Water babies

No, the spiders have not gotten me (yet); the exterminator will spray outside on Wednesday. It's been a few days since I last posted because we are still trying to settle in, though finding time and energy to do it has proven challenging this week. The weather has been up and down recently, swinging from cool spring to hot summer to rainy fall all within a 7 day stretch. Swinging temperatures outside mean varying temperatures inside, and nighttime challenges reared their ugly heads again. I hadn't mentioned it for fear of jinxing us, but after we moved Stephanie back to the "children's wing", sleep in this house settled down quick. Ellie still dawdles as long (and as loudly) as possible, but she has no one to disturb and eventually caves. She does often wake once during the night and wander into our room for comfort, but Markus can usually settle her down again without much trouble. Stephanie still wakes twice a night to nurse, but she is also growing like a weed (as long as many 12+ month old babies) so that's no problem. This calmer routine has been working for a few weeks now. This week's high temps meant they got too hot while sleeping woke up, and last night temps plunged again and they got too cold and (you guessed it) woke up...but we're going to get there.
On to other things!

Last weekend, it was so warm that we christened our pool! Stephanie is still too young to tolerate the cold water, so she and I watched her big sister and papa play. Ellie has a wetsuit, so we squeezed her into that, pulled on her floaties, and plopped her in the water. What a happy little duckie she was too!


The weekend before that, Markus was finally able to get back on a windsurfer. He discovered a passion for that sport in the final months before we left New Orleans (windsurfing over in Ocean Springs on the weekends), but he hasn't been able to indulge in it since. In Qatar, it was TOO hot and in The Netherlands, it was TOO cold! People still windsurfed in both places, and we commented on the madness from the safety of some temperature-controlled locale. Now that we're here, there are no more excuses. While the Indian Ocean is a bit too wild, the Swan River makes an awesome spot for windsurfing (and kite surfing and sailing and paddle boarding and kayaking...), so off he went! He signed up for a refresher class, borrowed their equipment since ours wasn't unpacked, and had a blast!



Summer is just around the corner, so we are looking forward to getting back into more water sports again. We've discovered many wonderful picnic spots and shallow waters for kiddie splashing. As long as we can keep our skin out of the sun, we're up for some mighty fun times outdoors in the coming months! It's strange for me to think that this is October, the time of year I have always associated with cooler temperatures and autumnal foods. It's spring-turning-summer here. Daylight savings just kicked in today (more on this topic another time), so we "sprung forward" as the world I know "fell back". That puts us about 8 hours behind Europe and 14 hours behind the Eastern US. Ick. Trying not to think about it. Look at the lovely sunshine!