First of all, the kids were sick.  Both of them.  Twice.  First we had a lovely stomach flu go through the ranks, and the last few days it’s been a bad cold.  Doodle hasn’t had a stomach bug since we’ve been to the UK and there’ve been enough going around.  We’ve had colds, but never with both kids down with high fevers at the same time.  Silver lining?  I miraculously haven’t gotten even the slightest wave of nausea or sneeze.

Then was my Phil & Ted’s buggy.  I kid you not when I say that in one moment I was telling a friend of the wonderful things I love about my buggy and even though another friend has had several flat tyres and I kept a pump and tire goop with me at all times but have never had to use it and in the next I was trying to figure out why we were listing to one side so suddenly.  It was like I’d been struck by lightning.  We were on our way to a playgroup so I just lugged it with ZuZu still strapped in and spent most of the playtime trying to fix the tyre.  It didn’t work.  So got to lug it all the way to the other side of Summertown to a bike shop to find out they couldn’t fix it until tomorrow.  Some minor wailing and gnashing of teeth later and they had pity on me and fixed it while we waited.  Silver lining?  A new friend who came with me and watched the kids while I dealt with the bike shop lads for close to an hour.

Then there was my filling.  I only have one.  I think I’m doing pretty good to be…my age and only have one cavity, but it’s a doozy.  It was almost a root canal but when he had cleaned it all out there was a thin layer of enamel left so he just filled.  That was back in Canada.  It chipped there once and I had it fixed, a second time and I didn’t bother, no problems in Chicago, but then has chipped and been fixed a couple of times here.  This last time, it didn’t chip so much as shift and send an incredible amount of pain shooting through my tooth and jaw, then seemed fine, then did it again a week later.  So I decided to get it looked at.  The dentist decided that it needed to come out and put in an inlay so this doesn’t keep happening.  Made an appointment for a week later but didn’t really ask the details of what was to occur.  Turns out the digging out of my filling was not much less painful than the digging out of my tooth.  One massive needle to the jaw and one numb face later I was home feeling the worse for wear with a temporary filling and an appointment in two weeks to go through it all again to get the inlay.  Silver lining? This happened before ZuZu was a year so I’m covered under the NHS and  dear friend had already made plans to take the kids to the park for a couple of hours that day so I took a much needed nap.

Nap.  Yes.  That brings me to the topping on the cake.  ZuZu came home a good sleeper.  We spoke of it in hushed tones so as not to jinx it.  Once teething started, things got a little more interesting, but on the whole we didn’t suffer nearly as much as we did with Doodle.  All that has gone out the window this month.  At first she was too hot and couldn’t sleep.  Then the temperature dropped but it took me a few days to clue in and put her back in her sleep sack and so she didn’t sleep then either.  I got three nights at the beginning where she slept well and then three nights just before this last cold.  That’s it.  The rest of the time I have not gotten more than two consecutive hours in any given night.  It’s been rough.  I have no silver lining for that one.

In there was dealing with ants, internet issues, the freezer door not closing, my hips giving me problems, and all the day to day stuff.  That I was expecting, maybe not the ants, but the other stuff, the garbage and tantrums and baths and bedtime.  I appreciate all the support and encouragements, but I really didn’t feel like I was doing some major feat.  Women do this all the time, single moms (by choice or not), army wives, oil rig wives, a host of others.  I didn’t feel like it was asking too much of me, and I wasn’t alone.  I have some really awesome and supportive friends here and I’ve even made a new one during this month.  From Canada no less, my neck of the woods even, with a physicist husband, from the Rocket Scientist’s neck of the woods.  No kidding.  It was actually kind of creepy but we’re adjusting.

So here we are, the last full day without the Rocket Scientist.  The kids are still sick so we’ll be spending another day in (insert silent scream here), but we made it.  We survived.  No one died, or was maimed, or has any scars to show for it.  Was it good times?  Certainly not ideal, we missed our Rocket Scientist a lot, and there were some tense moments, some moments where I screamed to the universe that I could not in fact do this, but we also had good times, with friends, on our own, and I hope we are stronger for it.  I’m certainly not looking forward to the idea of him going back in two weeks, in large part because I don’t want to see Doodle’s face when we tell him.  In many ways, I’m dreading the longer stints in September less, Doodle will be in nursery in the afternoons giving everyone a much needed break routine, and we’ll likely have trips to Chicago to look forward to.  And by looking forward to, I don’t necessarily mean the international flight with two children but it will certainly be an adventure.  And honestly? I do like to know that I can do these things by myself.  I don’t want to do them by myself, just know that I can.  I mean it’s certainly no feat to watch Doctor Who by myself, but I just don’t enjoy it as much without him.

Between emails and facebook and skype, by the time I get to this, I have no idea what I’ve said and haven’t said.  But I’ll just try to make note of the salient points of the day…for posterity’s sake? And I’ll try to do it at not 10:30 as my primary goal is hurry up and sleep at this point.

Mumsy left today.  That was hard, it made this all very real.  And looking at a calendar was bad.  We’ve still 4 weeks to go, less a day.  Right now, that day doesn’t make enough of a difference.

I hate neighborhood cats and I hate the ice cream truck.  Just sayin’.

I was trying to explain to Doodle that it’s okay to be sad when we got home from the airport, telling that I was sad, too because Grammie is my Mummy and I miss her when she’s not here and how when we’re sad it’s nice to get hugs and cuddles from people around us who love us so we can feel better.  He turned around and said, “Can I give you a cuddle, Mummy? Does that make you feel better?”.  And then he let me give him a cuddle, too.  I am happy he was able to take comfort this time.

ZuZu is fearless.  Did not matter how many times she slipped in the bath or took great mouthfuls of water, she still kept trying to crawl up the back of the tub and kept a big cheesy grin through it all.  Good grief! What are we going to do once she’s running?

I am really looking forward to Blenheim Palace tomorrow.  I wanted to do this last year but I was in a wheelchair and I think I wasn’t sure how your parents would do.  Once the kids are older, I’ll want to do something more Christ centered but this year won’t really have any meaning either way, it’ll just be a fun day out.  I even got some extra eggs and a decorating kit for Doodle since he seems to be enjoying art and projects these days.

But I must get some sleep tonight. More than mead.

Love, me

This will be easier when I don’t have someone to talk to after the kids go down.  Not because I say it to Mumsy, I don’t, I have all manner of thoughts in my head, I just have trouble focusing with someone else in the room and by the time I get upstairs, I’m wiped and just want to go to sleep.

But my thought for the evening: Doodle has had someone to wake up downstairs for almost a month now.  While I’m looking forward to getting my house back, I’m feeling bad for the little man that he’s going to have to downgrade to only attention from me for a while.  My dear sweet boy.  Will I be enough for him?  Even for this short time?  It’s after midnight, time to sleep.

Love, me

I know in my email I said I wasn’t going to write tonight but as I was getting into bed I remembered something cool.  I was working on waving with ZuZu at lunch today.  I still feel bad that it took Aunt S to teach Doodle to wave, it just never occurred to me.  Apparently it didn’t this time either because even with it falling to Aunt S, Doodle could still wave by now.  So we were trying to wave at lunch, she was having fun just cause we were all talking to her, Doodle included.  But then tonight as we were getting ready for bed, she had crawled out to the hall and was standing by the stairs looking down through the bars, casually holding on with only one hand, when Doodle peaks around the door and says, “hello, ZuZu”. And she grins at him all pleased with herself and waves at him!  Yay!  So that’s my tidbit for today.

Love, me

During my Mumsy’s surprise visit, she gave me a beautiful embossed leather journal and I thought it would be the perfect way to keep track of all the little daily foibles that I want to share with the Rocket Scientist.  Trouble is, I keep forgetting what I’ve told him and what I’ve written.  It’s all very confusing.  So every now and then you will get inundated with posts as I transfer some of them to my blog.  If you see one that’s private, that’s because it’s private.

And of course if you don’t particularly care about all the boring bits, feel free to skip them, they’ll be labelled Letters. Then again, it’s not like I’m writing anything else these days.

How fitting. My baby turns 3!

I’ve been putting off this post for a while, wanting it to be truly worthy of the big 1-0-0.  Which of course simply meant that it took me a ridiculously long time to actually post.  Not because things weren’t good enough to post, but when they were I didn’t have time and when I had time it was all old news.  Well to me.  I know, I suck.

But I digress.

My baby is 3!!!

Okay, my first baby.  I guess I have two now and should clarify.  But I’m pretty sure I haven’t been away that long.

Unfortunately, the Rocket Scientist is away at a conference, but we’re still going to have a fun day and then we’ll have the party in a couple of weeks. We made pancakes this morning, we’re going to the soft play at our local Garden Centre in a bit and have some lunch and then cake and a couple prezzies back home.  This last week, one of my oldest and dearest friends has been visiting us from Canada and I am so glad she is here with us to make it a special day.

And then yesterday, Asher got the most awesome birthday surprise ever.  His Grammie showed up at our door.  To be honest it was a pretty awesome surprise for me, too.  I had no idea.  Both hubby and friend knew and kept it a secret.  I was totally blown away, I had no idea a secret was even being kept.  There’s been a lot going on lately and a lot possibly about to happen and opening up the door to see my Mumsy standing there was too much.  I completely broke down.  Like on reality tv when the sob story family open their eyes and see a mansion where their rundown shack used to be.  I sobbed.  Clung to my tiny mum and sobbed.  I had no idea how much I was holding on to until she showed up.

Asher was pretty stoked to see her, too.  She’s staying at a B&B down the road until my friend leaves on Sunday and Asher’s spent all morning asking where Grammie is and proclaiming loudly and randomly that he loves his Grammie.  She’ll be here soon and then we’ll be off to start his birthday activities so I best get the kids dressed and ready.

Now that I’ve got that 100th post out of the way I can catch you up on all the boring stuff.

God gave us a car! WooHoo!

No, seriously.  He totally did. And it’s really only 5 words but in keeping with the theme, I thought I’d add a woohoo for good measure.

Let me begin…well, a little earlier.  We got this car:

about 3 months after we moved to the UK for the whopping price of £150.  It was a total blessing from some new friends and has served us well for almost two years.  We had to do a couple of repairs when it came time for the MOT (yearly safety inspections in the UK) and we’ve replaced the tyres (with used ones, but still), we got seat covers as the interior wasn’t fantastic, and it didn’t like starting sometimes when it was too wet, but all in all it was a good little car that never left us stranded. That is, until it didn’t matter anymore.

This year, we were quite worried about the MOT as last year it seemed a mere fraction away from failing structurally. We prayed, asked others to pray, and miracle of miracle’s it passed!  And passed well.  One small replacement part worth £5 plus labour and a couple tyres (I kind of dinged one avoiding a bus a couple of months back), again used.  Woot!

Then I got a phone call from someone telling me that God had told them to buy us a car, and would the Rocket Scientist be free to get off work a bit early that afternoon to go pick it up.

Ummmmmm Wha?!?!

After I stopped crying and picked myself up off the floor, I remembered that unfortunately he had a class to teach so, no.  They ended up going out to see if they could pick it up anyway and came back to say that it wasn’t exactly as advertised and they wouldn’t be buying that car after all.  But soon, they’d find a car soon, hopefully we weren’t too disappointed.  Of course we weren’t.  How could we be?  We were getting a new car!  It had looked like a nice car, it had 5 doors (5!) and it wasn’t red (I have never not owned a red car), but I knew whatever car God had in store would be just perfect.  Secretly I feared that it would, however end up being red.

So, the next day, having put the idea of a new car aside for a couple of weeks (thinking it would likely take at least that long to find something suitable) I was driving a friend of Doodle’s home after they’re sleepover and as I was about to turn a corner…we stopped.  Dead. Right there, with my turning signal on and three kids loudly enjoying each other’s company, my little red colt gave up.  Right.

Let me just say, that the knowledge of a new car just waiting around the corner gave me immeasurable peace through all of it.  Everyone else was completely stressed and feeling bad at how I was stranded with three kids and whatever would we do and oh no!  I on the other hand was fine.  We played ‘count the white cars’ and when no white cars drove by we switched it to ‘count the red cars’ (which I thought was terribly funny) while we waited for the breakdown truck.  Doodle’s friend’s mum didn’t live too far so she came to pick him up.  Meanwhile, Doodle fell asleep so ZuZu and I played pat-a-cake and wind the bobbin up.

We didn’t end up waiting too long fortunately, but it was not something that could be fixed on the roadside and the mechanic figured it would be at least £200 or £300.  Not really worth fixing with a new car coming in the next couple weeks so we just towed it home.

Ok. Side note? They should seriously put driving while being towed with a straight bar behind a breakdown van on the test.  That is seriously trippy.  You can’t see the road or other cars, just the back doors of this van. Moving on.

The Rocket Scientist was  a bit stressed at the thought of not having a car for an indefinite period of time.  How would I get to the gym? How would we get to the cousin’s birthday party coming up? How long would it take him to get to church to set up for his Scramblers class?  We could no longer give our car away because it was dead and wouldn’t make it to its MOT retesting.  All these things.  As for me?  This car was going to die whether certain ‘someones’ had been obedient or not.  But because they were, we didn’t have to worry about costly repairs or finding a new car.  Neither of which we could afford.

The next day I was taking a day in to do laundry and figure out what might need to be reorganized over the next week or so when I got a text.  ‘On the way over with your new car’.  !!!!!  Turns out that a better one had been found.  By far!!  And the timing had been perfect as the car had been advertised for several days and gotten several calls but when it was found just happened to be the only time the seller had to actually show it.  More calls came in while the deal was being made.  Our God is so good.

Because of the obedience of the children of God, our family is now driving this:

It has a spacious interior, leather upholstery, power windows, air conditioning, a CD player, low mileage.  I felt like I was on Oprah being ushered into the driver’s seat, all weepy as I was.  I totally cried again when the boot was opened and I saw all the space.  But the best two features of all?  Back doors.  No more climbing in and out to get car seats and buckles done up!!  And…wait for it…It’s not red!!!!!!

Thank you God and may blessings return to your children a hundred fold!!

PS. if anyone wants a little red Mitsubishi Colt, just needs a new distributor cap/coil/thingy, it’s free for the taking until Monday.  Then the scrappers get it.

So what can I say about my brilliant daughter?  She has two teeth, has done since about 4 1/2 months.  She is shimmying around the floor and very close to crawling.  She loves to stand on her own in her crib but is not quite ready to cruise yet.  She talks all the time, sometimes melodiously, sometimes in a screech, and sometimes she sounds a bit like a wookie.  She is in a crib now, sharing a room with her brother and sleeping quite well.  Mostly.  There are nights when she stirs every half hour or so and needs a little shush and her soother back, and then there are nights when the Rocket Scientist and I actually get to watch an entire movie uninterrupted.  She’s eating 3 solid meals a day now.  Nap times are a bit of a crapshoot but that’s not her fault so much as just having to work around the play schedule of a very active brother.

But sadly the focus on this, her 8th month is very much not on her but on her brother.  Doodle is in big boy underpants.  I was fully prepared for a minimum of 3 months to really get it off the ground with any reliability but it seems he was more prepared than I thought.  It’s been a week now and he’s gone the last two days without accidents.  He’s already started keeping his pull-ups dry at nap time and even at night.  I’m speechless.  Even pooping, which I thought would be a couple of weeks before he would be ready tackle, seemed to turn a corner yesterday.  All in all I’m very encouraged.  And very worried about this being a false sense of security, so I’m not quite brave enough to go without the pull-ups at night or the protective coverings of the car seat and buggy and I’ve still packed 2 changes of clothes for our outing today.

And for anyone keeping score, she was actually 8 months 3 days ago.  I really did start this then.