I don't know if I mentioned that Juanita is back in the last post. I might have, but I cannot be bothered to go back and look so lets just say she is back and we are happy to have her. She tried to sneak into the house when she came home but when she went into where the kids were, William jumped up and said Mommy! and came running over.
After giving her hugs, he said 'my name is William', as if Juanita might have forgotten. Maeghan got hugs and kisses and was carried around. William spent the next several days asking where mommy was anytime she was not in direct site. I think he was going to make sure she did not leave again.
It was touch and go for a while about whether Juanita's mother would come back with her or not. In the end, she decided to stay in Tasmania, but we were a little worried for a while. I asked her if she was going to be ok staying with the kids. She said she could be our live in baby sitter. I didn't mention that I meant staying with the other kids, at their house. Since she decided to not come over, we didn't have to cross that bridge.
Not that we do not enjoy having her over, and Juanita's father for that matter. We really like having them around but I think they are wary of upsetting me all the time and tend to not be themselves or are not comfortable living in our house. I know I do all the cooking and Juanita's mother is to comfortable with that and tries to make up for it by cleaning all the time. It is not really a problem, but she tries to clean up as I am cooking and most of the time ends up being in the way. But really, we don't mind having them here and will probably end up taking care of one or the other of them at some point in the future. Hopefully, we will have a big enough house before that happens.
Juanita has been back for a week now and we have not been to the park once since she has come back. We went almost every day while she was away but I guess we have had other things to do since then and have not had a chance to walk anywhere. Maybe today, if Juanita decides to get dressed. She is cleaning the house and this might be a day when she does not go out anywhere all day. The kids are getting restless wanting something to do, so I think we will be going out soon.
It has been raining over the weekend. We just finished a long weekend for labor day or memorial day or something. I can't remember any of the Australian holidays. It rained the whole time so we did not do much. We went for a drive yesterday but other than seeing this really sophisticated electronic dog, not a lot happened. Juanita and I enjoy seeing the houses and seeing which ones are for sale or rent, but the kids get bored real quick and generally just go to sleep when we go for these types of drives.
We drove to Woy Woy and stopped to have coffee there. That is where we saw this dog. It is a life sized border collie and looks just like a real dog. It reacts to things you say or do with it. For example, if you scratch its ear, it will raise its neck up towards you and then start scratching with its leg. When you stop, it makes little whimpering noises and tries to get closer to you. If you hold something in front of it, it will take it in its mouth and pretend to be chewing on it. Mostly, it drops whatever you have given it, but it tries to roll it around in its mouth like it is playing with it. If you ask it to shake hands, it will raise it paw. When you stop talking to it or petting it, it will lie down and occasionally, raise its head and bark. It was a really sophisticated dog.
Other than that, there was not much to tell about the drive. We did see where a tree branch had fallen across some power lines and was starting to catch fire. Several people had stopped and they were calling the fire department. I didn't realise what it was until I was already driving under it so I gunned the engine to get out of the way before we stopped and looked. I didn't see anything on the news about it, so I assume it did not cause any major problems anywhere.
We found a couple of places we had never seen before, which is really the whole point of these little trips. We used to do it all the time, but with the price of petrol and the fact that we have been almost everywhere locally now, we don't get out for these drives as much as I would like to anymore. And, there is the kids, who are just plain bored by the whole thing unless I find places to stop all the time and then it is a chore to get them out of the car and then get them back in to drive some more.
We found a little beach area that we did not know about and it was even patrolled by lifesavers when we drove passed. There were lots of people there and we wondered how they could stand it as it had just rained and it was not very warm and the water I think is at 17 degrees this time of year, so it must have been a really desperate experience for all those people who were in the water. We will probably not go back to there as the water seemed to have a cliff type thing right at the edge where, if you went more than ten feet into the waves, you dropped off to water that was four or five feet deep, instead of gradually rolling out and getting deeper. The location was nice, if maybe a little hard to find, but I would not want the kids getting in the water at that beach. But, there are plenty of other beaches that are closers and better suited to having kids play in them, so it is no great lose not going back to this one.
Of course, the kids wanted to get out and play. We told them it was raining, but since it was not raining when we actually said this, they immediately pointed this out. I said look at the water running along the side of the rode but Meaghan pointed out that they were not going to play on the road, they wanted to play in the sand. Hard to argue with that logic, so I just had to be the bad guy and say no. She went to sleep shortly after that. William had already been asleep and was wide awake but he did not say anything from that point on. I could not see him, but I could imagine him sitting in the back sulking.
Sometimes, on these drives, we try to keep the kids entertained. William is learning a lot of new songs but he does not sing them correctly and kind of repeats himself a lot. Maeghan knows all these songs and she sings them correctly and loudly to try to drown out William, and to show off that she knows the songs. This gets William upset and before long, we are telling both of them to be quiet and not more singing. So, then we have to keep them entertained in other ways.
One of our favorite games is to spot the animals in the fields. Both of them like this game and they look for horses and cows and anything else they can find. By the way, my keyboard seems to have stopped working correctly and I am spending a lot of time retyping things. If this goes on much longer, I am going to have to stop typing.
Anyway, they like looking for the horses and cows. One time, a few weeks ago, we were looking at the cows and passing a field that did not seem to have anything in it. William said cows and pointed at the empty field. We said we don't see any cows but he said cows again and pointed at the field. We said we do not see any cows and asked him where he saw them. He said 'the cows are in the trees'. I almost had to stop at the side of the road. Just another one of those things that kids that age say that are just so funny and truly amazing when they come up with them. Even Maeghan started laughing at that one.
The kids are really starting to play up now and this keyboard thing is starting to really bug me, so I am going to have to cut this story short. I am not sure what else I had to say, but I am sure there was a lot of it. Guess it will have to wait as I think Maeghan if plotting Williams demise even as I type.
So, until next time
Talk to you later
