There's Not Enough Coffee To Make It Ok

This morning we had a ridiculously early start to the day.  Now some of you may be aware that I am not what you would call a morning person.  I’m not really a night person either.  I like to think of myself as a lunch time person.  I was, after all, born at lunch time ish.  There are conflicting reports of my birth actually but somewhere between 11.45 am and 1.45 pm I made my appearance.  I call that lunch time.

Some of you people will be of the opinion that there is nothing better than getting up at the crack of dawn or even starting the day before the sun has risen.  You argue that there is nothing more glorious than a sunrise viewed with coffee in hand to awaken the senses.  I can agree that there is nothing more glorious than a sunrise (I have been forced to watch a few in my time) but I would be much happier if they happened at lunch time thank you very much.

You'll Laugh About That In Three Weeks

At this point we are closing in on Thanksgiving over here and as I was sitting here thinking about what I could be thankful for I realised that having kids who know how to have a good laugh is pretty good.  Or at the very least having kids that are constantly doing things worthy of being laughed at.  They say that laughter is the best medicine and we sure get a lot of it round here so I thought I would share some of the laugh inducing gems we’ve encountered.  Of course not all of them induced laughter right away but with time and perspective it is true that “you’ll laugh about this in three weeks” is a statement to live by.

There's A Pill For That

It has been just over a month since we started giving Emily medication for ADHD.  Now before you all get upset about our decision let me just say that it was a very very long and involved process that we went through to get her diagnosed and prescribed and an even longer one for us to even decide to go down that track in the first place.  It has been obvious to us for quite some time that she has ADHD (its not that big of a stretch given that James has it and they share a lot of the same symptoms) and although it didn’t necessary bother us that much we realised that it is really affecting her school work.

Birthday Gifts, Running Shoes and Zimmer Frames

The last few weeks have been pretty busy.  I’ve been out and about quite a bit and its been ever so slightly hectic.  I have realised something about myself which I guess I always knew deep inside but it has now come to the surface.  James thinks its a bit funny and slightly annoying and I just find it kind of enlightening.  You see I have realised that for every minute or hour of activity and busyness that I engage in which involves interacting with other human beings I need an equal amount of minutes or hours to unwind, by myself, doing pretty much nothing.

I actually found myself, the other day, sitting on the couch doing absolutely nothing but my head was spinning and I felt like my brain was desperately trying to catch up with what my body had just done.   The problem with this is that there just are not enough hours in the day to sit doing nothing in response to having just had interactions with other people.  And I enjoy the interactions with others but sometimes I wonder if I would be better off being a hermit.

The Wheels On The Car ...

Today was rather a dramatic day.  James has been away on a business trip since Monday and today (Wednesday) it happened to be a half day at school for the girls.  I was not overly enthusiastic about this since it meant more hours in which I would be trying to entertain the kidlets in my sleep deprived state.

I got Emily on the bus after giving all the kids a hearty breakfast of porridge.  Quite an exceptional feat I thought considering how tired I was.  I had gotten an email the night before from Emily’s teacher reminding me of a field trip she was supposed to take that day which I had failed to acknowledge with her fee.  I found the note about it in a stack of the kids art work which explained that a science museum was bringing the museum to the school and it would cost $8 for my child to participate in the experiments.  

Abigail's Birthday

My pregnancy with Abigail was the hardest one of all.  It was fraught with drama both physically and emotionally.  I was sure that the poor baby was going to come out somehow damaged by all the stress I was under during the 9 months of her residence.  Fortunately she emerged unscathed (so far as we can tell) and has been my most chilled out baby so far.

For the first 20 weeks of the pregnancy I had no medical care except for the initial visit to the doctor to confirm the pregnancy about a week before the hideous sickness fell.  For the third time I managed to weigh less right before delivery than I had at the beginning of the pregnancy.  But unlike the other two pregnancies I was packing up a house in the first few weeks.  Now the damage that Emily had done to my back and hip during her time in utero had not really gone away but to make it worse I wrenched my back badly trying to lift a heavy box.  

Kaitlyn's Birthday

Kaitlyn’s entrance into this world was a little less dramatic than Emily’s one.  I was even sicker than with Emily and for a longer time which was less than exciting given that I had a toddler to look after.  Fortunately we had moved to New Zealand by then and I had my mother just around the corner.  Emily spent a lot of time with my parents while I was in the stay horizontal phase of the pregnancy.

My doctor’s office was within walking distance from my house (and waddling distance later on) which was nice and the hospital was about 2 minutes drive away (or less if you needed to get there in a hurry!!).  The hospital was a tiny little maternity wing staffed by a lone midwife at night and two or three midwives during the day if you were lucky.  It was very old fashioned and had none of the fancy machines that the hospital in America had.  The biggest thing that struck me was that it didn’t offer any pain relief drugs except for one which I react very badly to.  That meant no epidurals, no spinal blocks, no nothing.

Emily's Birthday

There are a lot of people around me at the moment having babies.  All their baby having efforts are reminding me of my own baby having experiences.

I really don’t do pregnancy very well.  Which is really the biggest understatement I could make about this.  I get really really sick.  In fact it is pretty much impossible to do the whole ‘wait til you’re 12 weeks to tell’ thing. By about 6 or 7 weeks everyone who knows me is pretty suspicious and by 8 weeks they’re certain.  I have this kind of greenish glow to me and then I’m confined to a horizontal position until about half way through the ordeal.

It has gotten worse with each subsequent pregnancy.

It's Not Easy Getting Green - Part 2

You read about these immigration interviews and how they ask you all kinds of personal questions to try and trip you up and make you admit that you only married a US citizen to gain access to the country and that you really don’t love them or even live with them.

James and I discussed things like what our favourite colours are, just in case they asked.  We tried to remember what colour our toothbrushes were.  That one was a little confusing because I used to always get James orange toothbrushes (to match his hair) and me green ones (because that’s my favourite colour) but since giving birth to so many girls I had been trying to explore my pink side and so one time I bought myself a pink toothbrush and got James a blue one.  I realised one day quite a long time later that even though he had just come out of the bathroom with minty fresh breath his toothbrush was still dry.  I questioned him on this and he was adamant that he had used his toothbrush.  I asked him which one it was and he said “the pink one of course”.   After nearly throwing up I asked him why he thought I would buy him a pink toothbrush and he said “well, I thought it was a little bit odd but since I know you really don't like pink I figured you’d got it for me and the blue one was yours.”  

It's Not Easy Getting Green - Part 1

The time has come to tell of the drama of becoming legal in the USA.  It all started when I came here as a missionary.  I got a visa which allowed me to work with a specified organisation, doing a specified job but did not allow me to live permanently or work any other paid employment.  I was allowed to stay for up to 5 years.  No problem, I thought, probably wouldn’t want to stay that long anyway.

Then James entered on the scene and all that changed.  When we got engaged I called the immigration people and asked if we needed to get married inside the US or if it would be ok to get married back in New Zealand as we had planned.  They assured me that it was ok to travel back once we were married in New Zealand.  As it turned out, this was not precisely true.  

Going Solo

I have officially (well almost) survived being a solo mum for 4 and a bit days.  I am quite proud of myself actually.  I dropped James at the airport on Sunday afternoon and only got lost 4 or 5 times on the way home.  Three of those times were inside the parking lot at the airport and poor Ben, my kiwi voice on the GPS, was getting rather frustrated with me I think.   During one of those getting lost moments the kids wondered aloud what was going on since Ben kept saying “Mate, turn around when possible”.  I told them that I was a little bit lost but it was ok we had Ben.  Emily then pipes up and says “Mummy, if we’re lost and we’re in Boston could we get lost near the cupcake shop?  Then could we maybe go in and buy a cupcake?”  I let her know that the chances of me getting lost near anything familiar would be quite remote and that the chances of me finding the cupcake shop on purpose were even more remote.  

Becoming Licenced

When I moved from NZ to the USA back in 2003 I was especially terrified of driving over here.  Some friends with experience had told me that although at first driving on the wrong side of the road was rather exciting and without mishap that after a few weeks you sort of relaxed and started drifting to the side you were more used to.  That would be the American wrong side of the road.  Otherwise known as the left side.

For this reason it was a few weeks before I was ready to jump into the drivers seat and have a go.  Then I had to get out, go round to the other side (previously known to me as the passenger side) and start again.  I got out on the road and drove.  Nothing happened.  I didn’t feel a magnet like force drawing me to the left side.  I didn’t forget myself at intersections and veer suddenly into the oncoming traffic.  A few weeks went past and still no magnets or veering.  I had assimilated.  

Lollipops

This morning I was reminded about an incident that happened over the summer.  Quite a while ago (not quite sure when) Emily and Kaitlyn were given a giant lollipop each.  The kind that are like a swirl with all kinds of different colours.  They looked like everyone imagines a lollipop to look.

Actually I remember getting one of these when I was a child, it must have been for Christmas I think because I’m pretty sure all us kids had them.  At the time I remember it being such a special treat because we didn’t have lollies and junk food unless it was a special occasion like Christmas or a birthday.  In fact up until I was about 9 years old I thought that you could only buy that kind of stuff when it was Christmas or a birthday.  I’m not quite sure how I thought the logistics of this idea would have worked since its someone’s birthday everyday but since I didn’t typically go to the shops with Mum (clever Mum) I didn’t know there were whole aisles devoted to such forbidden fruits.

James' Super Power

So James has a special talent. I’m not certain that it is necessarily God given but he has such an enormous helping of it that it is amazing.  You see he has the ability to break, destroy, smash, annihilate, pulverize and generally render unusable anything that is even slightly precious.  Even when he is not physically present.  I will elaborate.

From the moment I met James, he has been systematically destroying all things that are precious to me.  It started before we were even married so I guess I can’t really say I didn’t know about it but I really thought it would get better with time.  I can’t remember the first thing that he broke of mine but one that really sticks out early on in our relationship was the time that he borrowed my sleeping bag and pack to go on a missions trip that involved extreme camping.  He came home after a month and delivered the pack and sleeping bag back to me.  He had managed to rip a small hole in the day pack part of my pack and also rip a small hole in my sleeping bag.  Add to that the fact that the sleeping bag smelled like it had been inhabited by a pack of skunks with questionable personal hygiene and I should have been warned.

Zucchini Bread

A few weeks ago I went to the local vege stand (which is actually way bigger than a stand).  Its owned by this old guy called Gary who is a bit of a hard case.  The first time I went there the shop assistant introduced me to Gary who was quick to point out that his corn is the best in the area and that since he had fathered triplets after eating it that I should try it too.  That was a no thanks on the corn but I did buy 3 enormous zucchinis.

I had decided that it was time to make a supply of zucchini bread for the freezer (and to eat warm from the oven of course).  I had first made it way back when I was a newlywed in my In Laws kitchen (not that I wasn’t a newlywed in other places too it was just that I made it in their kitchen at the time I was a newlywed everywhere).  I had used a recipe I came across in a recipe book there and by a stroke of good fortune I had been talking to my Dad about it and he had requested the recipe.  I had dutifully emailed it to him and now since that old recipe book is no longer with us (having succumbed to one of my mother in laws spring cleaning sprees) I was able to use that old and extremely yummy recipe after rummaging through my old emails.

Getting Even

I awoke the other morning to the not so dulcet tones of Kaitlyn screeching.  She wasn’t upset, mad or stuck anywhere.  She was just awake.  It wasn’t even at the top of her lungs, she has quite a large capacity for loud noises and this was certainly not her loudest.  We’ve tried to teach her about the perils of making such noises anywhere near a person who has yet to consume their first cup of coffee but to no avail.

It seems she has been conducting secret training sessions because Abigail is also becoming quite proficient at the loud screechy noises.  In fact I am wondering if perhaps the student might yet become the master in this ear piercing art.

Getting To The Bottom Of It

Yesterday morning I had quite a surprise.  James had got the kids out of bed (actually they had got him out of bed – they know not to disturb Mummy) and they were all downstairs doing breakfast things and James was madly trying to make up for not tidying up the night before.  That wasn’t my surprise, it was still to come.

James left for work and I was trying to work out my shopping list while the cleaners were cleaning my house (I know I am very spoilt but it does save my back from further damage).  I started to smell a curious smell and I had a pretty good idea where it was coming from.  I decided to wait until the cleaners had left before exploring further.

Arachnids Of The World

I am a little bit scared of spiders.  Some of you will be rolling on the floor laughing now because you know me well and can probably remember a time when I just about died of fright when a saw a spider from across the room.  Well I have improved a bit over the years and now I am able to kill my own spiders, not with my own shoe though, I usually find someone else's to use.

When I was younger I used to scream at the top of my lungs and have to get my dad to come and kill the little beasties.  It was not ok for him to just take it outside in a humane manner.  After all it knew where I lived now and I was sure it would round up a few friends and come back as soon as my back was turned.  I would sometimes come out in a rash from the fright.  It was pretty bad. 

It's An Upside Down World

Quite often I am lost.  I have a little problem, I was born and raised in the Southern Hemisphere.  Now you are probably wondering what that has to do with anything but the fact is I had a really good internal compass going on in New Zealand.  I could mostly point to where North was from anywhere I was and I knew my way around.  Unfortunately my compass is completely messed up in the Northern Hemisphere.  It doesn’t even point South which would be kind of useful.  I don’t know where it points now.  I think it just waves around madly trying to find its own North. 

This causes major problems when it comes to going anywhere.  Here in the US knowing the compass points is vital to being able to read directions.  Someone will say “ok to get here you just go west on 90 until you get to 291 then take that to 91 then go North until you get to exit 15".  It seems as if roads don’t even have names, just numbers.  This all poses a problem for me because not only do the numbers get mixed up in my head my compass is all twisted.  Even my 'Never Eat Soggy Weetbix' saying doesnt work.

Anatomy 101

I’ve known for a while but it was recently confirmed that carrying three babies inside my body has caused some damage to my pelvic bones and spine.  Not irreparable, just painful and of course I’ll never be the same as I was when I was young and unharassed.

So in order to keep me in some semblance of working order I’ve been regularly visiting a chiropractor.  He has been working wonders on my aching joints and improvement is being made.  At the beginning I was able to make appointments while Emily was at school so that I only had to take Kaitlyn and the baby (who couldn’t really move at the time).  Now it is the school holidays and Abigail has found her legs.

Washing Machines and Firemen

On April 30 we moved from Wilbraham to Littleton MA to be closer to James’ work.  We moved to a much bigger and newer house and one of my favourite features is the fact that the laundry room is located on the same level as the bedrooms.  In New Zealand we would say this is the 1^st floor, here in America they say its the 2^nd. 

The house came with a washing machine and a dryer but we also brought our own ones with us since they were only a year old and we weren’t sure what condition the landlord’s ones were in.  The landlord preferred us to use his appliances so we didn’t press the point.  I figured that since I had already convinced him to let me switch his old and extremely dirty oven for my nice clean and much newer one that I should just wait and see how the other appliances performed.

Doctors and Moles

My kids are totally different from me as a child (so I’ve been told).  In looks they do somewhat resemble my childlike self but in personality and temperament they couldn’t be more different. I was most happy when left to my own devices with a good book (still am actually).  I did climb the odd tree and growing up on a farm meant that I was pretty active but most definitely an introvert.  Although I was the only one of my siblings to actually break a bone (or two) but even then I did it in a very non spectacular way (stepping down 1 step, losing balance on a trampoline, etc).

Staying Healthy For The Doctor

I took all three kids to the doctor a few weeks back.  It was our first visit since moving and a rather overdue 1 year checkup for Abigail (at 14 months - oops).  In my defense we did move the week before she turned 1 and it took me quite a while to find a doctor who was accepting new patients.

This wasn't helped by the fact that the very lovely receptionist was horrified at the thought that my girls be seen by a male doctor.  No she said, they must be seen by a woman, after all one day they'll be women too.  Never mind that all three were cared for in utero by males, pushed into this world straight into the arms of male doctors and have since been seen by a succession of very competent male doctors.  Well its time for a change, they now have a very lovely female doctor and a bunch of charming female nurses.

Tomato Sauce, Mud and Garden Hoses

Have you ever sat in front of a baby who has a mouth full of pasta and tomato sauce?  One who has a wicked grin on her face, a twinkle in her eye, whose every fiber is aching to spray you down?  I have just survived this ordeal.  Fortunately this time she took heed of the fierce look in my eye and swallowed the mouthful before disaster struck.  Some days I'm not so lucky.  Most days she will nochalantly drop half chewed morsels from the highchair which is a sure sign that meal time is over.  You would think she'd have learned by now that the food goes away when it starts getting tossed.  She doesn't seem to care though.

This is my third time with this stage and its just as cute as it was the first time.  Don't tell the baby I said that though or it'll never end.