Jamin's New Bike!

Last June when we were on a working holiday in Chile, South America I saw a little kid in the park riding one of these bikes.
I thought they looked like one of the coolest things to skoot around on and wanted to bring one home to australia for Jamin to learn to ride on.

Fast forward a year to our big move to america and we see this cool bike again belonging to our landlords daughter, Hattie.
Jamin has had a few play dates with her and had a go on her skoot bike last week. Todd and Katie were raving about it so I managed to talk Danny into going to REC (outdoor shop) to have a look.

The idea is that the child is able to learn balance and coordination while they use their feet to keep steady. They can skoot around the place using their feet to balance and control the speed.

We bought one and here is the first practice session Jamin has had. Kael is very interested as well and frantically tries to crawl onto the bike everytime Jamin puts it down.



He has actually improved a lot through the afternoon and really loves his new bike! I might post another video once he has the hang of riding it.

where r we?

Thought I would post some pictures of what our house and neighbourhood is like.



Our first morning in Utah and it was snowing!



The view out our front window.



This is our local park. Like the mountains in the background?

We have two parks in walking distance as well as a pretty good shopping complex with every we could need.
Me and Danny are still hoping to get by with one car so that should make things a bit easier if I am dying to get out of the house and he has the car...

The mountains are huge and just beautiful to look at anytime I remember to. I can't wait to do some exploring.
We have been told that there is some pretty great rock climbing about 10 minutes away so if we can figure out what to do with the kids we might be able to get away. It also seems pretty common to ride around the place and things look pretty flat so we are looking into buying a chariot (kids trailer) you tow along behind the bike. At least that might slow Danny down so I have a hope of keeping up with him... :)

I am missing all of my 'mummy' friends a lot. The days are very long when there are no play dates to look forward to!
But Danny is working out of our basement so I do have some adult conversations during the day. We are definately enjoying his 10 second commute to work :)

settlin in...

This has been the most 'normal' week in the last month or so and I have loved it.

A 'normal' week for me mostly involves hanging out with the kids - feeding them healthy food (not crappy on the run food), having time to do crafts and colouring in, sitting on the floor playing games and teaching them new skills. As well as getting back into doing structured play - room time, mat time, table time. Jamin is a busy boy so I find I need to teach him the skills of sitting still and playing with a set toy for a period of time. It also helps my sanity!!

So this week Jamin is starting to learn how to dress himself in the mornings and make his bed. He is doing exceptionally well at both and is very proud of himself. We did some pictures to put on the wall as part of our daily routine. I find it works to make things visual for both him and me.

We are also working on doing some bright pictures and crafts to decorate the house. A new word Jammie has learnt this week "decorate". Its very cute to hear him try and say it! The pictures above are of Jamins room and Kaels room (not such a good one). I will try and take some more of the actual house in a later post.

I dont know if its the kids or the house or that i have grown up finally in the last few years but I am not homesick at the moment. Weird I know! I am loving being in a new city and getting to go out to new places and learn new things. I know that its only america, so culturally things arent that different but still I have suprised myself.

The kids are keeping me busy and we are living the same daily life in a lot of ways so maybe that is helping. I can't wait till our families come over and visit and they can be part of our adventure as well. I cringe at the thought of going home... mainly because of the hellish 26hour journey it took to get here and then the 5 days after that going through jetlag with kids. I DO NOT recommend it to anyone! It is a freakin nightmare and I consider myself having done it three times now (Chile & here) to have some experience.

Saying that... might go and catch up on some of my missing sleep :)