Charlotte's sleeping has improved

I've just been re-reading some of my old blog posts...and one thing that stands out is how badly Charlotte used to sleep. But since we've been back in Australia she's been sleeping like an angel. We've had one bad night - several weeks away - when she was up several times and I could literally hear a cold develop overnight. Sure enough, she had a full blown head cold by the morning. Oh, and the other night - she called out upset several times after I went to bed. She was crying about a bee being in the room. Which there wasn't, but she thought there was. The last I saw of her was totally covered by the doona. And apparently that was what MK saw when he went in to her the next morning. But this happened the same week she'd been stung by a bee so there was a context.

When Ma ma and Poppy are here both girls get up and go straight into their room. When they're not here, the girls often come into our room in the morning. In Switzerland Lily would go out and turn on the tv. Here the telly is too hard to turn on so we haven't encouraged Lily to learn.

In our own home the girls will know how to turn the tv on!*

*although I have said there is to be no tv on school mornings...and I don't think there's any children's tv on weekend mornings. We'll have to teach them how to use the dvd player.

Two courses in one day

This morning I did a Thai Cookery Course (10am-12noon). There were 13 of us and the teacher who prepared 3 dishes - a dip, a soup and a salad. I enjoyed it...we got to taste the food afterwards and it was yummy. I went and bought the ingredients for the soup and salad after the class and plan to make them tomorrow night. I also enrolled in the second Thai Cookery Course (same teacher) in 4 weeks time.

And tonight I was supposed to be at my Food Safety Handling Course - the final night, and also the assessment night. But, it was the Information Evening for Prep parents at Lily's school. So it was a bit of a dilemma. We had no babysitter either so MK had to stay home. As it was, MK got home late from his golf game with Leif so I would have been late to the Food Safety Handling course. And Natasha rang and I got involved with catching up with her, so in the end I went to the Parent Information evening. Glad I did - we missed all the information sessions at the end of last year as we didn't know which school Lily would be going to. And now I don't want to miss out on anything I don't have to. A case of Lily's education coming before mine.

Next week is the Responsible Serving of Alcohol course, so at least I'll have that certificate as it's one night only.

The weekend...

...was really good. Lily had her 2nd French lesson on Sat morning, then later in the afternoon we drove down into the city, picked up Leif and went on to Mike and Joanne's. Got there around 5pm, girls were very excited to see the new bunk bed Nanna and Pop had bought for them. Very cute!

It was lovely to see how happy and excited the girls were to be at their grandparents place, and how easy it was to say goodbye and go off to the party. Z's house is only 15mins from M&J's so it was all too easy. Party was good - the roast lamb on the spit was my personal highlight :)

Home by midnight, then J made her famous pancakes in the morning. MK slept a little longer as he was on nightshift (7pm-7am). Liz and the girls came over a little later, and Liz and I were able to bunk off to the shops. Came home to a yummy dinner of meatballs and spaghetti.

Straight after lunch we said our goodbyes and headed home...via Joyce's place. I'd rung her in the morning and she was excited to hear we were planning a visit. She'd made scones and we bought an apple loaf. That house hasn't changed a bit...it's a time capsule.

I'm still enjoying the 'normality' of weekends like this. We all are, I think.

Our weekly routine at the moment

Lily started school on Thurs 1st Feb and on that day and the next she was only at school from 9am till 12.30pm. On the following Monday the preps started at 9am and finished at 3.30pm, the proper school day, four days a week. They have every Wednesday in February off, then they will be going 5 days a week as of the first week in March.

Charlotte started Occasional Care on Feb 1st 9am till 12noon. I can only book a maximum of 3 sessions a week (either 9am-12noon or 1pm-4pm, every day except Monday) and only 2 weeks in advance. At the moment I ring up every Monday and extend her by another week. The days she is going at the moment are Tues, Thurs and Fri mornings. Hopefully next term I'll be able to secure her a permanent place 3 mornings a week. I have the date that these become available so I'll be phoning on that morning. I will only be able to lock in for the term. The 2 women who run it - Marcia and Jenni - are lovely and Charlotte seems to have fun and enjoy the painting, singing and playing. Her only concern is 'the boy crying'. So she'll say occasionally 'I don't want to go to garderie school' (her name for it). Why Charlotte? Because the boy is crying. I spoke to Marcia about it once and she said there had been one boy that they'd also been concerned about (kicking the door and crying, that sort of thing) so they rang his mummy to come collect him. Apparently they were recommending he come in the afternoon when there are fewer kids.

Charlotte's name is also on the waiting list for 3 year old kindergarten. This is only once a week, though, for 2 hours.

Charlotte has swimming lessons on Wednesday at 11.30am in a group with 2 or 3 other kids. Lily's swimming lesson is on Friday afternoon at 4.30pm. They both love going to the swimming pool and at the moment Lily can come for a play swim on Wed mornings when Charlotte has her lesson. And Charlotte goes for a play swim on Fri afternoon when Lily has her lesson.

And Lily has French lessons on Saturday morning.

I know Lily could also be doing ballet or some sort of dance class but that can wait for now.

MK is working similar shift work hours to what he was doing in Lausanne, but an hour later. Which means he ends up leaving at a similar time as in Switzerland, and drives for that hour longer.

I have my Food Safety Handling course on a Tuesday night, but there is only 2 left. Then back to WW on a Tues night. I also had one swimming lesson on Fri morning 9.30am but I cancelled the one yesterday as I didn't feel so good. All in the mind? I hope not. That first lesson freaked me out a bit. I realised that I haven't put my head under water since I was a kid and I hate it with a passion. Makes me feel v anxious. I have a long way to go.

I haven't been a gym-goer but maybe I could look into going and see what it's like. Maybe I could go after I drop C off at garderie school.

The 40th's begin

Tonight we are going to MK's friend Z's 40th birthday party. He only lives about 15mins away from MK's parents apparently so they'll look after the kids for us. And we'll all spend the night at Mike and Joanne's*.

Next weekend is their friend Leif's 40th party, then in September it will be MK's 40th. Big year for the 3 boys.

I've still got another 18mths...or so.

*I love having the support of family within reach. It just feels so normal and right.

Lily's French lessons

Lily started French lessons with Madame last weekend. A friend of Mum's had given me her contact details not long after we got back, but it took me a while to get around to calling her. Her lesson is at 10am Saturday mornings, and today was her second. Went better than last week when we were late as I wasn't able to find her house. Madame - who is an older woman - was not impressed. She gave me a good telling off...which was fine as it guarantees I don't do that again!

I sat in on last week's (shortened) lesson but today Lily told me she is less shy if I'm not there. I told Lily it was her lesson and that was her choice. I'd rather she learn comfortably without me there. So I went and did some grocery shopping.

And Madame mentioned today she thought it would be good if I had a couple of lessons to help Lily. Ugghhhh, don't tell me there's no escaping this French thing?

...and me?

All good! The first call I made the Monday after we arrived on the Saturday into Melbourne was to Weight Watchers. I've waited a long time to be able to attend meetings and do it properly. Online was good, but not the same. And the day before, Sunday, we'd gone to a big shopping centre near here to organise our mobile phones and I was really shocked how big people are. My fear is that could be me. I have to work hard. So if I can go, every Tuesday night there's WW meetings.

In that first week a lot happened. We checked out schools and MK got a taste of what the commute between here and Moorabbin was like. Yes, it's long (minimum 1hr 5mins, usually between 1hr 15min ad 1hr 30min) but he thought it was do-able and agreed that we could start looking for houses in this area. Yipppeeee! So we did - we looked at our first houses a week after we arrived. Haven't found anything yet, but I know our home is out there and when the time is right it will be ours.

At the moment my energy and focus is on house-hunting, settling the girls, running our (temporary) household and re-establishing our lives here (currently that means organising private health insurance, but it's included heaps of different things). But I've also made time to do some courses. Last Sunday I did the Senior First Aid Course down in Melbourne (to the day, 3 mths after we arrived back in Australia and amazingly the first time I've been into Melbourne...doesn't really count though as I spent the whole day, 9-5, in an office building) and at the moment I'm halfway through a Food Safety Handling/Responsible Serving of Alcohol course (every Tues night for 4 weeks, WW had to be bumped). And supposedly I am learning to swim - had my first private lesson last Friday morning, but cancelled this morning's lesson as I don't feel so good. And I'm doing 2 Thai cooking classes which are one-off morning lessons.

I have to be honest (because this story is a bit...unusual) and say that the momentum for all this started the first day Lily started school, Feb 1st. I went to a tea and tissues coffee morning hosted by the one of the parents at their house for new prep parents. Met some of the parents, and at the end of the morning met the husband of the woman hosting the morning. Long story short, he works for Qantas as a flight attendant manager, we chatted, he said some interesting things and I scuttled home all revved up about putting in a job application to be a flight attendant. And two of the requirments were the Responsible Serving of Alcohol certificate (I'd already thought about doing the Food Safety Handling part of the course) and Senior First Aid certificate. Oh yeah, and being able to swim 50metres fully clothed. And I've been meaning to take swimming lessons for a long time.

So, this conversation provided a catalyst for me to do these courses, track down my CV (well, MK did that) and contact my previous Social Work referees and really think about what I want to do. And I realise that even if the flight attendant thing goes nowhere (and I've not even submitted the online application yet, especially after MK and I chatted about the fact that two shift-workers just won't work in one family) I have achieved a lot.

My priorties are finding a house and getting us properly settled. It's enough for the time being and I'm happy doing these things.

Back in Australia, happy and loving it!

So here we are. It's been 3 months since we arrived home (Nov 18th, or was it 17th?) and it's been really good. But a lot has happened, obviously, and it's hard to know where to start...

Going right back, we spent 5 nights in the Movenpick Hotel at Ouchy before leaving Switzerland. That was a super-busy time as it was when we cleaned the apartment in preparation for the final inspection. I am so grateful to Lucinda and Yasmine who helped me clean. They came on the Sunday, spent all day - Yasmine doing the 2 bathrooms and Lucinda doing all windows - and did a phenomenal job. I also had our cleaner, Catarina, come for a couple of hours on Saturday. The inspection on the Mon afternoon went ok, but they had a nit-picking list of final things we needed to do (like replace the ice-tray in the freezer!) but MK got all the things done.

Yasmine had a little do for us at garderie on the Tuesday night and this was very emotional. We both cried a lot when we did our final hug. She had been so strong and positive for all the time leading up to this but it was too much for both of us saying goodbye. She was so important in our lives. Us and the kids.

And basically everything went without a hitch and I know I left Switzerland the way I wanted to - calmly and peacefully. I chose the way I wanted to end my time there.

Having said that, our flight from Geneva to London was cancelled on that fateful Wednesday! But it didn't matter - we just caught an earlier flight and had longer at Heathrow. Aussie Jen and the girls had come to the airport to see us off but it was one big rush. Very sweet of them to make the effort.

Have blocked all flights from Geneva to Melbourne from my memory (oh, except the memory of someone calling out 'shut-up' when Charlotte was screaming on one flight and me spending ages in the toilet with her just waiting for her to stop crying).

Mum, Dad and Matthew were at the airport to meet us, and Lindy joined us a day or two later. Being in HK was excellent - went to Ocean Park (hot, but good) and Disneyland (excellent). Ate out lots, shopped, took the girls across to the new park opposite Mum and Dad's apartment. Michael left before we did, so we celebrated Charlotte's 3rd birthday twice. Once when MK was there, then a couple of days later on her actual b'day. She's still talking about the Beanie Cake she had for her b'day. Personally I preferred the buffet lunch at the fancy 5-star hotel we had on her b'day.

Mum flew home with the girls and I, and was lucky to get on the flight (booked solid). MK's parents were at the airport to meet us, along with MK and the car his parents bought us. We are very lucky people.

And when we got home to Ma ma and Poppy's place (where we still are now) Lily jumped on her bicycle and hasn't looked back since. That kid is so Aussie it's not funny. She was really made for this place. The great outdoors, catching frogs and lizards, feeding the horses, playing in the dirt, gardening, her fairy tree. She loves the lot. It is so so wonderful. Charlotte loves the great indoors a bit more, but that's ok, so do I.

Mum and Dad were back in HK for Xmas and we spent it with MK's parents, sister and family. It was a really lovely Xmas and we spent a happy couple of days down at their place.

Since we've been back Mum has been here 3 times and Dad twice. The girls love having them back and it gives us extra hands. Much easier for them to travel HK - Melb than HK - Geneva.

Lily started school at the beginning of February. We had enrolled her at the Montessori school here but we visited it and two local primary schools. The one closest to Mum and Dad's really stood out as suiting Lily the best. They have a good amount of land and lots of outside activities. Right up Lily's alley. Only 178 kids and 22 in her prep class. The teacher is lovely and the best thing of all is...I speak the language!

On the same day that Lily started school, Charlotte started at Occasional Care. She goes 3 mornings a week (the maximum amount she can attend) and at the moment that's Tues, Thurs and Fri morning 9am-12noon. She's settled in well, but I know she's not the Miss Independence her big sister is.

And me? We'll I'll save that for another post...

Email from my blog

Recently my blog sent me an email...how cool is that? And this is what my blog said to me:


Hello my friend...
You last wrote to me on 14 November from cold, lovely, Switzerland. You were busy up to your eyeballs with your move and farewell do's. I miss you .. and I believe our followers who used to hang on every word are searching for things to do late nights when they normally find a big smile checking in on us.. well I mean you and the girls and MK, of course.
I'm sure those faithful readers would love to see how the new chapter's move along ... life in Australia ... cute school outfits and playing on the property. Many are eagerly awaiting to see if and what your ideas are about your business ventures.
Please come back my friend. My pink pages are just lonely and bored waiting for your detailed events that make life exciting for the Patton Krvarich clan.

Lordy knows, I've got an ego and some of the things my blog said...well, hit the spot. So here I am. Back in the Blogging Seat. I have no idea where to start, but I want to say thankyou to my blog (and to my dearest Judi) for the prod. I've not forgotten you, Blog, just been very very distracted.