Well Conrad and Marie Claire left on Monday night.  Congratulations to the pair of them.  For those of you who aren’t aware they drove across to Las Vegas during their stay and got married.

So I’ve just received a telephone call this afternoon asking if I can bring Kirsten along to an audition for a spot on a local television broadcast that will take place next Wednesday.  The audition is on Friday afternoon so I’ll let you know how it goes.

So my (Sigrid’s) parents left on Sunday night and Conrad and his partner, Marie Clare, arrived on Monday night.  They head off on a 4-day trip to New Mexico/Alberquerque tomorrow morning, Thursday.  Whilst my parents were here they did 2 mini trips.  Their first one was round the california border with a couple of stops by border patrol.  Their informative titbit is if you are going to check out Yuma the areas for sightseeing are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  During their second week they took a 2-day trip across to Globe which they said was amazing with plenty to see and do.  We also took a big family trip down to Phoenix Zoo on the saturday and great fun was had by all.  Pictures can be see on our shutterfly site.  Follow the link to the right of the page.

Kirsten finally had her head shots taken by the modelling agency last Saturday.  She woke up and was bloody minded so we weren’t holding out much hope and warned the photographer on arrival that this maybe no fun.  He said no worries he would take as long as needed and if required she could watch others having their pictures done and he’d just fit her in…so she was as good as gold and after about 5 minutes he turned round and said he had the perfect shot.  We were out before our timeslot as we’d arrived 20 minutes early and the previous person had also arrived early.

As for potty training…yeah right.  Kirsten tells us she needs to go potty as soon as she has gone.  We then go through the rigmoroul (not sure of spelling) of sitting on the toilet, wiping our bottom, flushing the toilet and washing our hands before putting on a dry nappy.  Every store she has to try out the restroom no matter what.  If she sees a door in a wall she assumes it has to be a restroom and decides she has to go through.   Please, please, please let it be soon.  She goes through the night dry and although sits on the toilet and potty (yup both) before going down for breakfast it’s not until she eats that she does anything.  I’ve even had her running round the garden for 5 minutes naked before sitting her on the potty in the hope that she would do something.  She also goes through her nap dry.  It’s eating and drinking that gets her to go.  Keep your fingers crossed.  I’m exhausted.

Kirsten is also learning the tricks of how to prolong going to bed…potty…you forgot to clean my teeth…not all the guests have kissed me goodnight….you didn’t read that book to me….I need the potty again.

Talk  to you all soon.

So, our first guests arrive this evening at Sky Harbor (Phoenix Airport) at 17.10.  It’s my parents (Sigrid’s parents).  They are with us until September 20th.  Then Conrad and MC arrive on September 21st and stay with us until October 5th.  We’ve then got a few weeks free so have booked ourself our first real family holiday.  We’re going to go to San Diego from October 18 – 23rd and the dogs are booked into Raintree Pet Resort.  Then last but not least John’s parents arrive on October 29th just in time for Halloween and leave on November 16th.  Yes it’s the busy season.

Kirsten is loving school.  The problem is I can’t mention it on a non-school day as she’s immediately telling me to get shoes on, find my bag and get the car started…not that she’s keen or anything.  We’ve dropped gymnastics.  I wasn’t sure if I’d over scheduled her anyway, but when we arrived at class on Monday we found the other 3 had all transferred to another day due to their siblings starting school and parents not wanting to make 2 visits to the same place in a week.  When I spoke to the owner she asked if I could transfer Kirsten to another day as she wanted to cancel her class and I said that wasn’t possible.  Also I realised that Kirsten needed at least the company of one child as Monday’s class was a bit of a failure as Kirsten had no competition.  In the end we decided that I would just stop Kirsten all together.  This is fine as with all the guests arriving she gets a little extra time to be spoiled (as if she needs more spoiling).

Hopefully you’ve all seen the pictures of Kirsten’s art work that I have posted on our shutterfly page.  If not follow the link on the right hand side of the screen and once there look in the “Projects” folder.  She’s quite the budding artist although she doesn’t like to get her hands messy…sorry nora not sure how I’m going to get those painted hand prints for you.

Kirsten is also close to being potty trained.  Not that I’ve done any of the work.  Because there have only been 6 in her class the teachers have been working on it and on school days Kirsten is pretty good.  It’s just those in between ones.  I think this morning we sat on the toilet about 8-10 times (including whilst at Fresh & Easy) peed in the toilet about twice and I still had to change the nappy about half a dozen times (including 4 in 30 minutes)…let’s not go there.  I’m hoping with the help of the guests in the next few weeks (especially Nanny) we’ll get there.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

So we’re coming into Kirsten’s 3rd full week. She and I are kept busy with her schedule and I wasn’t sure if it was going to be too much or not. We are as follows: Monday – gymnastics; Tuesday – school; Wednesday – swimming; Thursday – school and Friday is catch up.

Her naps reduced last week which surprised me but I think she was a little overstimulated then we went to the gym yesterday morning and on our return she went to bed. We woke her up as it came to almost 3 hours and 15 minutes and she was still settled in bed by 7.30pm (her choice) and slept until 7am this morning. We’ll see what happens this week.

This morning we have gymnastics. Last Monday she threw a tantrum halfway through the class wanting her snacks out of my bag. Kirsten likes to have food when she wants it rather than when we decide (a habit I need to break). It is exactly the same with drink and preschool commented on that fact.

I also think we’re very close to giving the potty training another go. We are changing the nappy even more as every time she does something she lets us know but she is now sitting on the toilet before bathtime rather than using the plastic potty as soon as she gets into the bath. I think I’ll ask my Mum for help when she arrives in about 11 days and maybe in the 2.5 weeks she’s here we’ll get it done. Who knows.

I’ve been taking pictures of all Kirsten’s artwork from school (almost a project a day) and I’ll get those pictures up during the week. Kirsten’s phrase of last week was “what are you doing here?” which is very funny to here when she says it to John as he walks through the door and comes home in the evening.

Well keep in touch.