Tea at Mum and Dad's

Now that Becky and Jared have moved to Devonport we thought it would be a good idea to have a potluck family tea once a month at Mum and Dad's house, so that we can all catch up together regularly. We decided that we will do it on the first Sunday of each month, except this month as we wanted to catch up with Chrish before he goes back home to Sydney on Wednesday.

It was great to see Chrish looking so much better! It was a fun night. Harri and Jay put on a show for us - talk about a crack up. They sang and danced away, till we told them we had enough - and even then they tried to keep going!


It is nice to see the boys and Kelsea and Maddi playing together, now that the girls are older. It is nice for them to have cousins that they will grow up with.


These two photos are just for you, Alex! Hope they suit :)


I forced the boys into getting some photos taken of the four of us and this one cracks me up - check out Harri's head behind us!

Kelsea was so cute with Noah. Usually she is really scared of him and starts crying- especially if he yells or starts vomiting, but today she was all over him. She even wanted to try out his wheelchair.



Dad had arranged with Aaron to buy them a new computer - compliments of Aaron's favourite store - eBay. During the week all the different parts arrived, so tonight Aaron got to take it all out and set it all up.

He then gave Mum a crash course in burning CD's. The first lesson was how to actually turn the computer on! Aaron still needs to get them a new modem until they can go on the internet, which Mum is looking forward to. She says that everyone knows what is going on with our lives except for her, as everyone gets to check out the blogs :) It will be interesting watching her try to work out the internet! :)

The boys had lots of fun playing with Maddi and Kelsea and sliding down Grandma and Grandpa's stairs. Kelsea was very clever showing us how she could climb to the top all night.


Dad had asked me for a haircut earlier in the week, so I took my scissors out to do it. It was the first hair cut he has had since he had the shunt put in, and it was very scary - especially when I would accidentally run my hand over the part of his head where the shunt was, and could feel it. I kept screaming and Dad thought it was a great joke.

Tea was really yummy. We have decided that next time we will go for a 'theme' night. We thought maybe Mexican may be the first theme.



During tea Becky asked me if I did 'girl hair cuts' as well, so I ended up trimming Becky's, Mum and Nicki's hair as well! Actually - Nicki got quite a bit cut off. I hope she doesn't regret it now. Then Jared decided he was also due for a bit of a trim up.



Harri was loving wrestling with Jared all night. Seems that everytime Jared is around my boys get VERY hyped! Harri kept coming to me all night saying 'where's Jared - I like him!'. Then when he would find him he would say 'I found you - I missed you!'. Poor Jared. It was great to see Chrish again. On the way home Aaron was saying that he wishes he lived down here still. If only he had a good full time job down here, so we could see him more often. Then again, we wouldn't have free accommodation in Sydney! As we were leaving Harri was calling out 'see you Frish!', so at least he remembered his name this time - kind of!

Footy Final Traditions

Every AFL grandfinal day Aaron has a lot of traditions that he always sticks to. Every year we usually get invited to watch it at someone else's house, but Aaron HAS to stay home to watch it. He doesn't like watching it with a crowd of people as he likes it to be quiet (or as quiet as it can be with three boys!) so he can really watch the game and listen to the commentary.

The morning starts off with him getting up early, before the grandfinal breakfast on TV and going and buying all the newspapers. He then spends the morning watching the grandfinal breakfast and analysing the newspapers. Aaron spends the whole day watching every single thing on TV from about 8am till 6pm.

At lunchtime his Dad always comes around to watch it with us. We always have to have the traditional footy food - party pies, sausage rolls, cocktail savs, potato chips and soft drink. The boys think it is great and as it gets closer to the AFL final they ask if we are going to have a 'footy party'.

The tradition for me is to watch the beginning of the game (the good parts - the singing and maybe the first quarter) and then put Harri into bed and have an afternoon nap on the couch myself :) This year was no different, except that I woke up at 4.30 and realised that Harri was still asleep! Guess he will be up all night as he wont be tired. The boys decided after the food that they were over watching the footy and resorted to the nintendo and gameboy for entertainment.

I'm glad I had a nap because it looked like the game wasn't very exciting with Geelong winning by so much.

Footy Colours

It is traditional at the boys and Aaron's school that the day before the AFL grandfinal is 'footy colours' day. It is just a fun day for all the kids to wear their teams' footy colours. Kings Meadows High use it as a fundraiser - to raise money for the Bone Marrow Institute, but the boys school did it just for some fun this year.

The Assistant Principal is a big Geelong supporter so she was VERY keen to make sure it was footy colours today. Jay said that in assembly she asked everyone who barracks for Geelong to stand up. Jay thought it was great fun as everyone was booing them. Then on the way out of assembly he said he went up to her and said 'boo Geelong' and she was laughing.

Because the boys had their footy colours on, Harri also had to wear his Hawthorn jumper. The guys at the gym today thought it was great and kept saying 'come on the Hawks' to him. Jay is doing his 'tough' pose, while I'm not sure what Harri is doing - he thinks he is a model or something! :) I think I am taking too many photos as he is starting to become a real poser lately!

A happier day!

Noah was feeling a LOT better today. Last night he finally stopped yelling and fell asleep at about 5.30pm on the couch. We didn't dare move him all night as he was so peaceful and obviously worn out from yelling all day. Lucky he has the feeding tube as we could feed him and give him his meds last night without disturbing him. At about 9.30 pm Aaron laid him on the floor and he woke up for about 10 minutes and didn't make a sound and then went to bed and slept all night (all night for Noah is waking up at about 1-2am and being turned over and going back to sleep). He woke up at 6.30am this morning and gave us a big smile! Little rat!

I had a feeling that he would be much better today. He will often have a really bad day like that and be fine the next day again. I always get a little worried that it will gone on for 3 months like before though. He has yelled a couple of times today - but nothing like yesterday.

Dr Bailey saw him this afternoon and changed his antibiotic and sent off a urine sample, so hopefully over the weekend the antibiotic will work this time and by Monday we should get the test results to know whether we are actually on the right antibiotic or not. We are also going to try something else as I had another theory why he may be a bit cranky, and Dr Bailey agreed that it could be possible. We increased one of his meds a week ago and I thought that maybe that was causing some irritation, so we are going to drop it back down and see what happens. We don't usually like doing two things at once (med changes plus antibiotic changes) as you don't know what is working if things improve, but we also don't like seeing him upset so for now we will go with both and hope things continue to get better for him. If he settles we will increase the med again and see if he gets crabby again. I hate fiddling with meds - it always mucks him up but sometimes you just need to change the dose to get things right.

Yesterday Harri didn't know what to make of Noah. Jay is used to Noah screaming as he has grown up with it right from when Noah was born, but the last two years Noah has been so good and Harri can't remember him screaming before. Yesterday he kept pointing to Noah saying 'look Mum'! like - 'fix Noah Mum' and I told him I couldn't help. Harri was getting upset - especially as he couldn't hear the TV! Then when Harri had his afternoon nap he woke up and came out to Noah still screaming and got very upset about it.

After we saw Dr B we had to go to the hospital to do a few jobs - pick up meds, drop off the urine sample, get a new feeding tube as we changed his other one yesterday. We were about to go down the lift (Harri, Noah and I) when out comes Nan! She had been visiting Auntie Wanda who is in hospital after having her knees operated on. It was nice to see Nan and she was happy to see the boys and actually remembered Harri's name! That is always a bonus. Jalen really gets her though - probably because his name is more unusual. Harri was excited to see her and gave her a kiss and talked to her about the cat at her house. We really need to go back out to see Nan and Pop again soon.

Aaaaaah!

That is the sound I have been hearing all day! I kept Noah home from school today as yesterday he was vomiting a lot at school and all night after he got home. His UTI doesn't seem to have improved very much and I'm not sure if it is the infection that he is upset about, or whether it is something else. I know he isn't comfortable with the infection - he is in pain now and then, but this seems like something different - like he has some cerebral irritation. Not sure if he has a headache or what is going on, but he is just really irritable. I'm waiting for Dr Bailey to ring me tomorrow to see if we should switch to a different antibiotic.

We had to go into town to pick up a prescription and he was cranky the whole time we were there - yelling away. One nice thing did happen - I was getting him out of the van and this guy was watching and came over to see if I wanted any help. It was probably in his 30s and had really long hair and was smoking away (not that it means anything) but he wasn't the type of person I would usually get to offer any help. I never take anyone up on the offer of help - it is just easier to do it myself as I know what I am doing, but it is nice when people offer.

I have given up on trying to stop the crying - I know there is nothing else that I can do - I have cuddled him, given him panadol, given neurofen, fed him, massaged him and the last resort was putting him on his tummy over the cushion. That actually helped a little bit - just the change of position made him settle for maybe 30 secs, but the yelling has started again.

I'm looking forward to Di coming after school, so I can take Jay to basketball and have a break. Not that I'm complaining - two years ago we had three months of this yelling - day and night, so a day of it is okay - just hope it settles down tomorrow. Poor Noah.

School Photos

Today the boys got their school photos back. I was so happy with Noah's photo this year - two things were great about it - he was awake AND he was smiling! Di said she was rubbing his legs flat out to get him to smile and it turned out really good.

The funniest thing is that Noah's teacher has her eyes shut in the class photo, and she was stirring Noah after school saying that it is usually him who has his eyes shut! I think Noah is one of the only kids at school who doesn't get into trouble for falling asleep all the time :)

We were cracking up at Jay's photo. All morning before school he had been practicing his smile and was putting on this fake smile. I told him to just do a 'normal' smile for the photo and this is what he came up with! :) I told him he looks very handsome.

The class photo one cracks me up even more (fourth from the right). He makes me laugh.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Fish

Today Harri started swimming lessons again. He had lessons all of first term this year, but it started to get too cold (for both of us) so we gave the winter term a miss. I also wasn't sure how Noah would go over winter, and wasn't sure if we would make it to the lessons very often.

There are four other kids in our group and because of their age the Mum's and/or Dad's have to get in the pool with the kids.

Harri loves it, but he gets very distracted by all the toys around the pool. He gets sick of singing all the songs that encourage them to do different things - like 'twinkle, twinkle little fish, watch my tail go swish, swish, swish'. All during the songs today he kept saying 'no more singing - toys now!'. The teacher kept promising him that we would use the balls at the end, but he had to sing first. He always freaks out when we sing a certain song, because he knows it means that he has to go under the water at the end of the song. Today I sprung it on him and as he came out of the water he kept yelling 'no - don't like going under!' and all the way home in the car he kept telling me he doesn't like going under. Hopefully by the end of the term he will be used to it.

He is very confident at blowing bubbles, splashing and kicking. Some of the other kids get really upset and don't want to get splashed but Harri splashes so much that I have to tell him to stop as it is driving me crazy! :) At the end of class the kids all get a turn on the slide which goes straight into the pool. Harri hangs out for his turn on the slide each time.

A 'healthy' treat!

My sister in law - Steph has been complaining that people have been giving her daughter Chloe different sweet things to try. Chloe isn't 12 months yet, so Steph is trying as hard as she can to keep Chloe away from junk for as long as possible - something that isn't going very well from what I can tell. I have figured out the perfect solution - toffee apples!! ha ha

Today while the boys and I were at the supermarket they came across the toffee apples. Jay has probably only had about two in his whole life and Harri has never had one, but they thought they looked good so they bought one each. I remember buying them and also making them as a kid. At the school fair I would ALWAYS get a toffee apple - I loved them! When I got back to the van, Aaron asked me where his was - so I had to go back in and get another one!


Harri thought it was great - until he finished off most of the toffee and hit the apple and then it went in the bin! Maybe it isn't such a good idea after all!?!

Pizza, Pizza!

After our Primary activity a couple of weeks ago I have been inspired to make pizza at home. I asked the boys after school today if they wanted to make Pizza for tea and they were excited, so they helped me choose the ingredients at the supermarket and we then came home to make them.

Jay and Aaron always get meatlovers pizza when we buy them, so they both had half a pizza each to top - both of them had HEAPS of meat and cheese and Jay surprised me and lashed out with a bit of pineapple. Jay was very excited to choose what he wanted, and to have half the pizza just to himself.


Harri lost interest after he ate half the salami and gave up on the whole idea of making them and went back to watching Pokemon on TV. Aaron and I had fun making them anyway. I think I'm going off here - singing some song about 'making pizza' - Aaron is trying to work me out! :) Jay was loving snapping the photos.

They tasted good, except Harri decided he just wanted the 'bread' and took all the toppings off and just ate the base! At least Jay enjoyed his.

Jay has decided that he loves to take photos (hmmm - wonder if he takes after his Mum or not!?) and calls himself the 'patarazzi'. He cracks me up.

Lego with Lizzie

Last night we had tea at the Prebble's house. Aletia, Lisa and I had to have a Primary meeting so we thought we would have tea first and then have a meeting afterwards. With me working the last couple of weeks and also Lisa working a lot lately, it is hard to get together unless we do it at night at the moment. The boys had lots of fun hanging out with Lizzie. She pulled out Jack and Dale's old lego and the boys had a great time playing with it. Lizzie is so nice and great with little kids.



Poor Noah wasn't feeling very well and was vomiting all night. He has been a bit funny over the weekend (different to earlier in the week) so I thought I'd better test his urine, as I thought he may have an infection.

Lucky for us his paediatrician had agreed a while back to give us some urine dip sticks which is so handy as I can just test him myself when I think he has an infection. Within seconds it showed up very strongly that he does have an infection - poor thing. I had to make an appointment with a Dr for later that night at the after hours medical centre as it wouldn't be till Tuesday till I could see Dr Bailey - his paediatrician. Getting into our normal GP is impossible. You definitely can not be sick if you want to see our GP - you have to make sure you book at least a week in advance to see him, so for anything urgent I have had to resort to us going to see other GP's. If it is Noah I just ring Dr Bailey straight away, but I knew I needed to get him onto some antibiotics fast.

The after hours GP was very impressed that I came in with a urine sample and that I had already diagnosed him :) He tested it himself and asked me if I wanted to send the sample off or just wanted antibiotics. I told him I was just wanting a script for antibiotics which he was fine with him, and he said he would bulk bill us (not something that they usually do there). I figured that was the least he could do since I did all the work :) If only I could write out my own prescriptions ;) As I was walking Noah out he kept saying 'you are a good Mum' which was nice. Hopefully the antibiotics will kick in fast and Noah will be feeling better really soon.