Nuts and bolts

You are familiar with the expression "wrench in the works", yes? Excuse me while I run with an analogy here.
Over the past several weeks (months, actually), we've been experiencing not so much a wrench in the works (that would shut everything down), but rather a seemingly endless stream of random nuts and bolts being tossed into the gears. They jam things up, cause the gears to grind, break a few cogs here and there, and generally make life flow less smoothly.

The biggest one is a change in jobs for Markus, within the company and current location. He prefers I not share about his job in this space, so I won't go into detail, but there has been a change that has caused a ripple effect in our well-oiled machine here at home. He used to work like a crazy man from before 7am (sometimes well before) so he could be home by 4:30 in the afternoon. He did this so he could spend time with the girls, playing, cycling, whatever fun stuff could be squeezed in to about an hour before dinnertime. They loved it, and without knowing the time on the clock, they could feel when it was time for him to be home. They would watch the door, listen to cars coming down the street, and wait in excited anticipation of their favorite playmate. I loved it too. I could tidy up, have a cuppa to recoup and refresh a bit, and make dinner in peace while knowing my kids (all three of them) were happy as clams. This is gone now. His new job doesn't have the leeway (yet) to allow him to leave at the earlier time, so he stays for breakfast instead and comes home in time for (or sometimes after) dinner. Evening playtime (and downtime) has been cut out. He comes home tired and they are over-hungry for his attention. Squabbles and tantrums ensue. Markus's tension levels are higher, though he is a champ for leaving work at work in every way he can. I am a tension barometer, though, so I feel it and my tension goes sky-high. The girls feel it in both of us and go nuts...which makes us nuts and well...we're all adjusting. We know it will normalize after a while, so there's no point in being drama queens about it.

Other little issues have been Stephanie's sleep (or lack thereof) and now her reversal of potty-training. For weeks, her sleep was an issue. After over a year of her being a champion, angelic sleeper, she was waking early early early (5am is against my religion). The earlier she awoke, the later she fell asleep. Soon, she was in a cycle of overtired that interfered with naps. It was a challenge. Now, winter is upon us and the house is a meatlocker (15 degrees C, 59 degrees F in the bathroom...the only room that has an indoor thermometer for some reason). We suspect that this has caused our three-months-long-fully-potty-trained girl to have no desire to expose her cute little bum for love or money, and she is refusing to use the toilet. Man, has that girl increased my laundry duty of late! These aren't accidents. She can hold it til she bursts (I know, because I set her--with great objections being registered--on the toilet at regular intervals to little result). She really doesn't want to sit on the potty right now; she tells me every time that it's too cold. Today, she peed in the coin compartment in the car while I chatted with a friend. Sigh. At least it was sunny and warm in that spot, yes? Joy. Sometimes, I feel one whizz away from the nuthouse.

Friday is the end of term for Ellie at school. Winter break of two and a half weeks will start, and it doesn't come too soon. Ellie is FRIED. She starts wailing most days the minute I pick her up from school. She wails at high volume intermittently for various reasons throughout each and every day. It's exhausting (and not a little maddening), but we know it's because she's exhausted. She needs a break, and it's coming. We look forward to this time off for her. We need some time off for all of us.

Being in the remote location as we are, obvious holidays (like school being out) are bad times to get away... because EVERYONE tries to get away and they mostly get away to the same places (the closest places). Prices go sky-high and crowds shift from Perth to Margaret River or Bali. With this in mind, we tend to buck the trend and stay home for school holidays. We plan our trips off-season, and we're currently looking into a vacation for early August. Things are slowly falling into place for that, and we're starting to get very excited! We won't be going back to Bali (overrun by Europeans on their summer holidays), but we've found someplace new to us that is also quite fabulous and not too far away. Hooray for holidays!

Anyway, I just wanted you to know why I've fallen off the radar. Who wants to read about how stressed and tense and crazy I am, especially when recording it makes it seem far worse than it really is? Yes, we've been experiencing some bumps along our normally smooth road, but that makes us appreciate how smooth the road has been here thus far. We are all healthy (thank the Lord!), and our little family is a happy, close-knit little bunch. Our weeks are soooo long, but the weekends feel so short as we have lots of fun with each other and soak up the time away from the external stuff that drives us mad. Life is still good. It's just more tiring than it was, leaving me less time than ever to blog or email or call or whatever communication form required because really, the energy just isn't there. It will be again. Please don't feel slighted. Our thoughts are with you. Our hearts are with you. We still love and miss our friends and family far away. We're just clinging to the little energized sane moments and making the most of them right now. We'll be back on track soon, I promise.

New bedtime routine (for a while)

A couple of weeks ago, we decided it was time to try something we've been intending to do since we moved in: have the girls share their bedroom. In the layout of this house, our bedroom and Ellie's bedroom are on either side of the center hallway from the front door. When we first moved in, we intended for the girls to share. Unfortunately, we gave up on that idea when we realized that Stephanie would not/could not sleep if there was any noise whatsoever (including long sleepy exhalations by her three year old sister). Stephanie was moved to the extension at the back of the house, where she slept soundly (though uncomfortably far away). Before long, she became a champion sleeper. She slept 12-13 hours per night and took 2-3 hour naps during the day. It was incredible!

Lately, that winning streak has stumbled and fallen. She has a hard time settling. She wakes in the night. She wants to get up before the crack of dawn. I am not a morning person, so any time before 6am is against my religion and she's been waking between 5 and 5:30am for a couple of months now. A few times, it has seemed to us that she is scared, that she just wants someone near. We thought perhaps the time had come to have the girls share a room. They were both keen and very excited. We set up a mattress on the floor for Stephanie and made the bed with her brand-new doggie sheets. Joint bedtime stories were so wonderful, and Stephanie loved having the extra time to hear Papa read!



Alas, all good things must come to an end. Stephanie's room in the extension had a baby gate on the door; Ellie's room does not. The fact that she could come out meant that she did come out..and often. By Friday, she wasn't falling asleep until almost 9pm (normally no later than 7), woke repeatedly in the night, and come in our room by 3am each morning. Amazingly (thankfully!), Ellie slept right through everything, including the dozens of times each night we brought Stephanie in to resettle her. Markus, Stephanie and I, however, were not faring so well. We were all exhausted, and I had a fat lip from Thursday night when she flopped her head back full force onto what she thought was her pillow but was instead my face. Yippee. Back to the extension she went, and back to her routine quickly followed. She still has a hard time settling down, but that's partly due to the lack of schnully (gone as of this week). Maybe when we move, the transition to sharing a room will be more obvious.

Vacation planning

Markus has been granted leave in August, and we're trying to plan our holiday. Tonight he asked the girls, "Who wants to go to Bali?" All of us shouted, "MEEEEEEEEE!" Stephanie took it a step further.
"Go see the elephants. I get my shoes on..."

Araluen

Over the weekend, we decided to celebrate a little victory by treating ourselves to lunch at the Millbrook Winery and a visit to Araluen Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, lunch was a bust. Stephanie missed her nap and was too tired to eat, Ellie was just too choosy to eat, and Markus's meal was so unsatisfying that he didn't eat at all. Oh dear. At least there was Araluen afterwards to enjoy, and we were thankful too for their little tearoom.

Stephanie has discovered chips/fries and ketchup. (Ellie still can't understand the appeal.)


Both of them fully understand the appeal of ice cream!



And oh, the sugar high that followed was oh-so-very high!


Good thing there was a lot of space to explore and roam...



...and Papa to climb on as well.




We all had such a great time at Araluen that on our next visit, we plan to pack a picnic and just stick to what we know works! (more pictures in the flickr pool in case you'd like to see)

to Auntie Awesome

Sorry we're late with the mail, but we're on time with the message!
Hope it's fabulous!

Twinkle toes

Last week, Ellie moved up to the next age group in her Saturday morning ballet class. From a busy, full class of four year olds to a smaller class of well-controlled five year olds has been a step change in skill and practice. It makes her a little nervous, but at the same time, it's a much better fit for her personality. Her teacher suggested the move, and Ellie seems very happy while she's there.

This girl loves animals!

When I joined the girls for breakfast this morning, I was greeted with this sight:


Ellie always liked the Schleich animals, but Stephanie loves them! A small collection attend her wherever she goes. In a purse, in her hands, in a pocket...there are always Schleich animals close by. The amazing thing is that she actually plays with all of them! She chooses different animals each day, and she gives them all attention. She cannot get enough, and they are so beautiful that we are happy to indulge. They should last for ages, and we plan to always keep them.

What's new

There has been a lag in posting again, but not for lack of motivation! This time it has been serious lack of time and opportunity. We've been very busy lately. With the last rain storm, the flood came in through the ceiling instead of the floor. After our inspection, we received two letters from the estate agent. One was the inspection report, which infuriated me with comments about our "relatively clean" oven and the "slightly greasy" hood when there was a freaking flood in one room to contend with. Grr. The other was a letter that infuriated Markus: an official notice that our contract will not be renewed, so we are now officially moving. Grr twice. I haven't moved within a location since high school. At least we aren't changing countries again, but still...it's rather un-fun. So on Friday, I saw four houses. This Wednesday, I saw two more. There just isn't anything out there right now. Most family homes become available in the spring, as family moves tend to happen over the summer while kids are out of school. It's nearly winter now, so most people are staying put. The search continues. Although we have no desire to drag out the process, we also don't feel the need to appease the slack owners with any kind of rush on our part.

On Friday, Ellie's class hosted corroboree, so we were happy to attend that. The name "corroboree" has an Aboriginal origin, and the school uses this word for their school-wide show and tell. Parents are invited on the days their children's class hosts, so Friday was our turn to see. Corroboree is always a bit lengthy but heavy on the cuteness when the hosting class does a presentation. Ellie's class recited poems, painted their faces and shared facts about lions with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" as background music and sang another song about how Australia is the best place on earth (See, Americans aren't the only ones who go for homeland brainwashing!). Ellie is always so proud to see us there.


This past weekend was beautiful, so we were out and about quite a bit. We did a fair bit of socializing over meals, and then on Monday (Foundation Day in WA), we visited the museum to see the Pompeii exhibit. The entry point was a brief, 3D movie about the destruction of the city. The girls had fun trying to figure out the glasses.


We didn't see much of the exhibit (very small room, lots of people, squirmy kiddos), but we were all affected by the plaster casts of some victims on our way out of the exhibit hall. If you know much about Pompeii, it's likely you have seen images of these plaster casts before. I had. But seeing them in person was incredible. And so sad, in its way. Unbelievable that it happened nearly 2000 years ago, yet these were people so much like us! Incredible.

On Saturday, I had my hair appointment with a new hairdresser to get my color fixed. I just wasn't happy. I wanted her to make it lighter, brighter. I was thinking all over pale, strawberry blonde. She told me there was no good way to get there from how dark I was, so she spent hours (seriously, four hours!) making a very natural-looking transition from what I had to this:


You may not notice much difference (Markus doesn't), but I'm really happy. I don't even feel the need to go back to blonde anytime soon now, which is a pretty big change in me for a pretty small change in hair color. Of course, if you look closer at the photo, you will see this:


Both girls have kicked up the crazy a few notches. For a bonus, Stephanie didn't sleep last night until almost 3am. Ellie was up by 6; Stephanie followed at 6:45. I got about 3 hours of sleep. Then, Stephanie only napped for an hour (usually it's 1.5-3!). Thank goodness the week is short, because it has been intense!

Blessings in the afternoon

Yes, the morning was challenging. I think the most interesting moment was when Ellie pulled out a long strip of toilet paper, wiped her bum and then re-rolled it all (with wiped part somewhere in the middle). But the afternoon brought this...






...and my heart is full of peace and joy and love for these wonderful little people and all their glorious crazy.
I am so blessed.

One of those mornings

The highlights:

Both girls were awake at 5:30 this morning.

It took over 20 minutes, several verbal battles and ultimately a tantrum to get Ellie dressed. All the while, her bare skin was becoming mottled with cold (very cold in our house in the mornings). Now, we just have to wait for the sniffles to set in...

Stephanie insists on "privacy" when using the toilet. I left her alone for four minutes, during which time she dipped the toilet brush in the toilet bowl full of pee and proceeded to "clean" the floor (and her booties and her hands...). As a bonus, she managed to stuff almost an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet before she started "cleaning". Following her sister's example, she thrashed like an (hysterically giggling) alligator while I tried to get her dressed. (at least she was happy, right?)

Squabbles escalating to high-pitched screaming when Ellie insisted that Stephanie's baby chicks (toy) weren't chicks but were actually guinea pigs that were licking her.

It's 7:30.
May I go back to bed now?

Deflated

This morning, I had a rental inspection and hosted a morning tea for the new parents in Ellie's class. I wasn't fussed about both on the same day. Since the house has to be super-clean for both, might as well knock it out together! Except the agent arrived to inspect just as I returned from dropping off Ellie at school (she usually comes around noon). It's been rainy here lately and I've been avoiding the Mushroom Room (still leaks, despite all stop-gaps the owners have done). We went in there, and the place is SOAKED. It's coming from the ceiling now, which means all the storage we'd put up on the bench in there to keep it safe was WET. Thank goodness most of it was in bins, but two bins were open, so those are trash now. This sent my stress level higher than I'd like just as people started coming through the front door. While ladies lingered and chatted, a workman came and took the carpet out the back door (no one even saw!). I am too worn out with all this to even get mad. I just feel so deflated, so defeated, so FRUSTRATED that we have to deal with this kind of thing for $1250 per week in rent! I don't want to move out of this house (still the most beautiful house I've lived in and a fabulous yard for the girls with fantastic friends across the road), but I do want to move out of these issues and there's nothing appropriate available right now. Most family homes become available in the summer (moving while kids are out of school), and we've just started winter. Winter means rain. Rain means more flood, damp...not to mention the power cuts we experience when it's cold (a whole different story).
I need a warm hug (and possibly a stiff drink).
But enough whining.
My last guest didn't leave until noon (from a 9am start), so, although I didn't get to enjoy it much myself, the morning tea seems to have been a great success! I have a sink full of dishes to prove it, and lots of leftover goodies to share if anyone would like to stop by and admire my new indoor pool in person.
I just might make you wash dishes afterwards.

Non-Napping Powerhouse of Crazy

This post's title was Stephanie's new nickname, or at least her nickname yesterday when she was indeed the Non-Napping Powerhouse of Crazy. Anyone familiar with small children will tell you that they are little barometers. The weather was changing towards rain, her routine has been disrupted significantly, and yesterday she let the crazy fly and land where it may. Oy. Thank goodness she's quite easily entertained! In the morning, we spent 30 minutes sitting in the car in our driveway "driving".


I spent all of her nap mutiny time outside raking the front yard. It took over an hour, but the results were beautiful. I was so proud...until the wind kicked up. Alas. Later, once the rain had started, we geared up and went outside to kick around the leaves I'd raked earlier in the day. It was about half an hour before sunset and raining, so the pictures are a bit dark and blurry. You can see still the thrill.

So, what's with the red?

While we were in Melbun recently, I seemed to see red hair everywhere. I think it's like when a woman is wanting to be pregnant, and all she sees is bellies and babies. Clearly, I must have been ready for a change. I'm not particularly good with change. I haven't changed my hair cut or style (or lack thereof) in years. But then I saw all that red, and I wanted it. When we got home, I called my hard-to-book hairdresser, and she had an appointment open the first thing the very next day. It was meant to be!
Or not.
Despite lots of encouragement and positive feedback (it really is a pretty color), I haven't liked it since day 3. I still don't recognize myself in photos. Although I haven't been blonde without help since high school, I still think of my hair as blond. All this dark is, well, not me. I must be convinced of this since Markus even offered to indulge a wardrobe change to facilitate my staying dark, but I just don't want to keep it. It's not a permanent color (mostly henna, which gradually fades), so I'm supposed to wait it out a few more weeks before I change again. I think it will go strawberry blond next. That was more the color I was after with my switch anyway (my hairdresser convinced me to go auburn). I can satisfy my curiosity and shift back to blond more easily from there.

Anyway, sorry for the (shallow) posting about my hair, but that pic from Amberley in the last post raised some questions. You'll get an update the first weekend in June after I see a new hairdresser.

Down south AGAIN

Markus had requested Monday and Tuesday off in case we could convince Mary to extend her stay a bit and take in Sydney, and once he had the leave, he had to take it. Rather than stick around home for a long weekend, we headed down south again on Sunday for a three-day, two-night farm stay in a different spot: Margaret River Hideaway. In past visits, we have always stayed in Dunsborough, so we knew that area pretty well. Margaret River is almost an hour south of there, so we had some new spots to explore. Not that we explored much...our little farmers (most especially Farmer Stephanie) were completely happy to stick around our farmstead.

Tourist spots seem to use the term "farmstay" quite loosely in that none we've seen are actual farms. Perhaps they were farms once, but now they are big properties with a few cottages for tourists and a few animals for a farm-like feel. We liked this one a lot more than the last one, and not just because the accommodation was less dodgy (though thank goodness for that). The animals roamed free on the property, and there weren't any "no go" zones, meaning we were welcome to go anywhere or through any gate as long as we closed it behind us again. The geese, peacocks and guinea fowl roamed around most often right in front of our cottage, so the girls were up and out the door first thing in the morning to observe and fraternize.


At 9am, it was time to help feed the animals.




Afterwards, how could we resist such an awesome playground?


As usual, there are lots more photos in the flickr account. If you want to see more, just click on the sidebar.

Markus and I have realized that we go down south so the girls can have fun with animals and we can enjoy good food and wine. We don't go out in Perth, so the wine region is our food and wine time. We try to have lunch at a different winery each day. Of course, we made an exception to that rule to have lunch at Amberley on our way into town. It's the best overall in that it offers great food, wine and service in a setting where the girls are very comfortable and happy. Can't beat that!



At least, we thought we couldn't beat it until we discovered the Xanadu winery on this visit. Julian at our farmstay recommended it highly, so we headed over there for lunch on day two. Given that it was a Monday off-season, it wasn't surprising that we were the only ones there. Markus pointed out that it would probably be very noisy inside when it is full of people, but it was gorgeous and peaceful and all around fantastic when we were there! While I tend to be put off by artsy food presentation, there is no getting around the amazing flavors they were serving up (and the wine was excellent too!). They also prepared the best kids' meal we've seen: a tasting platter of small sandwiches, cheese slices, pear slices, dried apricots, and handcut potato wedges in sea salt. YUM!


We always make sure to stay somewhere with a kitchen so we can prepare breakfast and dinner at home for the girls. Ellie could eat pasta with pesto every night, and she did while we were there. Stephanie is happy to eat whatever (or too busy to eat anything). Later that night for dinner, Markus and I made our way through a bottle of Amberley's merlot while munching cracking and triple cream brie from the Margaret River Cheese Co. I am pretending that was a healthy meal, because man oh man was it good!

We experienced some fairly wintry weather this time. The first and third days were rainy, windy and cold. Day two in between was grey, but at least it wasn't bitter. The girls had a blast on the farmstay. Stephanie could not have been happier. She is such a true animal lover, and she was in seventh heaven. Usually when we come home from being away, the girls are so excited to be back. Ellie was this time too, but Stephanie started to cry when we pulled into the driveway. "Don't go home! I want to go see farm!" Sweet girl. We'll go back!

Tired wee one

It is a sad fact and a cruel twist of nature that overtired babies don't sleep. Sleep is all they need and the very thing they cannot do. Poor babies (and poor tired mamas).

Last night, I had just happily snuggled under the big duvet and opened Pride and Prejudice for my seventh (seventeenth?) reading, feeling very proud of myself for being in bed before 9:30, when I heard baby Stephanie wailing in misery from her room. She was in such distress that I was literally running down the hall while trying to don slippers in our icy house. I don't know if she had a bad dream or what it was, but she settled down as soon as I scooped her up. She was almost asleep again as I wiped her sweet baby tears from her cheeks, but she panicked when I laid her back on the bed. I snuggled down with her and she gripped my hand. Within minutes, her breathing was soft and steady, and her tight grip relaxed as she drifted off. I started to get up, and she started to cry. A few repeats of this later, and I surrendered, pulled up an adult-sized blanket we keep on her chair, and spent the night in my slippers, lying stiff as a board on the edge of her bed trying not to disturb her. She woke up several times in the night, silent but frantically searching with her little hand until she found mine to hold again. Sometimes, she settled for a fistful of my hair. She always fell asleep again the moment she found her security. It is so atypical for her to wake during the night at all, so I wonder what it was. At any rate, she awoke refreshed and happy this morning (whereas I am keeping the lightly caffeinated hot tea on hand at all times).

Within a few hours, the effects of her odd night were rearing their ugly heads. She became nervous, teary, uncoordinated (dropping things, tripping...as you do when you're tired). I abandoned our Thursday playgroup and brought her home for her nap. By then, we were into the phase Markus and I lovingly call "burning fumes". She was running on empty, which induces some kind of wild baby frenzy. I could not settle her down no matter how I tried, so eventually I gave up and waited for the fumes to burn out.



(wearing sister's sunglasses makes activity feel all the more edgy)
Her last act of baby defiance was dragging her chair over to the computer and climbing up, trying to turn it on by herself (this is verboten). She thought it was rawther hilarious until the chair tipped and she fell to the floor. She wasn't hurt, but the surprise was enough to slam the door on wakefulness. "I NEED TO GO TO BED!!!" she wailed. That was that.
Poor tired wee one.

Safe travels, Mary!

Late last night (or early early this morning), you boarded the plane and started your journey home. We hope it will be as smooth as your travel here seemed to be. We are still amazed at how gracefully you handled the transition(s) and were so thrilled you made the trip in the first place! Half a planet is no mean endeavor, so Mary, thank you again for coming. Yes, I made it home from the airport okay (I know you were worried I was too tired for driving so long past my bedtime). The lorikeets were squawking away in the airport trees at 11pm!

I wish we had thought to put the beautiful rocking chair you gave us in the kitchen instead of the living room, because both girls have been taking turns sitting in it almost non-stop since we moved it there last night.


The flowers you bought me will always make me smile and think of you. I hope that will help them escape the tyranny of my brown thumb.


You are missing yet another beautiful day, this one even warmer than yesterday. Stephanie is making the most of it in her traditional nackter popo style, only this time she donned the ladybug boots and selected a pair of Mama's panties to wear as a belt.


Life is good.

Picture-perfect Sunday: Candids