We have arrived at the Yellow House

It was just two weeks ago that we finally made it to "The Yellow House." It was the easiest move of our lives and we are really still just pinching ourselves to see if we are dreaming. It was such a nice move thanks to Carmen and Bill, who watched the kids for six days while we prepared the house and then started moving the kitchen and the shed over on the weekend. The tenants vacated our home on Friday, August 5. David left work early and met me at the house around 3:30. Jan, the real estate agent, was waiting for us. When I walked through the gate I just burst into tears. I was so happy to finally walk through the gate and know that we were home and there was no one we had to "ask" if it were o.k. to see the place as I had never been in our house without a tenant living in it. After the real estate agent left, David carried me over the threshold. David and I did a clearing on the house and then we called Carmen and Bill to come over and see it with the kids. They just went running around the house and we explained where they would be sleeping and we got to go out to the garden with them. It was such a nice feeling to be there, all of us together celebrating the realisation of our dream. It was equally wonderful to start moving the kitchen over on the weekend and I had a few days to set it up and get things in order before the removalists came on Tuesday. The weather was spectacular and although rain was predicted, the sun never stopped shinning on us. I still walk around looking in the rooms and trying to take in the fact that I live in such a beautiful place. The first night I said to David, "Does this really feel like our home?" And David laughed and said, "No, it feels like we are at a holiday home." It is just an amazing place to live, but not just the house, the town itself has just been such a special place to be apart of.

Last weekend, I went to the home birth conference in New Castle and was so pleased to hear Ina May Gaskin speak along with some other wonderful women. It was excellent and I hope that somehow, the maternity system can get better for women.

I am really enjoying Kiran and Maia. Kiran is making some amazing changes and we can't get over how much he is able to express as well as his sense of humor. His enunciation is extraordinary and comparable to what Maia was saying at his age except I think Maia was able to say just a bit more. He points and repeats everything. Today, we were outside of Maia's school and he was pointing and saying, "Toothbrush." And I looked and corrected him and said, "Bottlebrush tree." He made a joke with Carmen this weekend and he learned to say Melbourne when she asked him, "Where does Uncle Mike live?" He would say, "Melbourne," but then as a joke started to say, "Elmo." Instead of "No" he likes to say, "No, way." And yesterday, he brought me a bottle of nail polish remover and said, "Poison." (Obviously, it was good he knew to bring it to me, but we need to do a check of the house and make sure all is up away and safe as he tried to shave his face the other day with a real disposable razor and cut his cheek and upper lip. Obviously, he has been watching David.) One of the cutest things he has done is on a few occasions since we moved house, he would wake up and want milk and when latched on, he requests, "Belinda," and when I start telling the story about Belinda the fairy in the magical wood, "There once was a fairy named Belinda, who lived in the magical wood...." He gets off my breast and says, "Dog," as he wants a story with Belinda and a dog and then after I finish the story, he says, "Another." He certainly can get his point across. Recently, he has been saying, "I did it!" when he does something. He also really spontaneouly like to sing a Hindu chant, "Om Gam..." and he will so when we are out shopping or wherever, whenever. It is his favourite melody. He sure is very determined and if he does not get what he wants, he will just scream at full volume and today he got very angry at me and screamed at me when I did not let him go into my bedroom. I love watching him grown and even his attitude is endearing. He is a real delight to have around and now that I know how quickly they change and how he will grow up before I know it, I am trying to savor every minute.

Now on to my sweet girl Maia. You couldnt' ask for a better bigger sister. She has her moments and when she does, Kiran just repeats exactly what she does. Like the other day, there was a rare instance of her acting out and she threw something at Kiran when she did not want to share the people in her doll house. (She had been in school all day and probably just needed some time for herself.) So what to Kiran do, followed what she did and started throwing everything out of the house and around him. She and I have these moments when we just look at each other and smile at how cute Kiran is and she will say, "He is really cute, isn't he?" It is lovely to see the two of them together playing and I realize how nice it is for a child to have a sibling so that they can relate to one another. I really feel sorry for only children as you don't realize what you are failing to give them until you have a second and see the beauty of having two kids. Maia is changing and I don't quite know how to articulate clearly how she is speaking differently, as with Kiran he is just learning to talk and what he is doing is so obvious, but with Maia, she just sounds like an older child in the way she is expressing herself so clearly. She is a really independent little person and loves to do things by herself. Things are changing for her as she is really participating more and more at pre-school and enjoying her time with the children. She now names friends that she likes to be around and she participates in more group activities like music. Her teacher Kay was so touched to see her getting involved in the music lessons at school that her eyes welled up with tears. Maia used to just sit outside the circle and observe, but she is now starting to have fun playing the instruments and more comfortable with getting in front of other kids in the classroom. One day she pretended with some other girls that she was a cloud covering up the sun. She would have never done that a year ago.

Maia really enjoys music and art. She will take the guitar and strum it and sing a song, rather pelt it out in full volume with all her heart and soul. She is excellent at drawing and loves to make presents for all of us. When we are walking down the street and wherever, she will want to pick the flowers and now it is spring, it is the perfect time for her to enjoy finding flowers. I really love Maia. She and I enjoy doing things together when I am not busy running around the house. The other day we made playdough and she has such great enthusiasm for helping me and mixing everything up. She designed some beautiful cookies yesterday from the playdough and now she does not want to form them back into a ball to make something else. I am busy trying to plan her birthday party and really looking forward to celebrating her special day with all our friends.

Big hug to you my sweet little people. I can't wait until we are totally settled in here so we can start to just focus on enjoying day to day normal stuff instead of moving and unpacking.

I love you both with all my heart. xo Momma

July 24, 2011

Kiran and Maia are absolutely delicious. I've had my moments...my ups, my downs and after a bit of a roller coster last year while I found my feet as the mother of two, I have to say that lately, I find myself thinking about how Kiran is my last "baby" and that this body has finished the task of carrying and birthing babies. It is a strange feeling when you come to the realisation that although you don't want any more children that there will not be any more. I recently wrote on my facebook page that Kiran has hit such an adorable stage in his development that it is almost as though Mother Nature is calling, "Are you sure you don't want to do it all over again and have another one of these gorgeous creatures?" He looks up at me with those gorgeous, deep brown eyes and says, "Mama, Cuddle." And yes, I melt and pick him up and kiss his checks over and over again. Or when he crawls around on the floor pretending he is a kitten. Gosh, now that really plucks at my heart strings. At 18 months of age, quickly approaching 19 months, Kiran is a very verbal little fellow and today has strung three words together for the first time, "Poncho on me." He wanted me to put on Maia's rainbow Poncho. He also has been gaining confidence in putting two words together such as, "Bath Time, Thank You, and Dinner Time, Joovey Out, Puddle Splashing." He can identify most things easily and verbally say what he points to. The most amazing thing he did this week was when he drew on Maia's drawing and she was upset, he went over to her and said, "Sorry," and then went to the other room, found the box of tissues and brought them to her. Now that is compassion at a young age. He is a very cheerful little fellow and he loves to push the line and do what you tell him not to such as eating the tips of coloured pencils, crayons and putting pens in his mouth or throwing food off his try or doing things such as hitting himself on the head or biting himself on the hand, which was a new behaviour this week that he seemed to enjoy because he was getting extra attention. He loves to try and ride Maia's scooter and even has gotten the foot peddling motion down although he is too small to really ride it the way that he would like to. He likes to say, "Higher," when he is riding on the swing. When we say excited, he screams. He loves to dance and bounces and spins in circles when we play music. He is attempting to jump, but can't yet get his feet off the ground, so he just ends up bouncing. Puddle splashing is a real favourite and both kids enjoy bath time with Mom and Dad if we feel up to getting in with them.

Maia is always interested in drawing and writing letters. She recently went to a sewing class during the school break and at the age of three made a beautiful heart by using needle point. She copies words and today saw the word "Tuna" and wrote it next to her drawing of a cat and thought and she had spelled the word, "cat." She is trying to read, but she still has not gotten the concept of how each letter makes a sound and the sounds together made a word, but I have a feeling she will get there sometime in the coming year as she is so interested in trying to read. We would no longer classify her as shy and she is comfortable in her own skin. When she is excited she takes a deep breath between words and she aspires to learn every musical instrument in the world. She loves to "play" the guitar and sing and perform for us. She cuts out little paper tickets for her performances. Recently, David and I took her to hear the Soweto Gospel Choir and she really enjoyed herself. We were lucky to have the front row and the entertainers were frequently catching her eye and smiling at her. I was between Maia and a lady who was just turning 97 years old. The oldest and youngest in the whole theatre.

We move to our home in two weeks and we can not wait! Maia is looking forward to the trampoline at the yellow house and that is all she talks about. We just got Kiran sleeping through the night and finally had to tell him day is for eat and night is for sleep as I was getting up almost every night bar one in the last month to give him "Milkie Cuddle." It was hard to refuse him, but I finally hit the wall and we had a few night with some tears, but we are all happier for a good night's rest. He and Maia will share a room at the yellow house and we hope that it will work out for the two of them. Anyway that is the latest. We are loving our life in Berry and each day we pinch ourselves with our good fortune. What a lovely place for these little people to grow up.

Sound of Music

Today, Maia and I took Nanna to the Nowra Anglican College's production of the Sound of Music. It was at the Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre and we were really impressed by the staging and the quality of the acting and singing. During the performance, Maia turned to me and said, "Momma, I am going to have kids. I am not going to have a shop. I will just have a house of my own." I wonder if she thought the convent was a shop...laugh. She was excellent and for a small child made it through the three hours like a star. She is such an easy going and pleasant little person. Maia takes time to adapt to new environments and experiences and she was worried about the curtain opening and the noise level of the show and so she held her ears for the first two hours on and off. This is typical of her when she is not comfortable with some thing.

This was her second term at pre-school and something magical happened for Maia. She spent the majority of the first and second term sitting back away from the circle of children while they had their music class and then all of a sudden on one particular day, she sat in the circle and started participating. When her teacher Kay was telling me, she had tears in her eyes as this was a big step for Maia. She then followed the music teaching into the other room and decided to do the repeat the lesson again. This was the second week that she participated and she not only played the instruments, but she got up with another classmate, Lara and pretended to be a cloud that covered the sun. This is unbelievable as Maia would not normally get up and perform in front of other people. She really enjoys her school. I think the environment is excellent and I am so glad that we found it. I do miss her Montessori school and her teacher Simone as that was just a beautiful room to learn in and she would have gained more in terms of learning about different academic skills there, but social skills and a positive experience is just as important.

When she is home, Maia spends her day drawing most of the time and writing the letters that she knows. She loves to draw and paint and those are her two favourite things. She is extraordinary in her ability to draw and it is magical to see what comes out of her. She is a perfectionist and will scribble over something that she does not think looks right. Maia's verbal skills are excellent and she expresses what she thinks in such detail. I really enjoy being with her. She is a very special little person.

Kiran has made incredible leaps in his language and since my last post in April he started to repeat single words after we would say something. In the last few weeks, he has started to say things pretty much independently and is very, very good at getting his meaning across. The two word phrase he has been saying for the past few months is, "Thank You," and now he has started to say, "Open up," "That one," "Over there." And I swear he has started to recognise colour as I have heard him several times point to something that is blue and say blue and today he seemed to know the colour purple. He loves to play hide and seek, even though he hides in front of you, laugh and he loves to ride his bike through the house with Maia as well as run. He does show signs of having a temper and will hit David and I if we do not do what he wants especially if he wants breast milk in the middle of the night and I have given him some and I am trying to get him back in his bed to go back to sleep, he will hit me with both his hands in frustration and say, "Milkie." Kiran still wakes me up at least once a night every other night and I hear him say, "Momma, cuddle, milkie." He has been teething since last Friday and it has been awful as he has been waking me up for milk several times a night. On top of it, Maia had her first inner ear infection. I thought it was pretty good that we made it to nearly four years of age and she had never had an ear infection. I just gave her panadol as antibiotics have not been shown to be useful.

Maia and Kiran play nicely together. There is the odd occasion when Maia will torture Kiran by taking something that she knows that he wants and he will come to me crying and complaining, but overall, she is very sweet with him. She will often say, "He is cute, isn't he?" or when I breastfeed him she will comment, "It is cute how he latches on, isn't it?" She hugs him and really kisses him. Speaking of kissing, Kiran has started kissing us on our checks if we ask him. He is super duper cute. Very sweet little man. I love this age as they are still in that magic and don't understand how things work like he is trying to get things out of book and will say as we are reading a story, "Out." As if I can get the object out of the book for him. He now does sit on my lap and can look through a book without getting through a few pages and going on to the next one.

We have had a wonderful transition to this beautiful town, Berry and feel so blessed to be here. We are excited that we will be moving in our house finally in five weeks time. I will have to pinch myself to believe it as it feels like such a long three years since we first bought the house. The tenants who are there have been so uncooperative in finding another place that they are riding the lease out till the last minute. So anyway, won't be long now. We are packing and the next month will go by and we will be moving our boxes in before we know it.

Off to bed for me. Tomorrow is a market day in town and we always go to have a walk around, buy Maia a new dress for her doll and listen to the stories told by a lovely woman who is a local mother and sells gorgeous little fairies and puts a blanket down for children to have a listen of different tales that she makes up or uses for traditional fairy tales.

The nice thing that has happened for me is that I am using the local pilates studio in the mornings for meditation and yoga and that has made a big difference in my life. I go in the morning from 6:30 till 7:30 and enjoy an hour to centre myself and find a bit of peace before I start my day.

I am one very lucky lady who is blessed with a wonderful husband and two fabulous kids.

Little people

We had such a nice weekend with our two little people. On Sunday morning we went to the Berry market. Maia picked out a mermaid costume for her dolly Sally. In the afternoon, David watched the kids while I went to The Berry Tea Shop with my friend Zelinda and after wards, we went to the beach and it just seemed like the perfect day.

Today, Monday was Maia's last day at the Berry Pre-School. After much thought about what to do, what to do, we decided to just send her to Bommaderry two days a week. She really enjoys it there and it came to a point where she was identify the schools as the one she liked and the one that she didn't like, so we just figured to go with where she was most comfortable and I want my girl home with me on Monday mornings, so Kiran, Maia and I can go and do something together like swimming or playing outside.

If I could freeze a moment in time, I have to say that one of my favorite moments each day is when Maia and Kiran wake up and Kiran lays next to me and has a breastfeed while Maia lays on his other side and we all snuggle together. It is like having my two kittens in bed with me in a pile of love. They are the most lovely children on Earth and I mean that wholeheartedly. I think that we were chosen by two very special little people.

David says that his favourite moment is when he comes home from work and you both scream, "Da...Da..."

It is so cute to see Kiran waddle to the door as he is still finding his feet, but he is so sure of himself now he rarely falls down and he has started to run away from David when he knows he is up to no good.

Side note to Maia: If you decide to have children of your own, be patient with potty training as you are now three and a half years old and still wetting your pants at various times during the day and at night time. I still have to put a pull up on you at night time and the other day, after taking you to the toilet in the park, you wet yourself before I could help you as you tend to wait until you are ready to bust and then while we were going into our house, you proceeded to wee down your legs and into your shoes and all over our doorstep. Unfortunately, I lost my temper, but then, the crazy thing is that you have not weed your pants ever since, so why is it that after I have been kind, gentle and understanding for the past year and a half and finally loose my temper, that you take notice? Don't worry, I am not going to fall into a pattern of yelling to get your attention as I don't like loosing it, but my I wish it was easier.

Your Dad just reminded me to write about Kiran and how much he likes lawn mowers. He will actually stand on the luggage by the window to look at and try and see the neighbors mowing their lawn. He runs to the window every time he hears the mowers and says, "Mooow..." He stops what he is doing to just go have a look and he is also obsessed with the vacuum cleaner and he pulls out the vacuum head and carries it around the house as well he will take the actual handle of the machine and vacuums while it is running or pretends to while it is off. He is fascinated by bicycles, motorbikes and trucks. Must be the boy gene. And he loves to pull my hair and says, "Ouwwww...." When he is bored in the sling, he will bite my chest...ouch! And he laughs as he thinks his is funny. He blows on his food. When we took him and Maia to the beach, he got a glimpse of the water and went crazy in the back of the car and started screaming as he was so excited that we were going to take him swimming....our water baby. He must think that the sand looks tasty as the last few times we have gone, he has eaten wet sand only to find out that it is not as good as it looks, I am sure he will figure it out soon.

Kiran is also really making a great attempt at speaking and although not crystal clear, it is obvious that he is trying to say, "Hot, Bath, Ball, Pop, Blueberry, Nanna, Maia, Hi, On, Off, Up, More, Mo (for Mower), Man, Wee Wee, Light, and there are more words that we just can't quite remember now. He signs finish, more, bye, bye, and points to himself when he does a pop or a wee. He climbs up on a box in the front room to switch the fan and lights on and off. He will sit and read a few pages of a book and then want to go to another and then go back to the previous and then look at another, as he just can't seem to sit still long enough to take a book in page by page at this time. He favourite book is about construction equipment. And he loves to push around a toy motor bike. Today he brought me the motor bike with the man as if to say, hey, could you help me put him in the motor bike and when I did, he smiled in gratitude and went on his way. Kiran is a very independent little boy and is gone in a flash at preschool if I don't watch him closely. This morning he was playing with some cars and I turned to speak to someone and when I looked back he was gone and out on the play equipment in the yard by himself, turning the steering wheel of a car that was fixed to the wooden play structure. He tends to really hang on me only when he is hungry or scared, but he only is frightened by loud noises.

We had the pleasure the other day of seeing thousands upon thousands of blue solider crabs moving across the sand like waves as they had just hatched and were grouped together trying to get away from us as we approached them. They were so tame they were curling up or burying themselves and we could hear their feet clicking across the sand as they moved, it was really something very special to see and behold. How lucky were we?

The beautiful things Maia says..

As always, I need to write more about my two fabulous little people. I feel like the hard first year is over and Kiran, you weren't even hard, but I just feel this massive sigh of relief when little people start taking those first steps, walking and then start trying to speak. There is something magic about this age. I will detail more, but basically Kiran, you started taking your first free standing step forward just after your first birthday. At first, you were falling down a lot as your toes were facing inward for more support as you were tripping over them. Now they are straight forward and your Dad and I had a laugh the other morning as we lay in bed and watched your little head go zooming by at the bottom of the bed. You have gone from toddle to run as I had predicted and now you just want to go, go, go, and climb anything that is vertical.

Maia you are a beautiful, helpful and gorgeous little three and a half year old girl. We love you dearly and so appreciate your curiosity and intelligence. You speak so well for a little girl. Who would know in that little body there is such an expressive and bright little lady...smile. You love a music video called, "Catch the Moon," and while watching it the other day and seeing the children catch the moon you said the following....I wish I had been able to write down every gorgeous thing you had ever said to me as you have always spoke such beauty and your insights into the world around you are priceless.

Maia: Tomorrow can we try and catch the moon?
Me: Maybe
Maia: Would it be hard?
Me: I think so
Maia: Momma, could we fly?

You are both a blessing and I never want to take your for granted, the love I feel for the two of you just pours out of me like an endless fountain that I will never be able to contain for my love will always be yours...always.

We're in Berry

I just scanned my previous post and so much has happened since then. Kiran went from crawling and then two weeks later started standing as as of his first birthday or a few days after, Kiran started walking and now as 14 months or nearly, he is getting across the floor on wobbly legs, but walking none the less.

Now how did we get to Berry, well, I will talk about that in my next post, but the short of it is that David saw a job advertised and interviewed a few weeks before Christmas and was offered the job on December 23. We moved to Berry on January 24 and have hit the ground running. The transition has gone beautifully and we couldn't be happier. My only real loss is Maia's Montessori school and her lovely teacher Simone. We thankfully found another beautiful school, but it still doesn't compare to what was offered to Maia at her other school. So I am going to try and fill in the gaps and explore home school. I am driven to try and work to open an alternative school here as there is a great interest and another lady who has done quite a bit of research on the subject.

But before I got to bed this evening, I just wanted to start to get in the habit of writing about the kids and our lives as so much is happening with the two of them. They are so darn bright and curious about life. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail that I wrote to my mother. I will try and be better at writing more about their developmental mile stones.

We had a nice weekend and went to a local farm show in a place called Kangaroo Vally about 30 minutes from our house. We live in one of the most beautiful places in Australia. Mountains surround our little town and the beach is just 15 minutes away. We have started to meet many
like minded people. David and I are involved with a co-op that has started here and we get fresh produce from farmers around our area. Crazy, it started up based on one women's drive to get organic produce available to the local community as the local supermarket wouldn't buy
a local farmer's garlic because they had a contract with sellers in Sydney. Anyway, nice to support our local community with how we are buying our food and it is fresh and delicious.

Kiran is so cute and I have to video him walking and staggering from side to side as he walks across the room, but he makes it and is very determined to walk instead of
crawl. Both our kids are so sweet.

Weather here has been hot, in the 90s and we have been mainly indoors with the kids. Tomorrow Maia goes to pre-school in the morning and then I pick her up before lunchtime. The kids go from 9-3, but I have decided to get her at 12 noon as all they do is have lunch and then a
nap and she does not usually have a nap and I would rather her be at home with me. She is such a lovely little girl. So darn smart Mom. She is adding up numbers and wanting me to read the numbers on houses and license plates. The other day she said, Mommy, 2+2=4+1+5. She is just
3 and a half. She was also talking about where England is located on the map and so I bought a few books on different countries, cultures and maps and we read about a different child each night and look on the map to see where they live as she is fascinated by geography and
where other children live as I think the fact that our family lives in a different country really increases her curiosity. Tonight she saw the map of the world on a page and pointed to Australia and said,"Mommy, that is Australia." I couldn't believe she remembered where it was on the globe. She blows me away. Here mind is so quick and she is so interested in learning, so I just try and meet her where she is and encourage her. I don't push her to learn, she just wants to and so I am going to start teaching her math with numbers and small counting rocks as that is what she would have started to do at her old Montessori School. She loves to paint and the pre-school is so
impressed with what she is doing as she is miles ahead of the other children. They told the story of the Very Hungry Catepillar and she drew it like an older child would have with a long body, face, antennas and legs. I am also going to start teaching her Spanish as she is a very verbal child who speak in such an adult way that I think she would enjoy learning another language. She still asks to watch those Signing Time Videos that you gave her and tells us what the
different signs are for different things.

Kiran has turned a corner after his first birthday and he had started waving bye-bye at ten months and then we noticed him connecting up what we were saying to him, but now he is trying to communicate verbally with sounds and signs. I will write more about this in my next post as it is after 11 pm and I think Kiran may be waking up as he seems to be teething or something. He was not himself before going to bed this evening.