EMP in the US

So I didn’t get to post in the end, but we had a great meal. David did all the cooking, which made it even greater for me!
Unfortunately, we didn’t get the best pictures, but this one at least shows the amount of food on the table!

There was pumpkin pie and good company to follow, which rounded off the day nicely.

So today we embarked on our first Thanksgiving. We got up late, and began thinking about turkey.

Luckily David wanted to try his hand in the kitchen today, so I took the boys out of the way to play. The weather was murky but unbelievably warm – the boys were running around in their T-shirts because they were too hot in their coats!

I plan to blog again a bit later, hopefully slightly drunk by then! But with pictures of the meal.

I am trying out a photo-gallery plugin, the free version, so I cannot access some of the settings, maybe if I like it, I will upgrade. Unless I get any better suggestions. Remember, my favourite was Galrey on a Linux platform.

Sorry, updating gallery, trying something else…

Photos of boys playing on Thanksgiving morning

Last night I was really fortunate to be able to take Thomas to his first concert.

I was fortunate that we have access to an orchestra this good in such a small town, I was fortunate that David gets complimentary tickets, and I was fortunate enough to be well enough, and David be ill enough that I got to go in his place.

It was a totally superb experience. I was more than a little nervous about how Thomas would behave but he was pretty good. First of all the concert didn’t start until after his bedtime! I had done everything, short of drugging him to get him to sleep in the afternoon, which was all in vain. However, he was his usual inquisitive self, and apart from some fidgeting, and a couple of whispers, he sat in his chair. He liked the Tchaikovsky, which was short, and he found the Shostakovich “scary”. Then in the intermission, I said we should probably go home, but he pleaded and begged to be allowed to stay for the Beethoven, so I made him promise 5 times that he would sit still. I’m really glad he did as the Beethoven was fantastic, and he did sit reasonably still, getting really tired by the end, which considering he had been up since 6am that morning, was quite understandable. Thankfully, all the surrounding patrons were all easy-going and friendly, and the atmosphere was relaxed.

As an aside, we had bought, when back in the UK, a book called “Little Rat Makes Music” which is about Little Rat starting violin lessons. At the beginning of the book, it describes her parents taking her to concerts. Thomas had to take his copy of the book along to the concert, and sat reading it for a while now and again.

I’ve just been looking back through the photos, and noticed a couple that never got posted. This made my mind boggle:

I wondered whether it’d work on the kids…

Also, while my parents were visiting, Thomas decided to potty train Ollie, we sat in the living room, straining to hear their conversation – nearly wetting our own pants with silent laughter at what was going on. Thomas was heard to say earnestly, “you see, Ollie, EVERYONE has a penis.”

This will be a short post as I can’t wait to climb back into my bed and get to sleep!

I have Strep throat. I actually get this quite often, or at least it always feels like it’s often! It is horrifically painful – enough to drive you insane and bring tears to the eyes. I thought I was being a wimp, but thankfully a quick scan of the internet shows that other people find it excruciating as well. Needless to say I am dosed up on as many of my post-partum super strength painkillers as I am allowed. Thankfully, the nurse and doctor saw me immediately this morning and prescribed some amoxycillin. It doesn’t seem to be doing very much just yet, but I’ve only taken two. Nowadays, if I experience pain, I always compare it to childbirth (obviously!) and the problem with strep throat is that it is so sustained. Painkillers only just about provide relief, but swallowing is almost unbearable enough to warrant a spitoon. At least with childbirth, the worst bits only go on for a few hours (hopefully!), after 36 hours of strep throat I was weeping. (Also, it’s quite acceptable to cry at childbirth, whereas crying because of a sore throat is blatantly wussy).

Anyway, at least the fever seems to be gone, and maybe a good night’s sleep will help – the pain broke through the Nytol I took last night, but I hope this night to be better. I’ve also told Ollie he has to stay in his own bed all night tonight: I’ve been taking pity on him because he’s had a bad cough, and been a bit poorly himself, but I think it has got to a point now that he’s just enjoying kicking and headbutting us all night. Oh and he has a new trick of dropping his dummy through the headboard so that it lands on the floor exactly in the middle of the bed so that it is only reachable by climbing half-under the bed and stretching one’s arm Elasta-girl style.

Otherwise the boys had a very boring day, watching films. The Incredibles is still very popular with them.

In books, Thomas is reading his way through the “early readers” section of the Howe library. He’s mostly reading the level two books, though I’ve noticed these vary widely in difficulty, some only having a few words on each page to what I would call proper story books. Ollie’s bedtime stories are becoming more varied again, as I limit the Little Red Train books mostly to nap times when Thomas isn’t home. I’m reading “The Swimming Pool Library” by Alan Hollinghurst.

One of the great things about needing to make a whole new set of friends is that you have to catch up on shared references really quickly! Our new friends have been recommending lots of films for us to see, which have been varied and interesting.

One of them I found particularly inspirational:
August Rush (click to watch a trailer)

It’s quite cheesy at times, and full of Hollywood sentimentality, but it tells a good story and there’s some fun music-making to be enjoyed too. Robin Williams is good in it too – he doesn’t ham it up, like he has in some of his films.

Anyway, it inspired some music-making of our own. This may seem ridiculous but in all my teenage-angst guitar-playing years, it never occurred to me to change the tuning of my guitar, other than to lower the low E-string to a D for a couple of songs. I never experimented with anything – I was far too conventional! So the above movie inspired me to dig out my old teenage guitar (which I STILL haven’t managed to part with!) and tune the strings to “other”. We had a bit of fun, and of course the kids got to have a go. It may not make sense unless you see the August Rush film, oh, and I normally edit the ends of the footage, but Ollie was just too funny in this one!

Thomas took it all very seriously, as ever:

Incidentally, before we leave the subject of tuning, I have to alert people to this, as it’s totally fascinating, and indeed Bobby McFerrin is now high on my list of minor deities, with Terry Pratchett and Howard Goodall. Thanks actually go to David for showing me this:
Bobby McFerrin Pentatonic (YouTube link)

And finally, I thought I’d let you see our now naked climbing tree, as we are now officially in “stick season” (which preceeds “snow season” and then “mud season”).

Ollie still likes it though!

As a reluctant cook, it’s rewarding when something turns out nice, that you can be proud of. This evening, this happened. It’s still what I would call “kids food” and I think I got the idea from either the Annabel Karmel recipe book, or perhaps the Netmums “Feeding Kids”. Anyway, it was tuna, broccoli and pasta bake. I fried some onion, and put it aside, then made cheese sauce in the same pan (standard roux-style sauce, with extra cheddar). Then I mixed in a tin of tuna, some briefly microwaved fresh broccoli, the fried onions and some pasta (that I’d cooked too much of yesterday). I sprinkled the top with some grated cheddar and stuck it in the oven for 30 minutes at 375°F. It was really tasty, and though the kids complained about the broccoli on principle, they actually ate it all. I know I’m a bit sad, but I actually photographed it:

This reminds me, we watched a film called “Julie & Julia” last night, which someone had recommended to me a long time ago, because half the story is about a blogger like me! It’s based on a, or actually two true stories, and stars Meryl Streep. She’s not my favourite actress, and the film is pretty slow, but it was reasonably diverting.

I took the kids to the Montshire Museum this morning, where Ollie spent ages on his favourite installation again:

We had to come home a bit abruptly when I had a bit of trouble with Thomas. I’m having difficulty with him at the moment not because he behaves badly, in some respects his still a goody two-shoes, but on the other hand he frequently “loses it”. It’s like Thomas goes somewhere else, and something else inhabits his body. I am trying a method of dealing with it, whereby I carry around 3 stickers, and I tell him that if he doesn’t “get a grip” and take control of himself (and a deep breath) then I will take one of the stickers away from him, so that he will only get 2 of them. This sort of worked earlier, until I then forgot all about it, and wondered what the annoying paper in my pocket was! (you can get quite bulky stickers you know!). Anyway, we have the parent-teacher conferences at his day care next week, so I can’t wait to ask them for advice with this. Apparently he doesn’t behave like that at school!

Then in the afternoon we went to the playground in Norwich with our friends. This was great as the kids all interacted really well, and used up lots of energy, and I can see Ollie and Thomas learning new skills from their older friends. Karoline and I got to chat, and she’s one of those friends who always make you feel good about yourself and bolsters you up, so I always like to spend time with her!! We stayed until it was nearly dark with pink clouds overhead.

One thing though, I went to bed last night with a sore eye, and it was quite painful this morning. It has swollen a little this evening, but I don’t really know what to do with it. I know it’s not conjunctivitis, as there’s no gunk. I’ve bought some eyewash, which is just distilled water, but if it doesn’t clear up tomorrow, I may have to resort to something stronger! Ibuprofen handles the pain easily. Incidentally, did you know that paracetamol is called Acetaminophen here? Anyway, here’s that eye:

Ollie had his registration appointment with the paediatrician yesterday. He is about 14kg (31 pounds) and 90cm (35.5′) tall. The doctor assured me that developmentally he’s doing very well, and his articulation is just fine for a 2-year-old. She seemed pleased that he was able to ask for help, as this can sometimes be a frustration at this age. She also said physical violence is also normal at his age! (phew) because he’s figuring out if he can get what he wants by getting obstacles (other people) out of the way. She wasn’t too worried about the potty-training, but said it was good to get into a routine of sitting on it, and then washing hands afterwards, and not to pay too much attention to the “performance” as smart kids can get stage fright when asked to perform!

We were also lucky that both boys got their seasonal flu shots and the H1N1 vaccination.

On an unrelated matter, I was cleaning the house on Sunday and Thomas, spotting this, asked “Oooh! Are we having visitors?” What a cheek!

We have had great weather this weekend – unbelievably warm and sunny; T-shirt weather in November! So it seemed inappropriate to be worrying about snow gear, but we have been warned that it can be as early as Thanksgiving that the snow season starts. Thankfully we were able to get to the snow/ski sale at the charity shop in Lebanon, where I battled the crowds to get two pairs of salopettes (or ski bib pants) for the boys, and two jackets AND a pair of good snow boots for Ollie. Add to this a pair of grown-up’s cross-country skis, x-country ski boots and poles for David and spend only $41 in total, and I think you have a bargain. Thank goodness the boys are young enough not to worry about things being secondhand!

On my way home from Home Depot, I suddenly had the idea of climbing Balch hill to see the sunset. It was already getting late, so it was a rush to bundle the boys, the husband and a couple of flashlights into the car. We practically sprinted up the mountain, and were really glad we did – even though we had missed the sun itself, the scene was still pretty stunning:

The walk home was a bit tricky – especially as Ollie was too tired so David carried him on his shoulders. It was exciting too, negotiating the woods by torchlight! I was glad I never watched the Blair Witch Project, as I bet I wouldn’t have felt quite so brave!

I spent ten years living in Norwich UK, and by the end of it, I was pretty keen to leave. I didn’t mean to go this far, but it’s ironic that I’ve ended up living about 3 miles from a Norwich, Vermont. It’s a tiny place, but very quaint. I will try to post some pictures of it soon.

In the meantime, it has a fantastic play area that I often take Ollie to. These photos are from Friday, when we made an unscheduled stop there. Unfortunately, it was FREEZING, and I wasn’t quite prepared for the cold, so we didn’t stay long.

Ollie didn’t mind the cold at all, and got stuck in:

The playpark is set in a bigger park, with football fields and tennis courts and a barbaque area. Along the back is a shallow river. While Ollie was digging the sand, I went to investigate the bridge across…

It obviously started off as a simple rope bridge tied to a tree!

While we were busy here in Norwich, Thomas was enjoying a trip to the Montshire Museum of Science. His day care really is something else. They take the kids in pairs out to different “field trips”. They send us loads of pictures, and even video via email. This is my favourite:

Also, David has been making white bread now and again, as we are having difficulty finding bread we like that isn’t outrageously expensive. Our friends are helping us to make rye bread by giving us a starter, but we haven’t had the chance to try that yet, as it’s a lot more complicated! I hope to be posting about our success with that in the near future… In the meantime, the white bread is simple enough that the boys can make themselves a little loaf each too!

I leave you with proof that Ollie now enjoys swings like any other normal toddler, having overcome his bizarre phobia completely!