4Apr2009: Day 313: Arundel Castle

We finally got to this castle that we saw as we drove past the town sometime back in October or November of last year. Today was the opening day for the season. You can see this castle as you come down into town as it's up on a hill and very ominous looking.

On the way to the castle, I was driving and hit one of these birds (pheasant). Not as big as this one but still a pretty good sized one. I had no choice as I had cars all around me. We saw quite a few feathers fly everywhere and when we got to the castle, there were feathers all underneath the car and even on the back of the trunk.

The castle was originally owned by the Earl of Arundel who was given the land from William the Conqueror in 1067. As most castles, it was built with earth and timber and then over the centuries, it was replaced with stone, actually flint type stone. So it looked really interesting on the outside.

The castle is now used more as a home and it looks as such. I said to Chris how I would love to live here as long as we had plenty of maids. It had a chapel inside that was pretty spacious. A lot of castles have some sort of chapel but usually it’s a very small room. I had heard that a relative of the current owners just had gotten married here a week ago.

There were a lot of nicely decorated bedrooms. One in particular called the Victoria room as Queen Victoria visited and stayed here. The owners at the time had actually had two years notice before the Queen’s arrival (along with her husband Prince Albert,) and refurbished the room.

Makenna really enjoyed this place as there were a lot of places that had stairs, especially when we got to the older sections of the castle—the gatehouse and keep. In this section, there were a lot of spiral staircases and it got a bit nerve wracking with her wanting to do the stairs herself, but we got through it. We were able to take photos of these sections. Although, I did take a few pictures inside the newer, house like section but I took them looking out onto the grounds such as this picture.

There is also a separate chapel on the grounds called the Fitzalan Chapel. This was founded in 1380 by the 4th Earl of Arundel and surprisingly it’s a Catholic church, “an unusual, if not unique, anomaly in England,” as stated in the brochure. It’s mostly used as the burial place of the Dukes of Norfolk. So there are a lot of tombs here such as this freaky one of John, 7th Earl of Arundel. It has him on top in armor looking majestic and then below it’s him looking very emaciated. I guess the brochure says it’s to remind us of mortality. Well that’s just lovely.

We then decided to walk up to the cathedral church that is in the town of Arundel. Chris and I took turns pushing Makenna up this steep hill. We figured we could use the exercise. We got to the Cathedral Church of Our Lady & St. Philip Howard which is another Catholic Church. There were quite a few people inside praying as its Holy Week. We tried to walk around quietly, hard to do with Makenna, especially when she saw steps. (pic 140). It really, in my opinion, was not much to look at. There were a few stone carvings but other than that, we couldn’t see much as most of the figures were covered in purple—again, something to do with Holy Week.

On our way up the hill there was another church so we stopped on our way down. It’s called, “The Parish and Priory Church of St. Nicholas.” We didn’t end up going into this church as they were having choir practice. We walked around it and saw a lot of tombs and graves. Some were even cracked a bit.

We walked back down into town and walked around a bit. We got some ice cream which made Makenna extremely happy. A couple of times today when we asked Makenna if she liked something she’d say, “umm, not bad.” We had a good laugh. Especially when it was for things such as noodles and ice cream, both of which she loves.

As it’s light out longer now, when we got home, Makenna helped Chris to cook dinner on the grill and water plants. This girl would drown plants given the chance. We then had a chance to Skype and see Makenna’s new cousin Natalie, along with her other cousin Katie and her uncle Josh and aunt Autumn. This new cousin, according to Josh, is extremely different from how her cousin Katie was when she was born. This one is quite happy and content and a much better sleeper. I say it has to do with how big she is (over 9lbs!). We got a chance to ask Autumn if she knew she was going to have a baby this big and she said the doctor had measured and said probably around 7lbs. Whoops!

3Apr2009: Day 312: Water Aerobics

All I can say is that we are in shock and awe of what’s happening today in our hometown in NY. We feel bad for those families who have now lost family members due to this man and those wondering about their loved ones. It’s weird to see such coverage over here on BBC and even more surprising is that they are saying and spelling the city’s name correctly.

I decided, now that I have a decent swimsuit, to take the water aerobics class after my weight workout. It was actually a pretty intense class. I would definitely go back. What was even nicer was that I knew I wouldn’t have time to go home before I had to pick up Makenna but I would be too early to shower and leave, so I went into the Jacuzzi. It was very relaxing.

Makenna had a chance to go to the park twice today too. The first time was after lunch. I took her to meet up with Hannah and family. It was funny because when we got to the park, she ran towards Hannah (who was also running towards her,) screaming as if she was seeing a lost long friend, even though they just saw each other not even an hour ago at nursery all morning. Then later, when daddy got home and after dinner, he took her again. She really is into being on the swing lately. I had to take her home earlier than planned as she was starting to throw fits that she couldn’t go back on it. Plus, she was getting tired and it was near naptime, and a stinky, messy diaper. After daddy brought her in, she wanted to go back out right away, back to the park.

We were also able to take her little bike to the park. She did better than last time. She kept her feet on the pedals, although not pedaling. Now I just have to get her to steer it properly so that we’re not going into a wall or car.

We also had a much better day. I read a book last night; I think it’s called, “Mother’s Guidebook….” I forget the rest and am too lazy to go upstairs to get it. Anyways, it talked exactly about what I was blogging about yesterday. How I resort to two year old behavior and how I treat her like a 20 year old. It was my “divine intervention” for the night as I was right at the chapter at the right time. I really concentrated on what I blogged about yesterday, in that it’s my choice to exert my patience that God may have given me.

It was also nice to see her face light up so joyfully in seeing her father as he was gone all week. She was just so very excited but she also still cuddled up to me. He treated her by making popcorn – one of her favorites. I saw her later feeding a piece to her dolly and saying, “go on, taste it,” and then making um um um noises as if she was eating it.

It is hard to believe that this was the same girl that I was so angry with yesterday. Not that she was the epitome of wonderful but my attitude definitely has a lot to do with how the day goes and my mood at the end of the day. Now if I can only put this into practice every day instead of a day after feeling like I deserve the “worse mom in the world” award. This, according to the book last night, is the adversary’s way of getting a hold of my psyche—clever, very clever.

2Apr2009: Day 311: Heaven Help Me

Seriously, I needed some divine intervention today. I pray every night and every morning for patience, understanding, the ability to re-direct Makenna in a positive manner when she’s doing something she shouldn’t be, and most of all, for me not to become child-like in my reactions to her. FAILED!

I’ve already been on my knees once today asking/begging for forgiveness and I know I have more to do tonight. As I was doing this it came to me that I need to choose to exert the patience I’ve been praying for. God may have given it to me but I need to choose to use it. I don’t know why I have a hard time some days wrapping my brain around the fact that I have a two year old and not a twenty year old. So my trying to rationalize with her, or tell her why some things need to be done at certain times or why some things are not done just slip from me and I find myself getting really frustrated and angry.

I’ve realized that a lot of the times it’s because that I feel like I cut myself short on time. What I mean is that I’m “running” out the door to get somewhere on time or that I have this “sense” of what needs to be done at certain moments and not letting go. Knowing this, I try and give myself another 10-15 minutes leeway in leaving. I don’t always succeed, but when I do, I’m more relaxed and I can let her dawdle and stop to pick up every gross thing off the ground (well not everything.)

Then there are times like today that I forget that at 4pm, when she hasn’t had a nap yet, that she’s bound to not follow directions and fight me on anything and everything. When all I want to do is get her home and into a nap and all she wants to do is play with toys. Plus, going back to the “she’s not 20,” thing, I expect respect of sorts for treating her with a cookie after swim and all it really does is prolong getting her to her nap thus starting the cycle.

So I need to think of these things before getting irrational in my actions or responses to her. She’s two for goodness sake (almost 2.5!). Tonight was better. I had her help me make banana bread as she likes to pour things into the bowls and mixing. In fact, today, she was helping me mop. The video below was before I put water in the bucket. Then when I did put water in the bucket, she still helped and got a lot of water on the floor, but I was okay with that.

The good news is that I was able to go out and get a bathing suit this morning. I was so excited. I desperately needed a new one and the fact that I found one that fits and I could feel comfortable enough in made me happy. Plus, I got to try it out today during Makenna’s class.

Makenna did well, but had a hard time concentrating on what the teacher wanted, as did the other little boy. In fact, 10-15 minutes before the class was to end, the other little boy just quit altogether for the day. His mom was not in the pool with him but on the side and his grandmother was in the pool. But he wanted him mom and basically that was it for him. Makenna quit with about 5-10 minutes left in the class. But I still worked on some things with her as she played. Unfortunately the class isn’t being held next week, so we’ll have to definitely make sure we go Wednesday morning to meet with the other moms and kids.

1Apr2009: Day 310: She's Here

I got a call from my brother Josh a little after noon our time to tell me that Natalie Rebekah arrived about 5:47am their time. She weighed in at 9 lbs 12 ounces! Now, if anyone knows my sister-in-law Autumn, she’s a very thin girl, so to have her carry around this child had to be quite a sight to see. Not only that, but she had it naturally. First it was by choice, but then when she decided she wanted an epidural, it was too late. Josh said not to worry, that all the hospital knew what was happening by her screams. Not sure how long she was but had to be a good size. She was only 3 ounces off from Makenna.

I took Makenna swimming after my work out. Wednesday’s was the day that the moms from the swim class last semester said they’d still meet. There was only one from the class and I asked her if the mom’s were meeting. She said that yes there was usually more. We had missed the last two times from being sick and then Jake being here. Makenna did exceptionally well. She kept jumping in, and really kicking her feet and moving her arms more than usual. She even tried pulling herself out of the pool but relied on me for the most part. Hopefully she’ll do as well tomorrow during class.

We stopped at the park after lunch and before play group. At play group, they had them decorate mini-baskets (made of cardboard,) so that they could do an Easter egg hunt. I ended up decorating the basket as Makenna has this insatiable need to pick up toys all of a sudden. Figures, I can’t get her to do it without some real persuasion and the one time she can leave toys to play she’d rather pick them up. Anyways, after, we went outside and were allowed to pick up one big chocolate egg (a bit smaller than a Cadbury’s,) and then two small chocolate eggs, and two small chocolate bunnies. I really had a hard time finding them at first, but we eventually got them.

Since we walked to playgroup, we had to pass through the park again to get home, and my plan was to just take Makenna straight home but as we were half-way through, we saw Hannah and Bethany. They were unable to make it to playgroup, so I allowed Makenna to go in and play in the park for another half hour. This then meant a later nap time.

Yesterday and today, Makenna decided to throw her fruit on the floor. I found it very aggravating. I’m not sure why she’s picked up this fun trick of sorts. I’m of course out of the room when she does it and so her punishment has been to help me pick it up. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because she wants to help me clean. She tried helping me clean tonight again. I told her not to worry, there will come a day when I’ll require her to clean and she won’t be too happy about it then, I added, “Trust me on that.” I’ve been trying to have her help me put silverware into the dishwasher and she seems to enjoy that. I guess I have to find little things she can do while I have a willing helper.

31Mar2009: Day 309: That Can't Be Good

Something new happened at the gym, and not in a good way. I was on the alpine climber and I happened to notice this girl come out of her class and bend over outside the doorway. I peered over and saw she was talking to a friend who must have come out earlier and who seemed to be trying to catch her breath. Then I saw this friend go over and get a cool compress and the next thing I knew, the girl on the floor just keeled over. They got some of the gym staff to come over. An ambulance was eventually called and they took her out on a stretcher.

The stretcher was weird. It wasn’t a normal flat stretcher, but a chair and they had wrapped her up in a big blanket of sorts, which didn’t make sense since she was probably over-heated to begin with but I’m not a paramedic. The way she was strapped in reminded me of those movies where you see a person in a mental hospital who’s belted in to an upright chair—very strange. You could see people trying not to look but not helping themselves—kind of like rubber-neckers at a car wreck scene. Since she passed out in front the classroom where she had been taking a class, when the class was done, people were just stepping over her to leave. I think they had moved her over a bit so people weren’t literally stepping over her, but still.

I did walk down to pick up Makenna from nursery. It wasn’t as nice a day as yesterday but it was still nice enough out. We stopped at the park and every time I asked her if she wanted to leave to eat lunch she’d say, “No,” and then continued playing.

After we did make it home and had lunch, we had to run out to Enterprise to have them look at the car. Last Friday when I was taking Jake to Heathrow, a rock had hit the windshield and it cracked a bit. Every day I go out, it gets a bit longer. They needed to make a damage report and then they are supposed to have someone contact me about replacing the windshield.
Well, no new niece yet. My sister-in-law called me about an hour ago to say that they didn’t get her into the hospital until after 2pm so she was now starting the drugs. She wondered what time they could call me tomorrow to let me know how it all went. So hopefully tomorrow, I’ll be able to mention the new arrival.

30Mar2009: Day 308: Not Pro-priate

Makenna woke up a few times in the night. Not sure why but according to her yelling the first time, which was sometime around 3am, her blanket was stuck. You could hear her through the baby monitor, “blanket stuck!” The third time I got up and told her that it was time to continue sleeping, made sure she had her blanket and told her to go back to sleep. That seemed to work.

We’re back into our normal schedule and after the gym we went grocery shopping. The thing that bugs me about taking her is her penchant to putting her mouth on the cart. It’s just disgusting. The more you tell her no and that it’s gross, the more she tries to do it. I realize that it really is gross, but also I think I’ve become more vigilant in germs since we’re always sick. After we wash her hands before eating, she starts touching things that make me think, “why did we bother washing your hands?” For instance, she tends to touch the garbage lid in the bathroom, or pull the plug of the sink out. So in my telling her no today about putting her mouth on the cart, she replied, “That’s not pro-priate.” “Right,” I said, “It’s not appropriate.”

After lunch, we took a walk up to the Post Office. It’s about a 10-15 minute walk and it was a really nice day. On our walk home we saw two kitty cats and Makenna was really excited. I wish I had taken her to the park but I hadn’t washed up from the gym knowing that we were going to take this walk. I guess it shouldn’t have mattered. I hope that if tomorrow is another nice day, that I’ll walk down to pick her up from nursery and then we can stop at the park on the way home.

My little helper today decided to help me take the groceries out of the bags. I did appreciate it but I was nervous about the stuff in glass bottles. She hands them to me and says, “thank you,” as if telling me I need to say thank you for her handing it to me. I think it’s just that I always say it to her when she hands me something so she’s used to me saying it. Then later, I had her help me put silverware into the dishwasher. I really find it exciting that she wants to help. She keeps asking me about vacuuming and then saying, “Don’t be scared.” I told her we’d most likely vacuum later in the week unless something necessitates us vacuuming sooner.

Well, one last wish to my sister-in-law Autumn as she’s being induced tomorrow. I hope all goes well and that I’ll be able to at least mention that the baby has arrived by the time I do my blog.

29Mar2009: Day 307: Don't Use Your Face to Stop

We finally “sprung ahead” and are now five hours different from the states again. Well, five hours from where we live in the states. Somehow we got really lucky and Makenna slept in so she should be right on schedule. The only problem I have had lately and will more so now is that it will start to get light out anywhere between 3am – 4am. So I have this herbal rice bag that I tend to put over my eyes to blacken the room again.

Speaking of the states, there was a new missionary today who when he spoke, I said to Chris, “it sounds like a NY accent.” After church, I went up and asked him and sure enough he’s from Lockport. He was also excited to hear a familiar voice of sorts. I told him that a lot of Chris’s family is actually from that area.

It was another typical Sunday with Makenna trying to escape and Hannah on my lap. As we were leaving, Makenna was trying to run away from us and unfortunately she tripped on the gravel pavement and got banged up. She still has a habit of lifting her hands up in the air instead of using them as way of stopping her from getting really hurt. Thus the phrase came out of Chris’s mouth of, “Don’t use your face to stop.” So as you can guess, her face got a bit scraped up. I felt so bad.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t her only spill for the day. Shortly after getting home, she was sitting in a bar chair eating yogurt and she pushed her feet against the table thus knocking her self down for quite a fall. I think she was more scared than hurt. Everything else she did for the night, jumping off a small rocking chair onto daddy, jumping up and down on her bed, all came with strong warnings of what could happen. Chris wants me to get her into gymnastics when we get back in the states. I might actually look into it to see if she’s interested.

At least she bounced back from those and was quite happy in the evening to sing different songs of, “Yankee Doodle,” “Baa Baa Blacksheep,” and “Twinkle Twinkle Star.”