No time to stand still!

A year ago this week, Dave and I were sunning it up in Cyprus celebrating a friends wedding. We treated ourselves to a nice hotel, glorifying how nice it was to be just us two without any kids around us for the week! If you told me, a year on we would be living in America and expecting our third child i would have laughed in your face!
I've had moments this week of "OMG We're actually here or we're having a real live baby"! All of a sudden the gravity of it all has hit me!
A common question this week, when i've introduced myself to other parents, is how am i finding the transition? I've answered honestly and said i don't know! The house is amazing, the garden for the kids is amazing, the weather is so lovely it has been a total surprise!  But being away from family, friends, having familiar surroundings.. that's what makes it hard. It's still only been around 80 days since we moved over, so it's still really early days and i know it will get easier. I think with the impending birth and the excitement of mum and mick coming over, it's become a little more overwhelming.

 This baby is due in 5 days! Dave is now bored of waiting and trying to tap my stomach like the bottom of a ketchup bottle to get it out.. helpful as always :) The boys are asking questions about how this baby is coming out and what are we going to do if it's actually an elephant.. I've been going to the hospital 3 times a week to have different things done, the doctor i saw last week had me in tears. Telling me that i should have a c-section because of the size of the baby..this baby is due to be around 8lbs. Lucas was 8.13lbs and Ollie was 7.11lbs. Got over that the next day after speaking with dave and deciding that ultimately they are just after a scheduled birth and money! So everything is as it should be, they are keen to induce by the end of next week, which i don't want to happen, but it's out of my hands! As long as it doesn't come before Monday afternoon when mum and mick get here we will be fine!
I'm so excited to see them! Show off the house and enjoy some lay ins whilst they sort all the boys out....lol..sorry mum you're not here for a actual holiday are you?! :)

So after the whole chaos of getting a dog license, i braved it and went to the "local" dog park to get Gizmo used to other dogs again and have a run around off the lead. Needless to say, i probably won't be going back! The park was 20 mins away and the dogs that were in there started on giz so i had to (at 8 months pregnant) jump in and stop them from biting him! I'm sure there will be another day to go on where there won't be problems, but it put me right off!!
Miss taking him to the big park near us in Andover where he could run around a lot more, but shouldn't complain really, he's got a lot more of a garden to play with here!

It's certainly going to be a busy few week, with mum and baby, then the kids finishing for the summer holidays in less than 3 weeks i'm not sure how i'm going to catch a breath! But it's so nice knowing we are actually going to have a summer. The weather is hot now, let alone what it's going to be like come July and August! 10 WEEKS OF KIDS ON HOLIDAY FROM SCHOOL! WITH A NEWBORN BABY!! Ah man!!!!!

Anyhoo, the dishwasher isn't going to load itself and i need to catch some rays before i become a hermit once again!

Love to everyone!
xxx

2 weeks today! That's my due date! Can anyone tell me how this date has come around so quick?! But 2 weeks yesterday is when mum and mick are coming over!! Which i'm so excited about! Don't get me wrong, i'm excited about looking after a new baby too.. but i also then remember how the baby comes out and everything afterwards! No sleep, poop patrol and baby sick!
As you can imagine the appointments to see people over here have gone a bit nuts, i have to visit the hospital three times a week for stress tests and measurements etc. Because my insurance doesn't cover for midwifery care its a OBGYN and i'm having to tell them not to worry about the predicted size of the baby! It's projected to be around 7.12lb which they are in a bit of a panic about, now considering Lucas was 8.13lbs and Ollie was 7.11lbs.. i'm not worried in the slightest. ..serves me right for marrying a 6'2 lanky git i guess!

Talking of 6'2 lanky gits, dear old hubby got into some trouble at the weekend. Surprise surprise all about a game of bloody football! The ref in Lucas' game was shocking, there were some terrible fouls going on, kids dropping like flies and the ref was doing nothing about it! That is until Lucas was fouled and injured, but instead of blowing his whistle and doing something about it, he walked away! Dave decided it was about that time to give him some "constructive criticism" which lead to the ref walking off the pitch.. and getting his supervisor to take over! Coach in the meantime came over and said, maybe next time let the coaches talk to the ref not you! Which is fair enough, but they weren't exactly doing anything about it either! Needless to say us as parents were sulking about the game more than the kids were! I don't think i've ever sworn so much in my life especially at a kids football game!

So, we've noticed over here what we took for granted in the UK. Number one being the roads! There are so many pot hols over here because of the bad winter, secondly is that everything is done with chip and pin in the UK no probs, whereas here it's very few and far between. What makes me laugh is there isn't many roundabouts over here, but when you get to one obviously its trained in dave and i to indicate etc, we must be the only ones over here that actually do it!

The weather is getting really warm, but the next day is thunderstorms that are so loud, the blinds in the living room vibrate! It is very humid over here though, so it feels warmer than it actually is. I am refusing to buy maternity shorts with 2 weeks to go!

Finally seem to be getting to grips with the food, and where to get the best deals. It's still very difficult but adopting a new routine isn't so bad now.
Boys are doing well with school, Lucas had his first friend over the other day, i made the effort to introduce myself to his mum and pass my number on for future dates. What made me laugh as the first question that came out of her mouth was "do you have any guns in the house?" which stumped me! Never had to think like that in the UK obviously, so after reassuring her that wasn't the case, he came over. To my surprise she said it was the first time she had ever left him on his own with a friend.  He was nice enough though, and was really good to see lucas play properly.
Lucas has been missing his school friends, has been talking about them a lot, hard to hear about sometimes as start to feel guilty!

That's it really, we have brought some baby stuff as a "just in case" I can't quite believe it's only 2 weeks to go!!

Ta ra for now
xx

another countdown..

Last week this squirrel decides to run away from us up a tree whilst we are going in the front door. There was a moment where it stopped and peeked around the tree to see where Lucas was. Lucas in turn peeked around the tree at the same time, in the same direction to see it. It felt like ages, but it was a split second, i wish i had my camera. Certainly something that wouldn't happen again, but it was quite magical, (i then thought i best get him away from the said squirrel as it could jump onto his head and try and eat him!)
At the beginning of this week, the said squirrel was as flat as a pancake on the little bit of road outside our house, from the tree he had climbed. Now this could have been a different squirrel and probably not the same one at all, but i burst into tears! This poor squirrel was deaded, the one that "bonded" for a mili-second with my eldest, was deaded! I'm putting it down to pregnancy hormones, because all Lucas had to say about it was that he could see his tongue poking out!

Time seems to be flying by at the moment, we are now on another countdown, which is for the baby to arrive. We have put a bet on that, it will be here before mum and mick arrive and dave will have to contend with an airport pick up and a baby being born at the same time! We have 4 weeks exactly until it's scheduled appearance! We have got the bottles and sterilizer, with the pushchair ..or should i say "stroller" on order to be delivered within the next few days. We still haven't got a name, we are back and forth on some, the boys (including dave) are just reeling off Star Wars characters.. i don't think chewbacca wallace has a very good ring to it, but Ollie doesn't agree!
It still doesn't feel real, this pregnancy has taken a back seat since we found out about America, it's starting to dawn on us that we aren't going to sleep for the next year or so and that nappies will become part of our outgoings once more, but it hasn't really sunk in fully!

Boys are doing well with school, cops and robbers, and tag seem to be the games they play a lot at the moment. Ollie startled me the other day when we were in the car. "mummy..here you go..here's some trash" - i asked him who he thought he was talking to.. and then changed trash to "garbage"..
Lucas struggled with his first game on his football team, he didn't know what scrimmage was or even offence.. so scrimmage is a friendly match and offence is attack..
He was much better this week, he scored 5 goals and the team won 10-1. Ollie scored his first 2 goals for his team and they drew. Dave and i were so surprised at how messy the teams were, instead of 5 a side like we have been used to, its a 10 a side, on the same sized pitches as what we use for the 5 a side in the UK. Ollie's team were especially messy, it was like watching them as toddlers again all going after the same ball! It was a little better this week, and dave was shouting from the sidelines to both of the boys telling them where to go etc, but it's something we are going to have to get used to!

Mum and Mick are coming over in less than a month, and i cannot wait! It's the longest time we have been away from each other, and although we facetime a lot, it's not the same thing! It'll be nice to have a mummy cup of tea!!

Tomorrow i have a dog park orientation meeting.. there are only certain areas over here that you can take the dog for a walk, and one of those places is a dog park. So, i have to go sit in a meeting and listen to how my dog should  behave when in this park, then apply for a license and then get a ID for him to visit one!

The weather is improving! It is going to be 25 tomorrow! All the neighbours have been out doing their lawn.. i say they have..they've got gardeners with the massive sit on mowers to do it for them! We have had a few thunderstorms over the last few weeks and apparently they can get very big!

All in all, nothing has really happened! Just plodding on as usual!

Much love
xx