24/07/2008

Overdue Update


Well, our houseguest Ciaran, the lovely Irish cousin has left on Monday, Asher is in bed singing himself to sleep and Sanj is out at a farewell dinner, so I will ignore the housework and provide a quick update.


Still no job for Sanj, but I'm pleased to report that he has already had an interview and been asked back for a second interview. The bad news is that if he gets this job it will be less $$ and he won't have any time off between jobs (no tropical get-away for us!). The good news is that he will be employed (duh!) and that it's a job that would give him really good experience. At present he doesn't have any sales experience and he knows more about Aussie wine than overseas wine so this job selling boutique overseas brands would really fill a knowledge/experience gap. I won't say anymore about it now, as he hasn't got an offer and we don't want to jinx things.


Asher is still going to 'Kindy' (childcare) on Wednesdays and Thursdays and doesn't seem to really be settling in much. I'm still not overjoyed about the whole situation - far more conflicted than I ever thought I would be before I had kids. I think I might make some time to talk to the director about the fact that there the room Asher is in still has only one permanent staff member and one casual because that's not helping my state of mind and it's something that concrete that I can address.


Apart from that though, he's doing so well! He was up til 9 at night a few times while Ciaran was staying with us without melting down and his language is really coming along with 4, 5 and even 6 word strings becoming more common. (to say they were sentences might be pushing it. They don't always have verbs, but it's usually easy to work out what he wants). He's also starting to have little conversations with his tiny mates. Megan heard one the other day when both boys were in the car:

M: My pants - star!

A (looking at the red star on Miles pants): Yellow star?

M: Red star!

A: Yes.

He loves being chased around the house or park by one of us, calling out "Chase 'im!" as he runs away, because that's what we do. His favourite food is probably olives (pasta with olives and melted cheese is a favourite dinner). He knows I drink cappuccinos while Sanjay drinks flat whites. He loves all his grandparents, aunties and uncles and refers to them by name. He loves trains and buses, loves spotting them and getting to have a ride on them and he can spend ages playing with his trains (a mixed bag of Ikea and Thomas and Brio), either by himself or with a friend or one of us.


As for me, well, apart from being pretty torn about having Asher in childcare, I'm really happy! Life is more balanced than it's ever been for me - I'm enjoying work, where I'm learning about training and the VET sector, I'm about to get some training in a learning management system called Moodle and hopefully at some point in the future I'll be able to pull this new knowledge together with my previous experience, and create a new career for myself. As well as enjoying work I'm getting to see enough of my family and now it's time to work on connecting with some old friends who I've neglected a bit in the rush of daily life.


Of course, since everything is so smooth I'm trying to make life difficult for myself by getting a severe case of wanderlust. I think it's a combination of having Ciaran around for a while and talking with him about his travels, reading books like Bill Bryson's Notes on a Small Island and Salman Rushdie's Enchantress of Florence (both excellent!) and just having life travel smoothly by. I'm just going to have to deal though, coz I can't see us going anywhere past Port Macquarie for a long, long time.

1 comment:

surroundsound5000 said...

Always nice to get an update on how the world is rolling on without me. I can't wait to come see you guys, but I don't know when I'll get the time.