I really shouldn’t be writing this post at the moment, I should be preparing my sharing time so I don’t have last minute stress in the weekend... where is my self-discipline!
Sitting down at the computer to write on my blog is relaxing and refreshing and I feel that’s just what I need at the moment.
Hayden (7 yrs & 2 months) has been sick with Strep throat over the last three days. Last week Hayden lost another front tooth, so now he has three teeth missing (he’ll make a good pirate for Halloween). Finally this week though, one of his adult front teeth is starting to pop through the gum (it has been months and months that he has had no front teeth).
For Hayden’s 7th birthday we bought him a pair of Healys and they have been the best $90 we've ever spent. So long as Hayden can wear his Healys he is happy wherever he is, for however long. It really makes him happy being able to skate/glide around and he enjoys showing off in them too! His latest thing is that when we are driving down our driveway he likes to get out of the car and hold on to it while I take him down the hill. I'm getting some benefit out of his Healys too. For the past few months Hayden has had a bad habit of stuffing his clothes under his bed or at the back of his wardrobe (typical boy!) which means they are really creased the next time he goes to wear them. I took his Healy's away for a day and sure enough his clothes have been put away in their right place ever since!
We have been working hard at getting Ashton to learn the alphabet by getting him to think of words that start with each letter. Ashton - being your typical 4 year-old boy (emphasis on boy) - thinks it is so hilariously funny when we get to the letter ‘P’. Why? Because his favourite words begin with P….Peter Penis Poo! He laughs so hard that he goes red in the face and can hardly breathe!
Sadly, our home-stay student Miyuki left us a couple of weeks ago. She decided to live in a city apartment with her friends from her English class (which is what all the Asian students eventually end up doing even though they are encouraged not to – then they end up speaking in their own language instead of speaking English). I suppose we will quickly get use to our home-stay students coming and going, but when they stay with you for 4 months like Miyuki did and spend every weekend as part of your family, they become more than just a home-stay student after awhile. Anyway, I’ve had a nice little break not having to prepare meals for an extra person (and my purse has had a break not having an extra $200 in it each week!)
Our new student, Hitomi, arrived from Japan on Saturday. She knows very few English words so carries with her a little computer dictionary that looks like a Blackberry. She brings it to the dinner table and also has it on her lap while she is watching TV with us. On Saturday night she was plugging away on it when she finally spoke and said to us, “I’m sleeping!” (Meaning I’m sleepy and going to bed). Gotta hand it to her for trying!
Tony made the decision to resign from his job at New Zealand Blood. He finishes work this week and has been paid out 2 months salary. We really have to keep our fingers crossed it doesn’t take him long to find another job. Now is a scary time to be without employment during the recession and with so many companies laying people off. I am hoping the next 6 weeks - or however long Tony takes to find work -will be a good bonding experience for Tony and I (and maybe, just maybe, he will realize all it takes to run the house and take care of the kids when he's not around!) While he’s home we plan on walking together and getting lots of things done around the house in between his job searching and interviews. With Tony home during the day, I sure hope that I don't come home to continuously find dishes piled up in the kitchen sink!
Most of the many things I do each day are very monotonous and many of the tasks I do are accomplished without thinking…such as cleaning the kitchen and tidying up the house, etc. Sometimes I find I’ve put things in odd places like the crackers in the fridge or the cheese in the pantry, but last week I opened up my washing machine to find I’d thrown a used nappy/diaper in the machine instead of in the rubbish. Fortunately it wasn’t a poopy one (just the night time nappy full of a lot of pee!). It came out very clean and I could have used it again if it wasn’t for how much water the nappy was holding!
Our boys have behaved really well in sacrament over the past two Sundays (what a relief, if only it could be like that all the time!) I think they are finally learning how to sit still and be quiet for and hour and fifteen minutes! Hayden has been sitting so still that he’s fallen asleep the last two Sundays. Ashton sits with the 1st counsellor in Primary (he’s got a thing for Anita) the first half of sacrament and then he comes to sit with us and kneels down quietly to colour-in. He spends ages on the same picture and can colour better than Hayden at age 7. Noah sits in the aisle in his buggy with his blanket and dummy and always sleeps the whole way through sacrament. For awhile Tony and I were having to sit separately because the boys would make each other laugh and Ashton would act hyper from being over-tired. We’ve learned now that Ashton does not cope well staying up late on a Saturday night to watch a movie. If we put him to bed at 7pm he can handle his day so much better!
I wasn’t planning on potty training Noah (2 years & 7 months) until he was 3, but he is already coming up to me about once a day asking to sit on the toilet. Every time he sits on the toilet he goes!! He knows exactly what he is doing and he will force himself to push out a little pee or poop! He is definitely a smart cookie….guess I’ll be getting the undies out sooner than I thought.
The other day Noah was in the kitchen blowing raspberries and spraying spit everywhere. I asked him three or four times to stop doing it and he wouldn’t, so I gave him a little paddy wack on his bottom! He looked up at me with big, round puppy like eyes, put his hand behind him to touch his bottom and said to me, “Oww, mummy, you hurt my butt!” Hayden - being the firstborn - would never have come up with something like that at 2 ½, so it is very evident that Noah has two older brothers to learn from.
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