After huge thought and discussion we stopped Steph going to nursery last week and decided she would stay at home with me full time. I, consequently have gone into teacher mode and now plan my week out with a variety of activities to keep both of us entertained, I live in fear of being at a loose end with an energetic toddler on my hands, particularly as there isn't much space to just be in this house. Hopefully we can have 'just be' moments in the new house, particularly with a large garden to play in and a reunion with all the toys. We have had a great week with this week, we've cooked, painted, explored, played and generally enjoyed every (well nearly every) minute together. You may notice from the pictures that someone seems to be into body art at the moment! (The butter that was supposed to go into the chocolate cake was used as tummy moisturiser) Hopefully when the weather cools down and I can keep clothes on her we can move on from the body art phase........
Steph has also started swimming lessons this week. Some of you will know that we have been doing lessons in the UK with her for the last 18 months and I was quite worried that we wouldn't find anything equivalent over here. I knew when we were back in the UK how fortunate we were with our lessons. We had a brilliant swimming teacher who knew and understood her pupils and consequently really made progress with them, giving them super confidence in the water and some brilliant water skills. Anyway, we've had a bit of a search over here to find something that teachers swimming to littl'uns in the same style and for a reasonable price - swimming lessons are so expensive here! We think we may have found it which makes me very happy as it is something Steph absolutely loves doing. Fingers crossed that it does work out :)
We find our biggest challenge at the moment is wearing said toddler out as there are some days when she just seems to have an excess of energy. Probably something to do with the age she is...........We have explored as many parks over here as we can. I am very impressed, all the parks seem to have great climbing frames with a multitude of slides attached at all different levels. The only problem we seem to have with these is it's too hot to go to the park in the afternoon. Therefore I have made it my mission to discover some indoor energy burning activities over the last couple of weeks. We've now become annual members of 'Wow', the children's discovery museum we discovered a couple of weeks ago. I suspect that this membership may be well used over the next four weeks as my manoeuvrability becomes limited; this is somewhere she can burn energy while I sit! We've also found Grandrabbits Play centre. Grandrabbits is an amazing toy shop over here and attached they have a big playroom with all manor of toys and a few floor mats with some soft play toys on. I am, however, gutted to discover that there is no soft play over here - or if there is we haven't discovered it. Much as we didn't use it that often in the UK it was a fantastic resource for a day when energy burning was needed. The hunt continues..........
In other aspects of our lives not a lot has changed in the last week. Our exploring of the local area continues. We visited Golden last weekend. Another local town with a very pretty river running through it. We had a good wonder up the river and tried out Andy / Steph's new toy. We managed to find a double bike trailer on Craigslist, which can also be used as a huge stroller / wheelbarrow! We hope to be able to cycle a lot once bikes are here and bump is baby and have great plans that the trailer will be well used. In particular, I am hoping to use it for local day to day movement from house to park etc. The roads over here are much better set up for cyclists and I feel much more comfortable cycling with a trailer on the back, particularly as this is what most people do so cars are more used to it. Currently though someone seems to enjoy using it as a stroller and having the whole space to herself!
We went for another walk this morning. Back up to Gross reservoir but this time we walked down to the edge of the water for a picnic and then had a short walk some of the way round. Very pretty! We spent most of lunch time enjoying the realisation that we could have a Sunday morning lie-in and still be having a picnic in the middle of no-where by lunchtime. This is the life :) *contented sigh*
We went to have another look around our new house on Friday, just to check we'd remembered room sizes etc. so all that virtual planning we've done does actually work. It's even better than I remembered it was. I can't wait to be in it and to have a garden for us to play in. 2 weeks to go. In the meantime a certain husbands virtual planning seems to involve most things going into his playroom, so far I seem to have lost my sofa and the television and there's now talk of a beer fridge going down there. Maybe I should only let a beer fridge down there if it's accompanied by the children!!
Although we've only been here for six weeks I'm amazed at the number of people we've got to know and how friendly and helpful everyone is. Steph and I have joined various groups that meet every week or so and are starting to make some real friends through this now. Andy's met various people through work and we're starting to merge and meet each others friends as we bump into people at various places. Everyone is so helpful, either with info of places to go, things that are happening or offers of help. Many people have offered help with the move, looking after Steph when we have no. 2 or just if we need someone to call for help. I feel very fortunate to have met so many lovely people in such a short space of time.
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