In the Woods

If you are the Mommy who gets to teach a toddler to pee in the woods because you're at the park and there's no potty in sight, don't forget to have him take his mittens off.

Lesson learned.

What We Do Between Appointments

Someday, someday, we'll have less PT to go to (already down to just 1x per week and it's made for more Mommy and F time) and fewer doctor appointments and less of the sort of crummy stuff that's cluttered our lives the last few months. We do manage to squeeze in some fun stuff every once in a while though...

Like our friend Haaken. The few who know how F and Lexie and Ava played will appreciate his friendship with Haaken. They have that easy play style where they just get along, no fighting or problems with sharing, have and lots of cooperative play. It's that dream playdate where as a parent you can sit back and enjoy watching a couple of kiddos learn from and teach each other. He lives farther away than Lexie and Ava did so we don't get to see him as often, but boy oh boy F sure hops around on days he knows we'll see Haaken.
It's still winter here. Snowy. There's a snow pile in our back yard that's been there since October. I don't EVER remember a winter like that. However, I hear stories that the winter of '06-07 was like this, we were off gallivanting around Ireland and Europe and missed it. Normally snow sticks around Denver for, oh, a day and then is gone. Over the last couple of weeks we've had a serious of little snows and I've just ignored the piles of snow on the deck. FFM asked if he could go outside and 'shobel.' Absolutely! Hmmm, in about two years I think I'll have a hard time getting him to go out and do this...

He also got a nifty hat from Grammie PenPen that he finally decided to wear. She picked it up on her trip to Peru last year and she kindly sewed a fleecy liner in it so it would be nice and soft.
Grammie PenPen is here again for a couple of days along with her friend Ruth Ann. We all went up north to the Butterfly Pavillion today. Two giant busloads of field-trippers unloaded just as we got there and they were eating lunches. FFM was POSITIVE he needed to sit down with them and eat his snack.

The Butterfly Pavilion is a pretty nifty place. There are exhibits with all kinds of insects, and they're all right at kid height or have step stools nearby so little guys can tap on the glass. The giant millipede was popular as were all the hairy spiders. FFM was disappointed that you had to be 3 to hold Rosie the tarantula, but was quickly appeased by the on-the-ball handler who gave him a giant sticker.

Of course the big draw at the Butterfly Pavilion is the tropical garden full of, yup, butterflies. This room is fantastic this time of year (it's REALLY dry in Colorado) because it feels sort of like you're suddenly transported to, say, tropical Mexico or Queensland. Nice and warm and humid. If you're lucky a butterfly will land on you, they flutter all around and everywhere you look there is a kaleidoscope of whirling color, and you feel like you've got butterflies in your hair there are so many of them.

FFM and Ruth Ann...

Electric blue butterfly the size of a saucer

FFM could not stay still, and I finally figured out he was actually chasing specific butterflies.

I remember when the Butterfly Pavilion was built and I thought it was a bizarre business plan. Really, how many people are going to want to go look at butterflies? But I've been several times now since it was new, this is the first time with FFM, and I'm happy to say it's still great, still going strong, and still full of bugs and butterflies.

The Big Beginning

WARNING: This post contains moderately graphic Mommy content. If you aren't a Mommy who is used to talking about the stuff that comes out of your kid, then continue reading at your own risk! (it's really not that bad)

You might remember way way back when F and I had the discussion about being a big kid vs. little kid and he declared he was a medium kid. We still have that discussion just about every day, and at our house the holy grail of big-kid-dom is toilet training. He's determined to be a big kid, but has had ZERO and I *really* mean it, zip, zilch, zero, no interest in going potty.

We've read the books, we've practiced, we've watched the videos, picked out underwear, read more books, practiced some more, read more books, we've had random successes, tried going potty on a schedule, nothing's penetrated. F has been showing all the signs of being ready for months, but he summed it up very concisely just last week:

F, "No, Mommy, no potty. I LIKE diapers."

*sigh*

OK, so I'm not going to chain him to the potty, I'm one tough Mom but that's not really my style. So, I wait. And wonder how in the world I'm ever going to do this because my bag of tricks is empty. I don't sweat it too much knowing that a lot of boys aren't ready until they're 3 (tick tock tick tock...) Then I contemplate running away for a long spa weekend while I let Travis figure it out.

Thursday, we had what I call a 'random' potty success, I knew he was about to have that daily 'constitutional' so I plopped him on the potty, hooray! Everyone's happy. But the rest of the day is status quo, diapers as usual. However, Friday...F walks up to me and states, "Mommy need go pee pee in potty RIGHT NOW."

What?

And again. And again, and he told us in the locker room at the swimming pool, and at the restaurant when we went to dinner, and four times this morning. He's in a pull up today and it's been dry all day - including a whole trip to the hardware store.

I am not counting any chickens yet, no way Jose. But F's suddenly all stoked about sticker charts, underwear, flushing, the whole kit and kaboodle. I'm SO excited to see a light in the tunnel of endless diapers!

Aches and Pains

After a brief stint trying to get it worked out in Perth, I'm now more than two months into physical therapy and treatment for my shoulder here in Denver. I'm finally starting to make a little progress, but most days it's hard to tell as some part of my shoulder, neck, back is still in so much pain I can't pick things up or lift much over a couple pounds (forget a nearly 40lb toddler the size of a four year old).

Good news, we're narrowing in on the shoulder stuff. Rotator cuff is tweaked, due to a bone spur, tendonitits, and ongoing bursitis, the latter I learned of in Perth. Bad news, my neck/back are in a lot of pain - probably more than before. Worse news, I'm still not allowed to do any real physical activity which is pretty darn annoying - no swimming, working out, barely just walking really, and only that at a mellow pace so I don't tense up. Anything other than resistance strengthening for my shoulder, and even that sometimes, creates spasms in my neck and back which set everything right back to the beginning. That bad cold I had a few weeks ago came with a nasty cough which locked up my neck so I couldn't look right again. That put a damper on my physical therapy, I had to back off even the resistance exercises until my neck unlocked. Locked up neck/back = no shoulder strengthening exercises allowed = weak shoulder = part of the problem (plus the big bone spur that's rubbing, but hey, you know, - just gotta be TOUGH!)

Bone spur: you can see how a pointy bone where it's not supposed to be might hurt.
Bursa in your shoulder: mine's inflamed and so is swollen, taking up more room than it should and causing even more joint pain in addition to the bone spur.
I got another steroid injection into my shoulder last week, in a new location, and it seems to be working much better than previous injections. The upside to this is that it means an easy arthroscopic surgery could fix one of the big shoulder issues, my rotator cuff pain. The MRI on my neck didn't show much, according to the orthopedist, but I'm in so much pain there's got to be something going on.

With all the Dr/MRI/follow up and misc other appointments I've had to take time off from going in to PT because there just aren't enough days in the week when you have to be home in time for 2.5 year old's afternoon naps. I'll get back in to see them this week and see what they can do to ease some of the neck/back pain so I can work on the shoulder some more. Hopefully soon we'll get a break, we all get the feeling it's one big puzzle and as soon as we find the right piece it'll all start to fall into place.

Out of Oz -> Into Mile High

You could also call this post "Consolidation", because for the first time in nearly four years, most of our worldly possessions are not only on the same continent, but in the same house. (I say "most" because I have a small stash of top-quality good stuff that has been resident in San Juan County for a couple of decades now. It is working its way to the Front Range bit by bit, but it has never really been in our Denver orbit, so that smallish pile notwithstanding, all the rest of our stuff is all here).

Our household effects departed Perth the first week of December 2009 and arrived in Denver the first week of February 2010 - less than 9 weeks in transit. Not bad for a 12,000 mile trip in a steel box.

Stats:
- Sole-use (only our stuff) modular sea container - 1x 20-foot
- Volume: 24 cubic meters
- Volume actually used: 15 cubic meters
- Time to wrap, pack and load stuff: 3 guys, most of a day.
- Trajectory: From Perth to port at Freemantle by truck. From Freo to Singapore by ship. Change onto another ship for Los Angeles. Hang out in Customs for a while. Train from LA to Denver. Truck to domicile.
- Time to unload, move into house, and partially unpack: 2 guys, one morning.
- Hooray! Everything made it, no noteworthy breakage.

Here are some photos of loading up in Perth just before the height of summer, and unloading in Denver 8 weeks later in mid winter.



The movers did a teriffic job, and we'd cheerfully use them again.
Drop us a line if you ever need any import/export advice.

Travis