WOW! It has been a long time between posts.
I was just reading back over the last few posts we did in 2008 and realised how great this blog idea is to keep track of your kids achievements. Now I’ve missed a couple of years so think it’s time I started doing this again.
So, I think that going back over the last 2 missing years would take forever but there have been a couple of incidents of note.
The first one that comes to mind is when Andrew fell over in the back yard and knocked his forehead on the corner of a brick in July 2009. It was quite an open wound which bled a lot and we had to call the ambulance. He had 3 stitches and has a great scar to prove it. He was very brave the whole time and we learnt a lot of lessons through that whole process. It was the end of a bad week for him as he’d only been in hospital a few days earlier with breathing problems. We discovered that he has mild asthma and it can get particularly bad when he gets a chest infection. He had to be put on steroids for a few days and have ventolin every day for a while. Now he has a preventative ventolin that he takes every day and normal ventolin when he’s unwell. Generally he’s fine though.
Not wanting to miss out, Nicholas also had a ride in an ambulance a month later in August 2009. He’d spiked a temperature during the afternoon and after I’d given him some nurofen I’d put both him and Andrew in a luke warm bath to try and bring it down. Then while he was in there he had a febrile seizure. Luckily Daniel was right with him and got him out straight away. We called the ambulance and they were there pretty quick. He was unconscious the whole way to the hospital but woke up just as we got there. It was the most frightening thing that’s ever happened to either of my kids. Even though Andrew’s cut to the head was scary I could see straight away that he was alright and wasn’t concussed or anything. With Nick not responding and fitting for a few moments I was really at a loss what I could do. Thankfully, I’ve discovered I stay calm in a crisis. I was all about getting everything ready in case we had to stay in the hospital for any length of time. Making sure he had his favourite blankie, packing spare clothes, making sure I had my wallet with everything I needed. Quite proud of myself really. Of course, I broke down later and had a good ol’ cry.
Another major event to happen was my Mum and Dad moving to Brisbane earlier this year. They moved 10 minutes up the road from us to a lovely retirement village for over 60s and they’re loving it! And so are we! They’ve been terrific looking after the kids for us on many occasions or just coming over for a bbq together. The kids absolutely adore spending time with them and Andrew particularly loves going to their house for a sleep-over. Of course, Mum and Dad have lives too, it’s not all about us! The village they live in has many facilities including a gym, pool, library, cafe, pool table and bar. They’ve been involved with organising many social events and Dad often works behind the bar during happy hour which they have 2 nights a week. They are the happiest I’ve ever seen them!
Speaking of moving, we also moved house a few months ago. We only moved to the next suburb but we’ve managed to get the house of our dreams! It has 4 bedrooms, 2 living areas, a kids play room, double lock up garage and covered entertaining area. Before we moved in we managed to get the interior painted throughout and it looks brand new! We love it! We’ve had some work done on the garden and so that’s looking heaps better too as it was a bit overgrown. One of the things we love most is our new master bedroom – it’s huge!!! And the en-suite has more cupboards than any bathroom I’ve ever seen. The kids play room is meant to be a formal dining room so it’s right near the kitchen so I can see them all the time. It’s lovely to let them make a mess and not worry about having to tidy it every night. At our old place the toys were always in the living room so at night I’d always want to put them away so I wouldn’t trip over them. Another thing we love about this house it that the kids bedrooms are at the back of the house and the formal living room is at the front. This means we can entertain or watch a movie without disturbing them at night. I’d say that Daniel’s favourite things in the new house are the 60” TV and 4 seater reclining cinema style chairs in that room. It’s our only little Gold Class cinema and I must say, it’s one of my favourite places too.
So, have I bored you all to pieces yet? I’ll just mention a few things that are happening right now.
Andrew started soccer lessons on Saturdays and loves it! He’s actually doing really well at dribbling and I’m very proud of the way he listens to what the instructor has to say. We’ve also managed to get him in to the local Catholic School which is just around the corner from our new house. He had an orientation morning last week and thought it was great. Hopefully he’ll think that when it’s time to start for real next year.
Nicholas is doing well too. We’ve finally managed to toilet train him – very trying time for us all. Just before his 3rd birthday we mostly had wees down, but it’s taken a little longer for poos. Seems pretty good now – fingers crossed it stays that way.
Ten interesting things about Nick:
1. He likes to sleep with his blankie and his thumb in his mouth.
2. He only puts his thumb in his mouth when he has blankie.
3. He loves a bit of rough and tumble – especially with his big brother.
4. He loves ABC Kids TV, including shows like Chuggington, Waybaloos, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Poko.
5. He loves anything his brother loves, including Lightning McQueen and all things ‘Cars’, Batman, Spiderman, any superhero in fact.
6. He loves having a bounce on their trampoline or running around and playing soccer.
7. He loves doing jigsaw puzzles. His favourites are Chuggington 30 piece ones he got for his birthday a couple of months ago.
8. He has a very infectious giggle.
9. He doesn’t eat bread. Very frustrating! Have to give him left-overs for lunch.
10. His favourite dinner is either McDonald’s nuggets and chips or Spaghetti Bol.
Ten interesting things about Andrew:
1. He still sucks his middle two fingers on his right hand – has done since he was a baby. Usually only when he’s tired.
2. He still loves anything ‘Cars’ although he has moved on from the movie a bit.
3. His favourite movies now are the Ice Age movies – all of them. He loves quoting lines Sid says.
4. He’s very interested in dinosaurs and knows many of their names.
5. He loves sitting down and having one-on-one time with adults. Playing board games, puzzles, drawing, colouring, writing.
6. He can write his name and recognises all of the letters of the alphabet and numbers up to 100.
7. He loves doing little sums like 2 + 2 = 4 or 4 + 5 = 9.
8. He loves going to stay at Nana and Pa’s house.
9. His favourite dinner is the same at Nick’s but he loves chicken curry and rice too.
10. He loves jigsaw puzzles too and he can do a 78 piece one that lives at Nana’s house.
Well, I think that’s enough for today. Bit of a catch up and will make more of an effort to keep it up to date now.
Julia