A Matter of Choice

It's R2BC time! If you're new here that's Reasons to be Cheerful!   It's been a good week so I thought it was time to join in again.  Not that I haven't been cheerful, but my slight plan of lockdown blogging went the way of many other good intentions.  So here's a few of the things making me cheerful this week... Although the lockdown measures have been gradually lifted since 4th May, we have been waiting patiently for the go ahead to use our pool. It has been crazy trying to work out if we were allowed to use it or not as there was so much conflicting information out there. As well as for our own benefit I needed to know to share the information on the FPN so I had to make sure it was 100% correct, which is not easy when people were ringing the Ministry of Health and receiving opposing answers! Many people just used their pools, and while I was not worried about catching the virus from doing so, especially as it's only us and maybe one other neighbour at th...

It's my favourite time of year here in Cyprus,  (well, it's one of them!)  the weather is warming up nicely, nearly everything is open again and summer is very nearly here.  Time seems to speed up as we hit this point every year, once Easter has been and gone, there is more going on, more places to go,  the beach becomes more fun (I'm never really a fan of wearing coats and welly boots to take the boys to play) and we start to spend most of the time outside. So far I've only paddled in the sea but the boys have both been in.  I have braved the pool though, only once so far - it was really cold and the boys were laughing the heads of at me as I screamed and shouted my way through my first few lengths.   It got better though and I happily stayed in for almost half an hour.  It's great now that Louka doesn't need me to be in right next to him as long as he has his armbands on he is ok with me sat on the sunbed watching.  Plans are ...

It's almost the end of October and I can now announce that I am out of the swimming pool until next year.  I was last in a week or so ago and although I managed to swim several lengths I wasn't happy unless I was moving,   Leo loves his swimming and being the 'English' baby of the two he can take the cooler temperatures more happily but I think even he agreed it's just a little too chilly now. From April Leo and I swam,  actually I think Leo even managed a little swim in March,   and Louka started to join us in May.  We call him our Cypriot baby (born here in August and covered in blankets by the midwives in 45 degree heat)   as he is always cold and really only enjoys the pool in the hot summer months. This was Loukas year though,  although not strong enough to be on his own out of reach of us or the edge of the pool he has ditched the armbands! With a bit of help and confidence building from his SwimFin he went from not being able to swimat a...

Living in Cyprus, and spending as much time in the water as we do it was obviously very important for us to get our boys swimming as early as possible. When Leo was small I went through many different options and swimming aids - armbands, flotation vests, swim rings, you name it we tried it! Well, nearly all of it! Leo hated every single one and refused to wear any so I spent the entire time holding him in the water and being envious of the other Mums who weren't quite so nervous about their little ones happily wearing armbands and being too close to the edge. Although it was not fun at the time it did have the ultimate advantage of getting him swimming unaided quicker than many of his arm band wearing friends.  Wanting to get out of my arms was a great motivator! Despite this I was dreading the same happening with Louka, at least until he understood not to walk too close to the edge but he loved his armbands and would happily wear them even when playing at the side of the...

Once upon a time I dreamed that I might have my own swimming pool, it seemed like the ultimate luxury and something I'd only have if I won the lottery. Whenever I went on holiday the pool was where you would find me, well, there or the bar! Five years here and still the novelty has yet to wear off of having our own (communal for the apartment complex) pool. It was top of my wish list when looking for our apartment after all those years of dreaming of being able to swim whenever I wished. It's the place we visited most this summer, the only way to cool down briefly in the middle of summer, and so convenient being just downstairs. At the start of every year Leo would take a while to get back his confidence but with each year that passes it takes a lot less time.  Back in May, when I was being a big girlie wuss and refusing to get in the pool because it was cold,  I insisted he wore his armbands when I wasn't in with him, it quickly changed to him being allowed to take ...

Last summer was hard on all of us with Aaron working his first season without a day off, me struggling being pregnant and looking after Leo in the heat of the summer and Leo missing his Daddy being around.  He was always in bed before Aaron got home and therefore only saw him for a very short while each morning and almost every day he used to be sad and ask for his Daddy.  (not helped by the fact Mummy was not often much fun and unable to get on the floor and play with him!) This year is much better, especially for Leo as he now has a much better level of understanding and can cope with a later bedtime so most days, if he had been good he gets to stay up for Daddy to take him to bed. This has been working very well but recently he announced he was worried about Daddy, and worried he wouldn't be able to play until winter, So Aaron decided that during the holidays Sunday nights would be a special night for them as he finishes work a little earlier. Leo has the choice of wh...

Whilst getting ready for our Boxing day walk in the sunshine I happened to mention to my Dad that a friend of mine had been asking a few days earlier if anyone was up for a Boxing Day swim.  Straight away he replied 'Why not, I'd do it' I was surprised (although I don't know why) but without thinking I smiled and 'ok, lets do it then'   Aaron thought we were mad and I'm sure many people would agree with him, (especially my friend Sam who is such a wimp she won't get in a pool by the end of September!)  but I figured if hundreds of mad people survive a swim in the Channel at this time of year then in 22 degree sunshine it shouldn't be too bad.  It was bloody cold though, as you can probably tell by how I'm holding my arms on the way in!  I did swim but not for long, Dad on the other hand was in quite a while.  We did have a few funny looks from people walking along the beach path, and we even got asked by some Russian tourists if they ...

Last year we often used a hotel pool in Pernera, about 10 minutes drive from us.  Although we have a communal swimming pool at our apartments the shallow end is still too deep for Leo so it was good to find pools open to the public which had baby pools for him to play in,  oh and a restaurant / bar was often nice too! Last year Leo refused to wear armbands, even preferring not to be in the water at all if you really forced the issue.  When I wrote about  teaching him to swim   many people said it was a good thing as it would mean he wouldn't have to 're-learn' to swim without them, I agreed but also wished he would just wear them so it wasn't quite so scary around the pool!   He had no concept of the depth, and would just throw himself in at random so it involved one of us being in arms reach constantly. When he was in the big pool we discovered he could just about touch the bottom, assuming he would keep hi...

After my miserable post last week  I thought I'd better join in with Reasons to stop being a moany old bag be Cheerful again! Actually writing that post and reading all the supportive comments made me feel a huge amount better so I'm very glad I wrote it.  It's actually given me my first reason to be cheerful in a roundabout way.... 1. Blogging - I just love it! I love the friends I've made through it and will continue to argue that they ARE friends even though we've not met in real life.  I am in more contact with them than most of my my real life friends in Cyprus, and certainly those in the UK! I love the fact that by writing my blog I'm creating a record of our life along the way too, and it's nice to look back over the last couple of years at things I would have forgotten otherwise. 2. Water - yes, quite a random reason you might think but not only am I constantly drinking it by the bucket, I'm loving the swimming pool right now!  Either havin...

This week despite the soaring heat (it's up in the high 30s now and that's fairly warm even if you are not 7 months pregnant!)  I'm still feeling cheerful.... 1. Leo has started nursery school -  I'm not sure this is something he's very cheerful about as he's had quite a lot of tears about it this week but we are on day 4 now and it's not THAT bad.  Although I obviously feel for him (and think it must be a huge thing for him - suddenly 5 days a week in school an everyone speaking Greek!) it's taken a huge weight off of my mind as I was really worried about him starting in September just after the baby arrives, I think that would have made it so much worse.  It also means I get a chance to rest a little bit before hand!  (she says writing a blog post while he is at school!) 2. I got Leo to wear his armbands in the swimming pool unlike last year where he refused  which means someone hasn't got to constantly hold him in our pool or worry that he m...

....but you can't make him wear armbands! Due to the heat, we spend lots of time at the pool, and I spend lots of time trying to get Leo to wear armbands. All the other toddlers we know wear them and it must be much less scary for their Mums when at the pool. We have tried floats, float suits, rubber rings and the long foam things (think sometimes called woggles) and he will not use any of them, well except the woggle to blow water at people! The downside is that you have to hold on to him constantly and he is such a wriggler you end up bruised and batter from little feet in your legs. Also watching him walk round the side of the pool is quite worrying, we have drummed it into him I think not to run but I am constantly worried he will fall in. He likes to jump in but often forgets the "1, 2, 3 jump" we are trying to teach him, therefore giving us warning that he is about to launch himself at you. The other day I caught him as he jumped unexpectedly a...