Hello Family and Friends!
Heads up - this blog might as well be novel. Feel free to skim, I won't be offended.
In fact, I had to split it into two as the last bit got cut off when I first posted.
Well, we're already 5 months into our 8 months abroad and can hardly believe the Back to Canada countdown is on. We've made a must-do list and have plotted most on the calendar already. It's amazing to be planning things to do while still here and be planning things to do back in Canada (summer soccer and Junior Kindergarten for Liam!)
I've been meaning to write this blog for weeks however things came up - and then things came out - everyone but Liam got a tummy bug that has been going around. Gemma got it first, and I'm fairly certain she caught it at the Children's Centre during a new group for us called Peeps, Babes & Ones. She had a great time, but maybe too good of one. Gemma only had the symptoms for about 12hrs but Mark and I got it almost 40hrs later - at the same time. Our tummy bug lasted way longer than 12hrs and we totally phoned in our parenting (thank you Backyardigans with English accents). You know it's bad when you have to say to your 3yr old that if Mummy has to run to the bathroom to "barf" please make sure your little sister doesn't climb up the stairs because Daddy's busy in the other bathroom. We survived, but it wasn't pretty.
So far 2011 has been great for us (aside from the tummy bug) - we've got the Milk Man service going and it's so much fun to collect milk in the morning and leave the empties at night. He comes 3 days/week and lives real close to us so we just drop off cash payment at his home (you can tell which one it is by the truck) every couple of weeks.
The weather has been fantastic - 8C during the day, sometimes with rain, but it's been quite sunny. This is the winter we were expecting. It is great weather for the kids, particularly Gemma, and it's so nice not to have to spend a half hour bundling everyone up to get out the door. It's getting lighter earlier too which is a bit of a relief. At the end of December it was noticeably darker earlier than in Toronto. Lots of people (kids, joggers, cyclists, hikers) wear high-visibility vests and coats during winter here as it was pretty dark at 3:30, getting fully dark by 4pm.
On one of the sunny days this month we ventured to Chester Zoo - one of the top 10 zoos in the world. It was a great zoo, very similar to Toronto and has one thing that Toronto doesn't - penguins! They were awesome. Liam had a great time running around seeing all the animals. And Mum and Dad had fun stopping off at Terminal 2 for Tim Horton's coffee on the way!
On one of the rainy days this month we took the train to Manchester and visited MOSI, the Museum of Science and Industry - steam engines, hands on science experiments for kids - all of us had a great time here - it's like the Science Centre with trains! They even had a mini 'panto' for the kids.
We've been so pleased with our mobile phones. So far, in 5 months, we've only spent a total of £100 on our two phones - £15 each to buy the actual Nokia phones (pronounced Nawk-ia, not Noh-kia), £40 pay-as-you-go for Mark's, and £30 for mine. We've got voice mail and call display, plus each time we top up our phones with £10 we get free texting and internet for a month!
The big news in our house since 2010 is that (no, we're NOT preggers) - LIAM IS TOILET TRAINED!!!! Suddenly on January 2nd, he was into the idea of wearing his new underwear he got for Christmas and he was willing to 'go' on the toilet without a nappy on. And he just did it! There are no words to express how relieved, proud and elated we are - okay, maybe 'relieved', 'proud' and 'elated' are good words to use:) Every time he pees in the toilet (standing up, too!) I have a huge smile on my face! Liam is all 'Big Boy' now walkin' around in his underwear - he even randomly and out of nowhere told the 'Market Guy' he was wearing underwear! I was like - oh, Buddy, you don't have to tell everyone! The Market Guy and Gal thought it was hilarious - and it really was. They even asked the next week if he was still in underwear! I think what did it was me telling him that all the other boys and girls at Nursery would think he was a little boy if he wore a diaper. I know. I'm mean -but I was desperate. I had tried everything - a race track with car stickers, coloured toilet water and chocolate bribery to name a few. And I don't know how many times I did the Potty Dance. The method that finally worked was major baby steps to 'going' on the toilet with a diaper on. I'd like to find the chick who wrote the book on how to toilet train a child in 3 days and verbally berate her. I could seriously write a whole other blog on this. What kept me semi-sane during this time was hearing from other mums of boys that they were well over 3yrs old when they were trained. Liam still wears a diaper at nighttime - and will for a long time - but one step at a time. We've made it 4 weeks with toilet visits whist out (grocery shopping, restaurants) and minimal accidents all around- YAY for our Big Boy!
So Liam's had a huge month - he also started Nursery school mid-January and after just a couple of less than desirable drop-offs at the beginning, he's doing really well. Nursery in England is free for children to attend the term after they turn 3, but not required. The New Mills Nursery only has kids aged 3-4 and is just great - they had a parents night that I attended before he started and gave us a booket with photos of a typical day at the Nursery for us to read together. I also chose two books for his 'Treasure Chest' from the Book Start program (which has funding (for now) to encourage reading in the early years before school. All the hype got Liam quite excited to go. I was fairly sure he'd be fine and would likely ask me to leave during our two transition days, where he only went for 1hr of the afternoon and I was to stay with him. Sure enough on the first day he said I could go, but only to the door, not actually outside. One of his teachers could tell immediately he had been in a daycare environment because of his independence. So I thought his first day alone would be smooth, but turns out he wasn't ready to be totally left alone. He was fine about 10 mintues after plastering himself to the glass door in a fit of tears. It was surprisingly quite bad - I was literally laughing with sad tears in my eyes. I bought him a train-shaped biscuit from the bakery for when I picked him up as a special treat that day - now he thinks he should get a train biscuit every day! He goes to from half 12 to half 3 (12:30-3:30) and gets a snack there. Snacks cost 20 pence/day, we've joined the Jigsaw Library for £1/term and borrow a new puzzle each week, and his book bag costs £1 to use as long as he's there - we use this to bring a book home during the week and a different book on the weekend. Twice a month they also send home a 'Story' or 'Activity' sack. Liam's first story sack had two dinosaur books, two toy dinosaurs and little people figurines for the characters in one of the books. It was a roaring good time!
Gemma is getting bigger and stronger and just started standing up by herself this week! She's really pleased with herself and is just starting to get the courage to take her first steps. She is also getting teeth like crazy and has taken quite nicely to the English version of Tylenol dye-free grape - Paracetamol dye-free blackcurrant! She takes 5ml using a big girl spoon as opposed to using a dropper. We weren't expecting to go to the paracetamol (brand name Calpol) this soon, however her cousin Gavin had a Tylenol emergency whilst staying with us over Christmas and he got the last of our stash. She's enjoying Mummy-Gemma time while Liam's at Nursery and did enjoy her Peeps group before getting her tummy bug. It was nice for her to be in a group with just kids her size (even though they were all younger!). We're meeting a new group of mums and kids in this group - even a Canadian/Uraguay-an from Toronto!
Continued in Part 2...
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