Two years

As of today we’ve been living out here, in Massachusetts, for two years!

I’d say I can’t believe it, but I can.

It still doesn’t feel quite like “home” but I’ll say it now feels more like home than not.

Apart from the people we left behind, I don’t honestly think I have any major regrets left.

There have been some very hard moments in the last 12 months. We had to deal with the first death in the family (on the hus-creature’s side) and some similarly hard news on my own and that was tough.

I suspect that if and when the next immediate family baby is born I will find that equally hard but at least that will be a good thing that has happened.

It’s the hard moments that really make you realise what you did once you emigrate.

We’ve been discussing longer term options once (please oh great Flying Spaghetti Monster) our green cards are confirmed, and it’s making me a bit antsy. I’m sure it comes as no surprise to my audience that I very much would like to move out of here as soon as is comfortably feasible.

We’ve definitely decided to stay in Melrose until TT finishes school, but then might move further into Massachusetts but we shall see.

I think it’s part of trying to handle the giant cloud of uncertainty that this process leaves over your life – planning for when it no longer will.

The children are flourishing here though. #1 Son had a birthday party yesterday that was “organised fun” and despite constant orders to

Pay attention

From the party organiser…


No the hus-creature wasn’t able to take them to one side and explain, which I find myself (probably unreasonably) annoyed by…


He was able to come home with a smile on his face and tell me that he had had fun.

We also celebrated 19 years together and 12 of them married last week.


It helps that there’s only 2 days difference I will admit 🤣😂


Due to difficulties with sitter availability we split the difference and the hus-creature took me out on a wonderful romantic dinner cruise on Thursday night ❤️🥰

We spent some quality 1 on 1 time together with food, and booze and fantabulous views and it was amazing.

I was very spoiled and felt very loved.

We are over halfway through #1 Son’s summer camp and he is still coming out with a smile on his face which is such a relief.

We’ve had some minor breakthroughs with eating but are back on the ups and downs there sadly.

(He has now decided he no longer likes peas).

Got about a month and a half to go til Second Grade, and I’m still praying he gets to keep last year’s teacher as a. She is completely amazing and b. A little bit of stability will do him good.

I’m attempting a doctor-recommended diet which we are describing as “Keto aligned” as when you tell the counter staff at Burger King that, they give you this for your lunch:

Which is surprisingly non-horrible. Basically in an attempt to get a handle on my pain I’m to give up:

  • All dairy 😰😰😰😰
  • Enriched processed food
  • All added sugar in everything (including natural sugars like honey, agave etc)

As those of you who know me in real life can probably guess, this has gone down like a lead balloon. He would also very strongly prefer that I go vegetarian, but I put my damn foot down there.

That may well be where this journey ends, but right now? No fucking way.

Tea with cashew milk is 80% tolerable I have discovered:

And one of the local sushi places does a DIY Poke Bowl for $17 which was surprisingly filling:

So all in all? I’m not at “wanting to stab things” level of anger and rage yet. Though mostly that’s down to the hus-creature who is embarking on this with me to support me. Have I mentioned how much I adore this man?

In closing? Two years has flown past.

From this:

To this:

And then he was SIX

Yes, today is #1 Son’s birthday!

Can I get a small round of applause for keeping a small human alive, healthy, and reasonably well-adjusted for six whole years?

No?

Ah well, worth a shot 😂🤣

Today was a slightly hard one for him, as he had to go to school on his birthday. Something that, if we had stayed in the UK, (barring royal jubilees) he wouldn’t have had to deal with.

However we dealt with it by opening a few presents this morning:

We then had a pretty amazing day at school. When A dropped him home she apologised for being late as he had been mobbed with birthday wishes.

She commented that she often feels like she is a bodyguard for a film star, like she needs to smuggle him out under her coat 😂🤣

He got a Happy Birthday card from his SENCO.

We then opened just one present (the biggest 🤣😂) while waiting for daddy to get home with cake.


Birthday cakes here tend to be sold “fresh”. Boxed cake is something very different.


We did candles

And why yes that is a chocolate cake, with vanilla buttercream frosting, surrounded with kitkats and covered in M&Ms!!!!

Don’t think he was too sad that mummy didn’t bake for him 😂🤣

We opened more presents – my boy has been thoroughly spoiled 💕 and we watched about 2/3 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.


Or as he knows it: Harry Potter 2


Which we will finish tomorrow.

He was sad when he went to bed tonight as it was “the end of his birthday” but the reminder that his party is next weekend had cheered him up muchly.

God I adore thiskid 💗

The last week of April

The week itself was pretty much same old same old. Some funny little bits and pieces but nothing worth breaking a whole post about.

However we had a very busy weekend.

Saturday was the hus-creature’s “Bring Spouse and Children to Work” day, mainly to showcase the new office space and available features since the building move last year.

It was 09:00 – 12:00, but knowing our children as we do, we decided to aim to arrive for 11:00 – we figured that available food was likely to be breakfast/brunch food so the kidlets could feast on pastries at ‘snack time’.

Just call her Princess TT
So bloody proud of this kid
What is it they say? Never work with children or animals?
I don’t scrub up too badly do I?

So we arrived close to the end of the festivities, but the kids had fun.  #1 Son made a badge:

TT coloured with markers and played with Lego:

Markers are a little nervewracking

And mad skillz with Lego for a two year old

And while I was occupied with TT, daddy was making badges with #1 Son:

He did that himself. He was so proud!

So that was a good morning. Afternoon? Not so good.

He had another birthday party. This one at a karate class.

It… did not go well.

He could not obey instructions, and did not like the class concept. And therefore spent most of the party like this:

However they toughed it out and there was pizza and cake.

And the best thing ever for the birthday boy:

I mean have you ever seen a level of happiness like that?

However it confirmed to us that #1 Son, at least at the moment, cannot be enrolled in formal classes of any kind. Dammit.

The first party

Yes, today #1 Son went to his first party stateside.

Overall experience? Meh *Gallic shrug*

If he were a standard child it probably would have been fine, but as he’s not? Not as well as I hoped, but better than I feared.

Nanny volunteered to take him, whilst daddy stayed with TT.


I don’t think either volunteer got an easy job there to be fair 😂🤣


He chose his own outfit:

So smart 💕💕💕

Now it was one of these activity based ones – all the children taken into a room to rehearse to put on a play at the end for the grown ups.

Would anyone like to guess how this turned out?!?!

Anyone?

Suffice it to say, they left half an hour before the advertised end time, and Momma has had a G&T and a beer or two to calm her nerves!

Now he did have some measure of fun, but missed the cake (which he’s sore about) and didn’t eat the pizza they were serving. My own thinking is that he was over-stimulated (it was very loud) and felt out of control so he seized on one thing he could control – whether or not he ate.

But it’s ok. I sent a thank you email to the birthday girl’s mother, making it clear he had had fun (maybe I took a little creative licence) because I’m grateful he had the chance to have a normal experience.

Slow and steady. That’s how we roll.

And for cuteness, here is a montage of daddy and childer-beasts taken today

My cup runneth over tonight.