On My Own....

Pretending he's beside me....not in England, or Germany, or Luxembourg, or....

Those in the know will know that my dearly beloved husband has been gadding his way across the globe for the past few weeks...his return is imminent (4 more sleeps) so I thought I'd better document some of the happenings while he's been away!

Firstly I'd like to thank whoever invented the webcam and the mobile phone for their genius! Without these two inextricable links I would have been a very miserable poppet indeed!
How lovely to click a button and talk with him or see him despite the fact that he is hundreds of kilometres away on the other side of the world. And Google Earth is also a fantastic thing - I have been able to see some of the towns he has visited (check out Esch-sur-Sure in Luxembourg), and follow the routes he has travelled without even leaving my desk! Incredible!

Well - what has been going on then.
It was school holidays when he left - July 14th - and week two was looming!

We had a train trip to Dunedin on the Excursion train and joined hundreds of other mums, dads, nannas, and grandads with their children in tow at the Mosgiel Sataion to board the train to town! We didn't get to sit together and I forgot to take my camera (Doh) but it was a lovely time - especially the tunnels and seeing the kids pull faces at themselves in the reflections on the windows like I used to when I was a little girl! I LOVE travelling by train and wish it was something they would reinstate in our lovely country!

We visited the Chinese Gardens and the Early Settlers Museum. The former was a hit with all three, as it offered a great chance to run around, and climb the rocks, and investigate all the different nooks and crannies. I can imagine that on any other day it would be a real haven of peace and tranquility - but not when loads of school kids are there running round everywhere!! the latter was welcomed by me and Nana as it was inside and warm! It was a cold, damp, grey day that day. We had lunch by the Cenotaph in the Queens Gardens (again kicking myself for not taking the camera!! Missed several very special moments!) consisting of bananas, mandarins and muesli bars. Meagre fare I know - but the plan to have lunch somewhere in town was thwarted by the amount of fun they had at the Chinese Gardens. We would have missed the train back to Mosgiel! Thus the need for warming up in the Early Settlers! So that was one day.

To pass more time we decided to go and see my Mum and Dad for a couple of days. Good idea right!?
Seemed so at the time...and I must admit the children were fairly well behaved until Jared (5) decides to get artistic on the newly painted, newly installed windowsills in the lounge!!! Arrrgh. What's a mother to do but grab the nearest bottle of jif ,and a cloth and apply a hefty lashing of elbow grease, in the efforts to remove said artistic display! It didn't work!! well mostly - but the artistic impression was carved into the new wood and nothing but sand paper and fresh paint would remove it! I was mortified to say the least! and dreading the response of my male parent! He of course was cool, calm and collected while I was embarrassed, angry and wrapped up in timeouts and apologies!
Where's Daddy when you need him!?

This is one of the sweeter moments while we were there...Mum and Dad are both sudoku lovers and introduced mathematically minded Ben to the joy of putting numbers in boxes. He loved it and that kept him happy for a large percentage of our time there. What was really funny was to come out one morning to see Caitlin sitting in Gran's chair, with her blanket round her, with the Sudoku book, a pencil and an eraser, and a look of intense concentration on her gorgeous wee face! Priceless!!

What next....

Then it was back to school - sigh of relief!

But this brought on a whole new barrage of issues to solve...no Daddy time for Caitlin in the morning to keep her happy about staying home while mummy drives her big brothers to school. Screams of "I wanna go in car!!!" could be heard half way round Mosgiel! (For a nearly two year old, she has the tantrum down pat!!) Sobs inconsolable lasted for half and hour on a couple of occasions. Its hard enough getting two boys ready for school, and out the door on time, some mornings, let alone an independent toddler determined to "go in car" despite being dressed in pajamas and slippers with a temperature of about 4 degrees outside and torrential rain!

Where's Daddy (and Iggle Piggle - In the Night Garden) when you need him!?

Now we kind of have the routine sorted a little better - just in time for Daddy to come home and shift things about again! Look forward to that challenge though! Yay for Daddys!!!!