Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! The morning started before 6 (as usual), but with this cuteness:



We try to keep a small Christmas. From us, the girls received new fairy dresses (fairies are soooo popular here!) and ukuleles! The ukuleles were a last minute idea, inspired by their newfound love of Elizabeth Mitchell's Sunny Day album, and this video in particular. They have had so much fun randomly plucking and strumming away. Now, we need to get ourselves a book on how to play (and how to tune...).



In the afternoon, they made quick work of the gingerbread house they'd helped decorate earlier in the week.

Then, it was time to go back to the beach! Stephanie skipped her nap but fell asleep on the five minute drive to the beach. She stayed asleep despite the hot temps and searing sun. We tried to make her a little shady spot, and we mostly succeeded in keeping her protected as she dozed. What a gorgeous day!




Today (Boxing Day) was searing hot. The thermometer read just over 40C (that over 100F) and the sun was absolutely brutal. None of us wanted to go out this afternoon. When Stephanie and I wandered across the street to the grocery store just before 6pm, she said we should have put on sunscreen so we didn't get burned. It was still midday brutal even then. And tomorrow is supposed to be just as bad if not worse before the weather reverts back to normal. Yow. Christmas Down Under!

Christmas Eve Down Under

No pictures today, so those of you in the cold winter won't be tempted to throw things at us.

A cyclone in the north has been giving Australia the strangest weather this week! We've had rain in the summer (never happens!) and Melbourne had SNOW (in the summer!). It's been cool-ish, but the forecast was for nasty heat (39C) and humidity once the clouds moved out. We expected to spend Christmas hiding in the air conditioning. Instead...yes, the humidity came, but nothing New Orleans and Dohot veterans can't handle. The heat wasn't bad at all (closer to 30C), and there was a sea breeze. The sea breeze was so cool that there was a fog over the sea, which I've never before seen on a sunny summer day (Markus had many times in Cape Town). We spent a gorgeous afternoon playing in the beautiful Indian Ocean, jumping waves, splashing about and building sandcastles at the edge of the surf. It was heavenly! We were so aware that fortunate people are able to pay out big money to spend their vacations doing just that...and we live here! We feel very blessed.
Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Terrible Twos

Well, it has finally happened. Stephanie seems to have officially hit the Terrible Twos. It just took us a while to recognize the syndrome, because the symptoms are very atypical. The massive increase in tantrums, the screaming and wailing and crying and shouting and red-in-the-face meltdowns...just don't happen. She's not an angry character. She's a peaceful, easy character...as long as she is allowed to set all terms. And have 110% of your attention. She won't have a fit if you don't pay attention, but you can bet she'll hop on the chance to get up to a mighty amount of mischief in a hurry.

She is an opportunist. It's like we have to baby-proof the house. She's into everything and using it in a the most devious ways. Although art supplies have been accessible since she was a baby, she is (for the first time) using them to draw on furniture, toys and books. Scissors definitely had to go out of reach, as did paint and glue. Toothpaste has been the #1 target for a few weeks now. We've had to be sure to keep all toothpaste well out of reach. She lets us know when there are weaknesses in our defenses. I thought my medicine cabinet was high enough, but apparently, the bottom shelf was not. One evening, while Markus thought she was with me and I thought she was with him, she was actually redecorating our bedroom with toothpaste.




The scene of the crime. Sigh.
Sugar has also become a major subject of adventurous pursuit now that we have a pantry. We moved the sugar pot to high ground, but she will eat it right out of my teacup before I can pour in the tea. A few nights ago, I was awakened after midnight to a loud crash from the kitchen, followed by Stephanie wailing for "Mama Papa Mama Papa!" I flew down the stairs to find her at the bottom of the pantry (on top of the thankfully unbroken wine bottles; ouch). She had dragged three chairs into the kitchen before finally scaling the shelves unaided. I'm not entirely sure if she was even awake at the time. It's crazy.

Stephanie is happiest when naked, and keeping her clothed in public is a real effort. She has also adopted the Aussie need to be shoeless. When she does wear shoes, they are inevitably on the wrong feet and there will be no correcting them. We have learned to dress her in the only two dresses she owns that zip up the back so she can't strip the moment she gets a chance. Of course, she now recognizes this property of those dresses and lets her extreme aversion to them be known. Fortunately, we are in summertime and it's usually warm enough not to fuss about clothes at home. A recent odd patch of cool weather really pushed us to our limits trying to keep her dressed and healthy, but other than that, we shrug it off and let her enjoy her "nackedei" status.


The only exception to the no-clothing rule is dress up clothes. She has gotten into that phase in a major way! She loves to dress up in princess or ballet clothes. But no underwear is permitted. Ever.


So what makes this abundant cuteness qualify for the "terrible" twos? It's not the behavior. It's the relentlessness. She never lets up, from dawn until well after dark, she craves and requires CONSTANT attention; without it, mayhem ensues and rapidly (Ellie is quick to jump on and increase the speed of the mayhem bandwagon once Stephanie gets it going). Though rarely naughty, she is very mischievous and she does delight in pissing Ellie off when Ellie presents herself as an easy target (her whining and fussing has taken off proportionate to Stephanie's new crazy).

Stephanie's days run from around 5am to 9pm, which is far longer than I like my own days to run. It doesn't leave Markus or myself with any real downtime during the week, and the weekends aren't enough to compensate much of the time. We're exhausted and it's getting harder to keep up. All the things I used to count on doing during her resttime can no longer be counted upon to happen at all. I'm behind on just about everything. The only reason I got this blog post done is that the girls were (mostly) playing together quite well, with the exception of a couple of minutes ago when they used my focus on the computer as an opportunity to try to invade Oma's room during her nap (I had to run at top speed to snatch up Little (naked) Monkeypants and intervene just in time). Oy.

The Terrible Twos are here.

What a week!

It's been nearly two weeks since I've posted, and it's been full! Ellie finished school for the year last Friday. In Australia, the school year follows the calendar year, giving the kids the summer off like everywhere else except summer is over the Christmas holidays here. She'll go back in February and Stephanie won't be far behind her (eek!).

The day before school let out, her school held its annual school concert. It was ridiculously long and poorly planned (yes, the administration is getting a mad mama letter). Someone thought it would be brilliant to combine one song per class with a "graduation" speech night from 2 board members and 5 middle school kids, keeping dozens of 3-5 year olds and their families stuck in an auditorium until well past bedtime. This would have been a recipe for total mayhem anywhere else, but Montessori kids are such troopers. They sat patiently and quietly on the stage floor throughout the whole silly proceeding, from 6pm to 8:30pm (see why I'm unamused?)! Poor Ellie was so exhausted and miserable by the time we got her home, and then she had to go to school again the next day for a half-day. At least she could look forward to it because it was a party day. Otherwise, we would have kept her home. And it's just as well that she wasn't home. Papa had to take the day off to look after me!

Over half-way through the lengthy concert, I felt my leg falling asleep. Stephanie had been in my lap (exhausted too) the whole time, and her weight was getting to me. I thought I'd get up to stretch, not realizing my foot had already fallen asleep. Thank goodness I passed her to Markus before I stood up, because I went down HARD. I'd gotten dressed up for the Christmas theme, so I fell off my heels and torqued my foot between our row and the row of seats in front of us. The pain was searing, but for the sake of all eyes (especially Stephanie's), I just sat down and breathed hard for a long while. I managed to hobble, shoeless, to the car when the concert was over, supporting my weight on Markus's shoulder. He was on his motorcycle, so I drove us home using one big toe on the pedals (thank goodness no emergency braking was required!). Within an hour of that, I couldn't put any weight on it at all. Markus went out to the late-night pharmacy to rent me some crutches, and he had to stay home on Friday to drive Ellie to and from school and me to and from the doctor and the radiology clinic. Woo-hoo!

Fortunately, the x-ray showed nothing interesting. The doctor said it was probably a ligament, but if the damage didn't self-heal within a week, it might be a hairline fracture and I should come back. It's been a week now, but I've been off crutches since Monday. Markus had to be at work this week, so it's good that I could get back to mobility. I overdid it and my foot still hurts (worse today than other days, alas), but it's a lot better. Thank goodness.

This has been Ellie's first week home, and she's been adjusting to the big change in her routine. There has been a lot of whining, crying, and even hitting (hooray for learning from the other kids at school, sigh), and the tantrums have flown a bit too freely for my preference...but we think this will settle down as she does too. Mostly, we can tell she is thrilled to be home! She and Stephanie are great playmates, and Ellie is getting on quite well with Oma too.


Stephanie's sleep may be very slowly returning to normal. The newest development is that she is at the age when dreams become more vivid, and she's been sleeping fitfully. She might even be a sleep-walker. We had a strange episode in the middle of the night last night that makes me wonder, but time will tell. So far, Stephanie and Oma aren't sure of each other. Oma definitely prefers Ellie's orderliness and predictability to Stephanie's bohemian nudity and surprising resolve.


We'll continue to watch their relationship unfold, though I've got a separate blog post ready to go about a particularly funny encounter.

Markus will have a half-day at work today, and then he will only work two days next week before having a good bit of holiday at home himself. We're so happy!

Tenacious

Yesterday morning, I took Ellie to a birthday party. Skipping a shower, I wore my hair in a ponytail, which did not meet Stephanie's approval upon my return home. She insisted I take it out. She stomped. She sulked. She grumped. She wanted that ponytail gone. I, however, refused to cave, seeing it as no major affront to her health and well-being and therefore not a priority issue. Eventually, she stopped mentioning it and I figured we had moved on. I, of course, forgot who I was dealing with.

From Merriam-Webster.com
per·se·ver·ance noun \ˌpər-sə-ˈvir-ən(t)s\
Definition of PERSEVERANCE
: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition : the action or condition or an instance of persevering : steadfastness

Hours later, as I was cooking dinner, Stephanie started dragging a chair across the floor. We asked what she was doing, and she stated matter-of-factly that she wanted to "get the ponytail." We didn't understand what she meant. Here's what she had in mind:



If you look up "tenacious", you may find this pictorial sequence:



The last photo in the series might also be found under the definition for "stinker."

Nikolastag

Today was Nikolastag. In the German tradition, Saint Nikolas visits in the night and leaves treats in the children's shoes. Despite lingering wariness of Santa Claus, Ellie was well-familiar with this tradition via her current adoration of the Conni books and she's been looking forward to Nikolastag for weeks! She was thrilled when she woke up this morning to discover Nikolas had left her and Stephanie matching necklaces and chocolates!

Of course, later Oma arrived and brought with her an extra treat each from Nikolas. What an exciting day!

Oma is here!

Oma arrived today for a 3 month stay. I have to say, the initial introduction could not have gone better! Stephanie is quite shy around strangers, so we weren't sure how it would go. She hasn't seen Oma since she was 6 months old, and Oma doesn't have internet for skype. That effectively makes Oma a stranger, but that's not how it played out at all! Thank goodness Mary and Mimi already visited us this year! Their visits prepped the girls for Oma, and the girls were ready to welcome her with open arms and minds. We all enjoyed a fun, happy dinnertime together before Oma headed to bed. Stephanie is wired and still up, but that's pretty typical these days (alas). Everyone is happy. Hooray!

A recipe for you

Ellie's class does cooking in the classroom. The children work in pairs on one recipe per term. This term, it has been gingerbread men. Ellie enjoyed cooking yesterday, and this morning, she was telling me the recipe. She got three ingredients into the list before I knew I had to write it down and share with you.

Gingerbread recipe, just as Ellie tells it

2 cups of flour
2 cups of ginger
1 cup of teaspoon
1 cup of butter
You have to scoop the butter with a spoon. You have to smoosh it all up with your fingers. Then, we have to add one egg and four cups of golden syrup. I tasted it before. If it is left over, we can taste it and I tasted it before. And then we mix it, not in the big bowl, only the little glass bowl with the egg. Then, we pour the bowl in the big bowl then we mix it in the big bowl then we mix it with our little fingers. While someone is stirring, someone has to mix. Even then you put it up into a big ball and make it all flat into a big ball and then you roll it out and then you cut it. That's it!
And then you put it in the oven.

Christmas card sneak peek

Last night, I ordered our annual photo cards for Christmas, and hopefully they will get to us in time for me to send them out to you before Christmas. We captured some sweet family photos while down south a couple of weeks ago, but it was cold and rainy and that just didn't feel right for our cards. After all, it's quite unusual for it to be cold and rainy here, especially around Christmas time (summer!). Instead, we thought we'd set up our tripod and a picnic blanket and snap some pictures at the river overlook near our new house. You can see the city of Perth in the distance. Peppermint Grove yacht club is down to the left. It's an amazing vista. Every time I see it, I stop and marvel. "I actually get to live here?!" Wow. Thank you.

To keep it real, our pictures were taken by us on a timer. We'd been to the beach in the morning and the river in the afternoon. The girls are still wet and drippy from the river. We're all sandy. None of us has brushed our hair. It took some convincing to get the girls to acknowledge the camera at all. And yet, we still think these may be the best Christmas cards yet! Ellie had some cute ideas that we had to include in the final cut. For now, you can have a little sneak peek (test snap during set-up) and take in that beautiful background.

New house: the entryway and attached spaces

Disclaimer: In the interests of honesty, I did not tidy or organize ANYTHING for this sharing series, so you get to see it as is, in full transitional messy state. Please to forgive.

Yesterday, I promised to share more about the grand entryway, so we'll head into there today and the various spaces coming off of it. You can see from the outside picture of the house the big glass double doors and windows. Those open into quite a large entryway. I tried unsuccessfully to get a good picture of it (bright Aussie sun washing me out!), but this will allow you to get the idea.


This house lacks a coat closet (as many modern homes do, I'm told), so until we come up with an attractive solution, our coats and assorted bits have exploded onto the stairwell (the stairs lead up to the master bedroom and "parent's retreat"). The space where they sit now will make an ideal place for the Christmas tree next month (there is actually an electrical outlet at the base of the stairs), so next time you see it, we hope it will look a lot more sparkly and less bomb-like.


The entryway opens into the "formal living room", but since we aren't formal people, this is our living room, period (the intended "TV room" is what we use as our playroom, which is right off the kitchen; I edited that entry to include it for you to see). It's big and long, so we placed one couch across the center (facing the TV) to define the TV/lounge space a bit. Between the two torch-like wall sconces was a great and obvious home for the piano. Right now, all of our pictures and wall decor are stacked around too, waiting for me to get myself organized and arrange for them to be professionally hung (the necessities of a renter).


Leading down a short, sharply angled hallway


is a powder room


and the laundry room. Look, it's laundry day!


Between those two doors is the door to the large garage. Although there is more than enough space inside for two cars, the garage door and driveway are such that only one car can use it.


I can park my car and Markus parks the Vespa inside, so our daily transport is blessedly out of the vicious Aussie summer sun (heat wave this week and we're already a little worn out with the summer heat!). At least that means we have lots of guaranteed covered storage space, easily accessible.

New home: the kitchen

It's been a bit hard to motivate sharing about this house, because it so does not feel like a home (yet). I get a bit frustrated because I was so excited about the Walter St house. I loved the way it looked. I loved its high ceilings, hardwood floors and period details. The fact that the owners and previous real estate agents are being totally unethical (still!) about our move prevents me from feeling too much nostalgia, but the look and feel of this house are so very different that it's hard to feel at home here. The last house was old and surrounded by beautifully maintained gardens. This house is new and HUGE and looks like this:


The picture of modern suburbia (eek!). I tease Markus that he is secretly preparing me for life in Houston. Although I know we are incredibly fortunate to be able to live in a place like this, nothing about this place feels like us. We feel like caricatures of ourselves, especially in the mornings. For me, it's backing my big, relatively new car out of the large garage to drive my daughter to private school (yikes). For Markus, it's when he grabs his workbag and walks through the grand entryway (more on that another post) to leave for the office. We can hardly stop ourselves from feeling very '50s fabulous. I am tempted to don fancy dress, make-up, heels, pearls and a hostess apron, ready to great him with a drink when he returns home in the evenings. Seriously. Might as well have fun with it, because we have as yet been unable to shake the feeling that we are living someone else's life. We never had this feeling before. The house is a lot like Qatar, but at least in Qatar, all the houses were like that so there was no alternative (and there we definitely felt we were living an artificial life for soooo many reasons anyway). Anyway, moving on. You want to know about THIS house, so here we go!

The kitchen is the heart of the home, so I thought we'd share that space today. The location and layout of the kitchen is one of the reasons I ultimately selected this home. At first, it's corner position struck me as odd, but I really like how I can survey the dining area, playroom, and backyard from behind the kitchen counters. If I am in any one room for an extended period of time, that room would be the kitchen. It's good for me to be able to see what's going on.




The door you see leading off to the side from the kitchen (near Ellie playing with the bulletin board) goes into the playroom. This is meant to be a "TV room" (heavily wired for cable and satellite), but we aren't TV watchers, making the playroom solution even more obvious. It's a nice, big, open space. The girls really like it. I do too. The position is ideal.


As the hub, the kitchen is the first room I sort out when we move. I need to be able to cook to settle into a place, so I have to get everything put away. Here, I quickly learned how this is an architecturally designed kitchen, rather than a functional one. The many cabinets are shallow, with two (too tall) shelves rather than a more practical three, meaning that there is very little storage despite having more cabinets than I had in the other house. I had to reorganize at least three times as I unpacked boxes, trying to figure out the most efficient way to maximize the space and keep it as useful as possible. Another (minor) woe is the oven is somehow slightly smaller than standard size (which is already significantly smaller than American ovens), giving me strong misgivings about roasting a turkey in there late next week. Hm...

My favorite feature is the glass walls between the countertops and the cabinets. I've always wanted a chalkboard painted space in my kitchen, but this serves the purpose just as well with a more modern feel. I write notes to myself about meals, menu prep and groceries right on the wall with Vis-a-Vis markers. So handy!


Stephanie's favorite feature is the pantry. In our other house, all food was kept in Mama-height cabinets, well out of reach. Now, it's self-serve all the time (even if that's not exactly what Mama intended)! If Stephanie goes missing for an extended period, you can guess you'll find her hiding in the pantry, probably eating something verboten (like Nutella by the fistful). She almost completely shuts herself in there, only leaving the door cracked enough for her fingers to pull it shut and a small sliver of light to illuminate her mischievous deeds. I wish I had a picture for you, but alas, none have come out yet. The two-fisted Nutella morning was rather amusing, though I was slightly concerned about the half-full jar (it had been almost new). Ahem.

We were able to cart over our fridge from the other house. We had purchased it to fit that limited space (that kitchen was designed with the fridge as an afterthought, since the owners weren't providing one), and we were lucky it fit in here too. The dishwasher is a bottom-dollar throw-in (is quite small and only "cleans" if you have heavily pre-rinsed), but it seems to serve the purpose. There is no microwave, so we'll probably buy one though thus far we're getting by just fine without.

The trickiest part to organizing this house is the open plan structure. There is no obvious place to set things like keys, sunscreen and tissue boxes, because everything is always out in the open.


Even daily (constant) use stuff looks like clutter, which drives Markus crazy and makes even me feel like it should be put away...though there is no place to put it. We really want to avoid the trap of buying furniture for the bigger house (never a great plan), but we're having a hard time seeing a way around it in some instances.

On the upside, this open plan kitchen makes it a very easy central space when entertaining. Everyone can hang out in and around the kitchen (where everyone ends up anyway) without everyone tripping on each other. Would you like to come over for dinner?

New home: The Indoor Pool AKA Bali bath

I am tempted to carry on about our time down south (which was so fabulous!). Of course, you'd want to hear all about how much the girls LOVED herding the sheep and alpacas back into their paddock each evening. How our little Jungle Jane would approach slowly and in a sweet, gentle voice say, "Come, little sheep. Come, alpacas. It's time to go to bed. It's time to go to your paddock. Come, come, come now." How Ellie so proudly recalled that alpacas lift their tails out of the way to go pee, assuring us that she would show us just how it happened in case they needed to do it again.


Or maybe you want to hear about how despite the fact that it was unseasonably cold and rainy we let them swim buck-naked in the ocean, because really, why not?

I mean, it really was quite rainy and cold. Unexpectedly so. We had to borrow jackets from the farmstay owner. Not that we minded the weather much at all.

The rain gave us a great excuse to explore the great indoors...in Mammoth Cave! See those colored lights? Those are the girls in motion. Glo-sticks took the fear away and made the cave exciting.

We're fairly sure you don't want to hear about how incredibly delicious the food and wine was at the Voyager Estate or the Xanadu winery (especially Xanadu. YUM!). No one wants to hear about that. So instead, I'll move along to introducing our new house, starting with everyone's favorite feature: the indoor pool.

Okay, so we don't really have an indoor pool. It's the master bath...and boy, is it ever. It is huge! After two years of no bathtub, it looks like an indoor pool to us! And then, you look out the windows and see the neighbor's beautiful blooming bougainvillea and think perhaps, just perhaps, you've been transported to a lovely spa in Bali.

The first night we spent in this house, we awoke to the loudest cacophony of birdsong AT 4 AM (which of course woke Stephanie too). It was a bit unholy. By 5, the sun was up as well and it was time to surrender. I stumbled (not just a little grumpy) into the bathroom, rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, and saw this:

Wow. At the time, the entire house was still in boxes (with the exception of our bedroom, which my intrepid husband insisted on finishing before allowing either of us to sleep) and I was not loving the move. But this...I took a shower and just looked out the window (this photo is actually taken from inside the shower door), not caring who might have seen me, because this view made me feel like I was on holiday. And I'm not the only fan.

The girls LOVE it! What's not to love? Our good friends and previous neighbors came by this afternoon to play at the river and see our new house. Before we knew it, there were four kids having a blast in that tub. It's a happening place!

Skipping ahead

As you know, we moved house the first week of November. My, what a week that was. Markus and I had been sick the week before. We were all drained and totally out of whack...and then the moving truck shows up, as if we were in any way prepared. Ha. Ellie went to school and Markus had a ridiculously intensive week at work while Stephanie and I did our best to manage packers, movers, unpackers, and cleaners on our own. I know this was a "normal" move, but I'm not a normal person. It's very unusual for me to move from one house to another in the same place. Managing people at two houses at the same time was a bit much. The first day I didn't have strangers in the house (Friday) was a good day.

And now...it's over! Markus cannot abide boxes, no matter how hard he tries to deny it, so he worked like a madman to unpack. He springs out of bed at unholy hours (granted, the kids are up first) to get at it again. He wants it done! He wants it all put away! He wants it organized and finalized and finished! I am not nearly playing at that level (I like sleep and downtime), so the credit for most of the orderliness around us is due to him alone. There are still a lot of spaces that are unfinished, but most big areas are completely done. The kitchen was first (I did that!), the bedrooms, the playroom, the garage (we have a garage now!)...all done. The living room is getting there. The common spaces in this house are massive, so we need to do some tweaking and possibly some furniture buying...but that will come over time. I'd love to go through everything with you, but that would make for one massive post. I'll spread it out over the coming week. For now, I'm skipping ahead to explain a bit about the photo I shared yesterday.

On Monday, we ran away from the mayhem that is our new house and headed down to Margaret River for some much needed R&R. We stayed again at the Margaret River Hideaway farmstay, where the girls had such a brilliant time last time and were doubly thrilled to discover two new joeys have been added to the animals on the place. They were over the moon each time they got close to Patsy (8 months) and Je Quoi (4 months). Je Quoi spends most of her time heavily tucked into a basket under the owner's desk, but Patsy is old enough and trained enough that she goes wherever he goes. She bounds after his motorbike as he zooms around the grounds. She goes with him in a backpack when he's in town at a cafe or at the grocery store. She is his shadow, and I thought more than once that I surely need a baby kangaroo to keep under my desk and to follow me around on my scooter.

Julian (the owner) did let Ellie and I take Je Quoi in her backpack in our car when we followed him to a cafe one rainy day. We weren't allowed to open it (she is so little she gets scared, and she's still bonding with/to Julian), but that did not in any way diminish Ellie's joy at the responsibility.

While the sweet joeys were a definite highlight (we're sure the girls will be talking about that for weeks!), we had so many good times down south. It was wonderful to get away! More updates to come over the coming days. I think this one is long enough.

Back online and back at home

Hello! Did you miss us? We missed you!

The move, while generally un-fun, went off quite well. I promise to fill you in on all the details soon, as I'd hoped to do earlier. Internet has only just now been restored. We should have had it by last Friday, but no. At least we have it now, and I'll be updating soon.

For the moment, I'll just share a favorite image from this week:

Chillin' in a cafe on a rainy day with a baby kangaroo.

As you do.

Updates soon!

It begins!

Today is the day the movers arrive and start packing! The house looks like a bomb. I abandoned all attempts to get it organized and ready for the move, because frankly, all thoughts of the move were stressing me out. In interests of self-preservation (and preservation of my family), I surrendered and let the bomb explode. Should make packing interesting, but I don't have to do it!

I would like to keep you updated on things as we go, but a fact of technology is that we will soon be without internet for the week. I don't understand this phenomenon, but all utilities except internet can transfer in a moment. Internet will go out here today and not be switched on at the new house until Friday. In the interim, Markus will have email access at work and I will have sporadic access through my phone. The blog will have to wait until the weekend.

We enjoyed a fantastic weekend together as a family this past weekend! Markus's sick grossness finally broke on Saturday evening. It just lifted and was gone. Hallelujah! He was out sick all week from work, and we are sure this will cause all manner of mayhem for him there this week. Oh well. There was nothing to be done about it but wait for the germs to be defeated. Defeated they are, so we are thankful for that. My body abandoned the sick as soon as he came home gross. Although the week was very challenging for all of us, we are all well now! Just in time to move!

Also just in time to move, the outlet for the dryer had a little explosion just this morning! I'm serious. There are black char marks all around it and the smell of melted plastic lingers in the air (don't worry; the circuit is shut down). I was trying to get laundry finished before packing, but that load in the washing machine will have to be air-dried. The dryer is no more. The wiring in this house is CRAP. And IT'S NOT OUR PROBLEM ANYMORE! Yippee! Tra-la-la! The movers start today. Tomorrow night, we sleep in our new house! Away we go!

Sickies

This week has been hard. Very hard. Markus and I have been unwell. With no breaks, no babysitter, no family close by to latch onto... Oh, woe to us. Oy.

Thankfully, the girls are fine! With the exception of minor coughs (nothing worrisome), they are a-ok, happy as clams...well, if you also make an exception for the fact that their parents are lame ducks. They are themselves, and we are very pleased they have escaped relatively unscathed from whatever bug we have. The only presence of it in Stephanie we detect is trouble going to bed at night, a common thing with her when she doesn't feel good. She wants someone there until she falls asleep, but she doesn't fall asleep well when someone is there. It tends to drag on for quite a while (6:30 bedtime dragged on til close to 9 some nights), but all in all, that's not so bad.

On Sunday, we made our first ever trip out to Rottnest Island. Our fantastic neighbors and friends across the road had arranged a weekend holiday stay over there, and we missed booking on time to join them. We did take them up on the suggestion of a day trip meeting, and it was lovely.

Rottnest is just a 30 minute ferry ride from Fremantle harbor. The explorers who found it discovered its resident quokkas, small marsupials they mistook for large rats, and thus dubbed it a Rat-nest (Rottnest). Quokkas are awfully darned cute, and our little Jungle Jane adored them (as she does any animal).

Rottnest allows no cars (thus the girls' bike helmets), making it a great vacation spot for young families. It has pristine beaches with crystal clear water that is excellent for snorkeling. Not that we'd know. I got so seasick on the ride over that I barely recovered. I was happy to take the early ferry home again, a truly rough ride back, which was fortunate in that the seas got even rougher later in the day. By the time we got home, my body was so out of whack that I was still rocking and rolling while stationary. I also could not get warm. I burned myself with hot water in the shower but still felt cold. I shivered so much for so long that my abs hurt. It felt like the flu. Perhaps it was. Bad timing for the Rotto trip, I guess. I just hadn't felt that coming.

By Tuesday, I was feverish (all day) and fairly miserable. Thanks to an ENT appointment for Ellie*, I had both girls home with me at a time when I really needed to lie down. Markus promised he would try to come home early to help me, and come home early he did...more ill than I was. Miraculously, I woke up yesterday without this bug in my system, but he hasn't been back to work yet. It has knocked him over.

Add onto this a ridiculous house viewing we had to allow today. We will start our move next week. The owners decided not to renew our lease because they had to do major renovations involving asbestos, thus could not have tenants. Ha. The house is listed online. The estate agent called me Monday, all sweet and lovey, trying to get on my good side before asking for a viewing for particular prospective tenants on Thursday, which she then advertised online as an open house. Grr. That d*mn house viewing sent me over the edge. Proverbial straw, as it were. I won't go into details of my not-so-little breakdown today, but let's all agree that next week will be a good time to get a fresh start and finally do this move!

Anyhoo...the girls are fine. We are doing the best we can to keep life normal for them, despite our own funk and stress levels. Of course they notice and behave accordingly ("climbing the walls" is an expression that comes to mind...), but they are little children and are doing the best they can too. Next week will be different. Next week will be very different! Be sure to note the change of address in the previous post. That will be in effect from Monday onwards.

*While my mom was visiting, the school nurse called to express concern about Ellie's ears. She had participated in a routine eye and ear screening at school, and the nurse found her ears to be "full of fluid". After berating me for ignoring my daughter's health (she made me cry), I took Ellie to our friendly GP who assured me the nurse had gotten a bit carried away. He prescribed a nasal spray to strengthen her eustachian tubes to aid in drainage and told us to come back in a month to follow up, which we did. He referred us to an ENT because one ear was still not clear. The school nurse called two days later, demanding to know why I had ignored her referral to the GP, as she had tested Ellie again and found fluid in both ears. Grr. Anyhoo, the wait for the ENT was nearly two months. I called this week to try to reschedule, and the next day had opened up. Fantastic! Ellie went in to see the ENT. He found no infection though there was indeed fluid in both ears. He wants to try to dry it out with antibiotics before he resorts to inserting grommets. We are to go back in mid-December for a full hearing screen and a follow-up visit, at which point he'll decide about grommets. I'll keep you posted on that. The good news is that there is no infection and Ellie doesn't seem to be bothered about this at all. He says this is really common, and we are lucky to be among the few in whom no infection is present.

We call this "burning the fumes"

This is what pre-bedtime mayhem can look like:

Update on Stephanie

Some of you have been asking about Stephanie lately. Updates on Stephanie are harder than the rest of us, because Stephanie is harder to capture in words. What words could contain that self-sufficient, tender, hilarious little dynamo? Life with Stephanie looks a lot like this:

• The first is her very calmly, carefully pushing my sewing pins into the ironing board in a lovely, decorative fashion.
• Then, there's her ballet class, which she loves with a passion that both amazes and inspires (and makes me giddy with the cuteness).
• Moving on to the third popsicle of the day. She thinks she's getting away with something; I know all that is in those homemade treats is pureed mango and strawberries.
• We see Zuzu has found a nice resting space. I think that drawer in our dining table is meant for silverware; Stephanie thinks it is a crib.
• As for the laundry basket photo, need I say more?
• That last one was taken this morning. I followed the smell and found her hiding behind my desk, painting her toenails and her feet with my new nail polish (thank goodness it's the least nasty-chemicals one available). Unperturbed at my interruption, she calmly finished the job and set up her toenail drying spot as I hid the polish away. Her feet are propped on a stack of Australian animal books, and she is sitting in a pink basket, reading. This is Stephanie at 7am. Stephanie in a nutshell (and a pink basket).

Update on Ellie

I know this will be someone's mind, so I thought I'd share a little update on Ellie now that school is underway again. I am happy to report so far, so good. She is happy and plowing on with words, though still at a reserved pace for her capabilities. At least she is not asking to stay home, which is where we were before the break and on the first day back.

There was a seriously rocky start. One of my big enticements to lure her back into school excitement was to give her a new lunchbox (fantastic stainless steel by PlanetBox), and she loved the pink bag and rainbow magnets. She could hardly wait to show everyone! Then, on the very first day, her teacher told her that the magnets were not appropriate for school. The Montessori environment prefers realism to fantasy, and there is a winged unicorn on the largest magnet. I scoured the school handbook and did not find any way this was against policy, but the damage had been done. Although Ellie put on a brave face and nodded her assent at the time, she was in tears by the time we reached the car. She was heartbroken that even a small part of her new pride and joy was not allowed. Rules and order are so important to Ellie, so her perceiving that she had somehow violated them even without meaning to...she was devastated. She cried about it multiple times through the evening and again at bedtime. I WAS FURIOUS!!! I had a meeting with her teacher. To her credit, she had no idea how upset Ellie was (again, that brave face). At home, Ellie and I made new magnets for her lunchbox. I bought magnetic printer paper and I scanned one of Ellie's paintings onto it. We cut that up, and that has been fine. I only wish we had done that from the start, because she is very aware that it is an allowed substitution rather than a source of pride.

Anyway, other than that, things are okay for her at school. At home, she has become quite the toilet reader, taking those darned fairy books to the potty with her every time. She is so into them that now Stephanie carries them around too (always wanting to be like the big sister!). Thank goodness for the library. I am not willing to fork out money for this series, but at the same time, I am thankful Ellie has found a series of chapter books that she looks forward to with great anticipation. We go to the library every week, and she is always so thrilled to find new books on the shelf!

Moving day approaches!

After nearly five months of looking, we settled on a house (to rent) in Mosman Park, the same suburb where Ellie's school is located. We think this choice will be even more appreciated next year when I'm taking them both to school, then picking Stephanie up earlier than Ellie. That's six school to's and fro's, five days a week! The commute from Mosman Park to Perth city for Markus is double the time from our house in Claremont, but he only does that twice a day versus six times. It's a drag, but reason wins!

Thus far, I've been pretty displeased with the entire situation. We've been so plagued with issues in our current house, but on the whole, we really like living here. We also really hate moving within a posting unless it's absolutely necessary. It doesn't feel absolutely necessary, so when the owners decided not to renew our lease, I was rather put out. They did so on the pretense that they were going to start the major renovations it will take to get this house in good shape, which they cannot do with tenants because of asbestos (true). We always suspected that they were lying, that this house would be turned around and rented out again (perhaps for more rent) as soon as they can replace the carpet in the mushroom room. It turns out we were right, though the speed is even faster than I'd anticipated. Our house is already listed online on rental websites. It is listed as "available now" (real estate agent lingo for "unoccupied"), which really raised my blood pressure when I saw it Monday morning. I've been infuriated by the injustice of it all. We report things to maintain the house, they don't do it, they don't adjust our rent accordingly, then they kick us out and look for new tenants who won't know...but will soon find out. Grrr. It made my blood boil. I wanted to write a letter to the local paper, naming names and our address just so everyone will know what they are getting with whom.

But that doesn't serve any purpose, other than exponentially increasing bad will (my own included). Markus advised me to let it go, to be happy we are moving to a nice, new house that should (ideally) be relatively problem-free. And I was, sort of. I know he is right, and I want to move on. I am frustrated to be waiting out this move. The new house is unoccupied. We are still here, waiting, but that will end soon. The movers show up on November 1st, and the show will get on the road.

And then, yesterday, it rained. It rained like it hasn't rained in months. It poured cats and dogs! And you know what? The house leaked like a sieve! The kitchen skylight poured water onto the floor. The "repaired" gutters never caught the water, which instead seeped (as always) through the boards, bypassing the drains and sink wells, flooding the backyard. The ceiling of the laundry room was damp. I was overjoyed! VINDICATION!

So thank you, God, for sending that soaking rain. The plants needed it, and so did I. It washed away my frustration and replaced it with gratitude that we have a new place waiting for us. I am really happy about our move now. I am ready.

Incidentally, since this blog is friends and family only, I can share our new address. As of November 1st, our address will be:

Klingbeil family

134 Wellington St

Mosman Park WA 6012

AUSTRALIA

Back to school

Ellie went back to school on Tuesday after two-plus weeks of between term holidays. She didn't much want to go, and truth be told, I didn't much want to send her. We had a great holiday this time! She was so happy to be home, and she started getting excited about learning again.

For much of this year, I've been questioning the decision to send Ellie (and soon Stephanie) to school. I am a Montessori trained teacher, and I have always been a huge advocate of Montessori education for ages 3-6. Sending Ellie to Beehive was an obvious choice. It hasn't played out quite as I anticipated. At first, she took to it like a duck to water. She loved the order, the precision, the detail...and in many ways, those things continue to make it a great fit for her personality. But the precision seems to have taken her natural tendencies of perfectionism to a new level, a level where it interferes with her desire to learn new skills (namely reading and writing) because that would mean making mistakes along the way that she is unwilling to make.

Her school insists on cursive writing at this age, and her teacher requested I discourage printing at home. I did that, so as not to give conflicting messages, but I have regretted it. Cursive just doesn't appeal to Ellie, and she is put off by it. Not being "allowed" to print, she has lost the drive to write at all. In the Montessori environment, writing comes before reading, so she is being held off from reading progression. She is a frustrated and saddened kid. Her love of learning has withered. Her desire to attend school has faded. Her enthusiasm for new skills has disappeared. It hurt me to see it, though it took me until the recent school holidays to figure out all the whys behind it that I just explained.

Once I clearly saw what was happening, I was able to start putting it right for her. She is a clever girl, so although it is against my usual to give mixed messages, I told her she should feel free to write in print at home as long as she remembers to stick to cursive at school. I told her I missed her writing (true!!!) and I wanted to see it again. I told her I didn't care if it was print or cursive, and she should write whatever made her happy to write, as often as she wanted to do it. THIS HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. Her writing has taken off like wildfire again. I just had to fan that smoldering little flame. I made her a little purse with a notepad and a multi-color ink pen inside, and she keeps that with her in the car to jot down words as she thinks them up. This morning on the way to school, she and Stephanie were taking cafe orders (a favorite game in which they usually draw whatever you order), and Ellie wrote "PESTO" all by herself without even a hint from me! Naturally, this has led to her trying to read more things too. She is regaining confidence and enthusiasm because that pressure for perfection and correctness is off, at least at home. I've also had specific, direct talks with her about how it is okay to make mistakes, that it is part of learning and is no problem at all, that we should expect to make mistakes and learn from them rather than worry about them. Mistakes help us learn, and they shouldn't stop us from trying. Although perfectionism is central facet of her personality, she is a smart girl and my words are getting through. She hears the message and has even transmitted it to others in a loving way when she sees classmates struggle, so I'm thankful I am being heard.

I have been so happy watching her light up again that I almost didn't want to send her back to school at all. I didn't want to see that light get snuffed out again. Ultimately, I figured this is a short term (only 10 weeks or so) followed by a really long holiday (end of school year/summer/Christmas break), so back she went to finish the year. It has only been two days, but hopefully, we will stay on track. I plan to teach her to read myself in my own way over that holiday so as not to conflict with what she's seeing at school or raise her teacher's notice as to why/how Ellie is approaching words differently than expected (I want to avoid the latter more for Ellie's sake, so she never has to be told that's not how it's done). I am far more the wiser for having sussed out the core problem, so I am much more able to help her than I was before. Ellie is such a sensitive soul that we are sure she will always require direct support from us to help her make her way through this world of childhood and adolescence. I am just relieved for now to be able to address the problem she is having and to help her manage it.

Singing and reading

Stephanie is holding a book of German children's songs, singing her version of one she finds. Check out Ellie in the background with a book, reading, rocking, legs crossed... Very cute afternoon moment from today.