Post summer update

 

Once again the blog has been quiet for a while. We have had a hugely busy summer. A few days after BB's birthdays his Aussie grandparents and an uncle arrived and we spent a few days showing them around the area of the UK where we live which was great fun. Excellent to have an excuse to go places. BB went on his first fairground ride at Cromer beach (amazingly he chose to drive a bus over a going on the train), we paddled in the sea, visited old houses the likes of which Uncle Q had never seen before, went to the woods and generally had a very fun, busy and tiring time.

Then it was DD and PP's wedding. It was a lovely day all around. The weather was perfect, very lucky seeing as both the days before and after were torrential rain - in fact our town experienced flash floods on the day before. The had a simple little ceremony in a beautiful town hall, followed by a boat trip on the Thames and then a reception in a pub. BB managed to stay awake for the whole day, until after the speeches at night. He was a bit overwhelmed by it all at first. Lots of people that he had never met coming up to him, touching him and telling him that they had heard all about him seemed to freak him out a bit, but by the end of the day he was quite happy with all the attention.

We stayed in a hotel too. This was BB's first hotel experience. He didn't really want to sleep there at first either, but by the second night he was quite into the idea. We had a lovely dinner of two in the restaurant as well.

Then we went to Paris. Crazy of them, but DD and PP took us and 7 other family members over there for a week after the wedding (they will have a real honeymoon at another time). It was hard going at times, mainly because there were so many people to organise and everybody was being polite and going with the flow, so some days it was the afternoon before we all decided what to do. Still we did some great things, and most importantly BB got to know more of his Australian family. He was particularly impressed with the concept of cousins - he doesn't have any in the UK, but he does have 8 of them on his dad's side of the family. His pretend play now often includes cousins which I find adorable.

TTC was delayed - partly because I just couldn't imagine how we could achieve it with so many people around, and partly because I had read lots about hormone balancing and had self diagnosed that I had some work to do there - I really wanted to get myself sorted this time, before we start. I am feeling like I am on track now. We are going to have three more attempts and then if nothing happens the new years resolution is to get over it. I mean really get over it this time too! No more changing our minds.

The day before we went away I got notice from the main place that I have been working that due to a business takeover all my classes were to be cancelled. There wasn't much I could do at the time, but I changed my website to say I was only doing private classes and this seems to have gone well. People are contacting me and I am running what they want in their home when they want it. I am actually liking it better and it saves time and money trying to promote things, and the problem that mostly I seemed to be offering one course when people needed another. The changes meant I could save money on childcare too, so I cancelled BB's nursery place... then a couple of days ago the same venue called me and invited me back... Maybe I will do a little work there, but possibly not a lot. I have other options to explore now too, so I may end up working more than ever, just when I thought it was going to decrease.

BB starts pre-school on Monday. I think I am excited about it. I think he will really like it once he gets there, but he says at the moment that he doesn't want to go. His best friend from nursery is going to be in a different class so he won't know anyone, but on a positive note when we went to loo around he didn't want to leave.  I am planning my time and what I am going to do while he is there. Some work of course, but also exercise. I am quite excited about the fact that I will be able to swim and run again. I recently bought myself new running shoes and have started back on the same running program i did when I first started running in 2008. I have only been out twice so far. Once when BB was a nursery and once when DD was here, but it's good. Hard work as I am fatter than ever and it has been a while, but good. I find both running and swimming quite meditative so I am looking forward to multiple benefits of having the time to do them both.

Re the plans to go back to Australia. I still want to go, but it is getting harder to imagine taking BB away from his Dad. talking this weekend it does sound like there may be a very slight chance DD and PP will go to Australia for a couple of years. That kind of throws it all up in the air even more. If they weren't going I would live in WA, but if they do perhaps I should go closer to them, and I don't want to move BB around too much, I want him to make friends and stick with them. So, we'll see. Hopefully we will be going next year for a long visit at the very least, but really its all up in the air.

Anyway, thats enough of a brain dump and catch up - I now feel I can blog on as normal in a few days time...