the week out and about and exploring. I think that was the part of me that remembers visiting new places without a child, a bump and reality of day to day life!

Back in the world of reality we had a very quiet and gentle week last week. Monday started with Andy heading off to work and Steph and I settling in for a morning of quality time together. Steph was still very tired from the flight and catching up on sleep and Andy and I both felt that quality time with her had been somewhat lacking over the last few weeks due to the move and everything that involved. Therefore we really felt that last week needed to be all about her.
Once Steph woke up from her nap we packed up the pushchair with a water bottle each and headed out to walk to the park. Little did I know that 2 / 3 ish in the afternoon is the hottest part of the day over here. 15 minutes later a very hot and sweaty pair of us reached the park. Wow, it was more a huge open space with a lake, with geese on, much to Stephs' delight. There was a track round the edge of the park for runners with exercise points every hundred yards or so. This was all surrounded by beautiful houses on a gently sloping hillside.

Down one end of the lake was the playground. Living in a bungalow has clearly deprived my daughter as she then spent the whole time we were there playing up and down the steps to the slide!
As can often happen when meeting new people the visit to the park sparked off the chain of events that filled my week. We met Olivia at the park with her three children, who told us about Pyjama Story Time at the local library the next day, where we then met more local Mum's who were able to put me on various mailing lists for the area and who introduced me to Megan, who has a two year old boy, is a realtor and 37 weeks pregnant. So by the end of last week I had met several people with children Steph's age, been to the library and hosted my first American Mum at our house, Megan, where I could pick her brains re: baby's and hospitals etc.
It was a strange week as one part of me felt like I was on holiday, thoroughly enjoying the sunshine, - yes sunshine!!!! - walking to places with Steph and having the time to play with Steph and pop out and get the things we needed. But the other part of me has been very keen to get on and do stuff like find a car, a house and sort the 101 things that need doing. Add to this pregnancy emotions and I found it quite an emotional week.
We did mange to sort our Social Securtiy Numbers out on Thursday. This has been our big stumbling block as we are very limited with what we can do until we have them through ie. we can't take our driving tests, so can't buy a car etc. Anyway we went to the office and hopefully they will appear in the post in the next week or so.

Thursday was a big day for me as regards to driving too. Up until that point I had let Andy do all the big drives and had limited myself to bimbling around where we live, firmly staying within my comfort zone. Following our visit to the Social Security Office Andy needed to be dropped off at work which meant I then had to get Steph and I home! In preparation for this I drove there and then onto Andy's work with him in the car. By the time we got to his office, which is right in the middle of Boulder, I was feeling quite confident. I knew where I was, the roads were OK and not particularly busy and driving on the right seemed to be working quite well. Therefore when we dropped Andy off I was in no rush to get home so suggested to Steph we visit the shopping centre across the road from the office. I loved her reply ''Go to shops to buy Mummy some shoes'' :)
A little while later after a bit of exploring and some lunch we decided to head for home - I did not buy any shoes I hasten to add!. Mmmm, half an hour of driving what felt like round in circles as I tried to get into the right lane and onto the right road and in the right direction I was feeling slightly less confident. We did eventually get home and now I can safely say I know the area around the shopping centre particularly well!
Last week was apparently one of the hottest weeks so far this year, we managed to hit 39°c at one point on Friday. It was lovely, if a little warm. This heat came to an abrupt end Friday evening with an amazing thunder storm.

We watched sheet lightning light up the sky over and over as thunder rumbled and grumbled overhead. When the rain did eventually come it came in the form of marble sized hail stones! We did attempt to take some photos but didn't manage to be particularly successful as in trying to take them we discovered that we had completely failed to bring any batteries for Andy's camera!
Will end the essay there for the moment and add the weekends adventures and photos another day, when I can find the time in between all the relaxing........