Visitors

Yesterday we had two visits - the first was from Pip, Ben and Oliver. Oliver has grown so much since we last saw him and is now crawling around and pulling himself up to stand. He was fascinated with Noah and kept pulling himself up to his chair and would rub his hand and 'talk' to him.

Bec also dropped in and Aaron was stirring her about her 'basketball' (up her top). She looks so good and only has a little over 4 weeks until her baby is due! It is getting very exciting.

Last day of 'work'

Today I did my last shift at work until the Easter holidays. This morning it was ten pin bowling again. When I was leaving for work Harri wasn't happy as he knew we were going swimming today as one of our activities, and he couldn't wait for us to go.

This afternoon I didn't have to work, so it was nice as we got to enjoy a swim and had help with Noah in the pool too. Noah didn't last long as it wasn't really warm enough for him.


Harri has become a real dare devil since having swimming lessons and will just jump in - even if you aren't ready to catch him!


Next week it is the Family Based Care Summer Camp which is at Camp Clayton, near Ulverstone. They usually take 5-6 families each camp and this time we were asked if we wanted to go along. Each family gets a two bedroom unit with an ensuite. They have a couple of planned activities per day (flying fox, high ropes course, beach volleyball, BMX bike track, archery, giant swing etc) and the rest of the time is free time for you to relax and have a holiday. They have support workers to help with the kids, so hopefully the parents can have a good rest too :) The boys are very excited. I'm just looking forward to 4 days of not having to cook anything and having all our meals provided. Sounds like a real holiday to me!

Fat Guts

Jay told me the name of this blog post should be 'fat guts!'. I had goofy faces on all the photos that was taken, so I am only posting one where I'm not looking!

The other night I noticed Aaron was really watching me I was walking across the room. I asked him what was wrong and he said that he had just noticed that my tummy had really popped out. Just in the last couple of weeks my tummy has grown a LOT! There is no more guessing for everyone at the gym when the trainer says in class 'if you are pregnant, then make sure you ......'. I know everyone was looking around the room trying to work out who the pregnant one was! Now it is VERY obvious!

Most of the time I don't even feel pregnant, and then I will catch my reflection in the mirror or a window and will be surprised at how huge I am getting already! I will be 23 weeks on Saturday, so I still have ages to go. My tummy will be massive by then!

Hard at work

Today was a big day at work (for me anyway!). I did two shifts - roller skating in the morning, and then the bike centre this afternoon. The boys were also able to come along to the bike centre as an extra activity, which they loved.


Harri was a bit funny at first as he wanted me to be with him the whole time. I would give him a little cuddle and then tell him I was helping the little boy I was with, and he said 'but I miss you Mum!'. After about ten minutes he decided he didn't need me anymore and had fun playing with Jay and the other kids.


I have done LOTS of walking today - pushing kids in wheelchairs round and round the roller skating rink, and then again at the bike centre. Hopefully it makes up a little bit for not getting to the gym a lot lately. My boss was very particular about who I worked with and wouldn't let me push the bigger kids around.

Last time I worked with the school holiday program I pushed a HUGE teenage girl around in a wheelchair at roller skating. I didn't just walk, but ran around and around with her and pushed her up and down the ramp as she loved it so much, and would get really excited when I would go fast. I didn't realise that I was actually just pregnant at the time, and kept coming home from work sooooo tired! I thought it was just because I hadn't done work like that for a long time.

Some of the kids that came skating this morning, also came to the bike centre. They got to know me at skating and then when I turned up at the bike centre with my boys, a couple of the girls were fascinated that Noah was my son. Then when I went to give him a (tube) feed one girl was asking me lots of questions. She also kept asking me why certain (autistic) kids were doing certain things and why a little boy that I pushed around a lot, kept hitting his head. Her brother has a very mild disability, so she obviously wasn't used to being around kids with more profound disabilities.

Noah decided to sleep all morning at home, and also slept through all of the activity at the bike centre.

Five minutes before it was time to leave he decided to wake up!

It is nice being able to go to work and also take the boys and Aaron along with me. Aaron and I walked around together for ages at the bike centre today, with him pushing Harri while I pushed another boy in a wheelchair. Tomorrow I have just one shift without the boys this time. We are doing square dancing which is always interesting with lots of wheelchairs.

Back to the Grind Stone ;)

After a week of relaxation, today was time to get back to reality and go back to 'work' :) Today it was ten pin bowling and my boss had worked it so that the boys and Aaron could also come while I was working, as we put it down as one of our activities we wanted to do.

When I got there the other workers told me that the 16 year old autistic girl was there, so my boss had assigned me to work with her. If she wasn't there I would probably have been able to work with my own family plus another one, but it worked out well. We were on the lanes next to each other, so I still got to watch the boys (when I wasn't chasing the girl around!) and Aaron had also had a worker helping him with the boys.

Aaron was told he was on camera duty which I don't think he was happy about :) Check out Jay's style. I don't think it worked for him since he came last!

When the boys started to bowl, Harri came over to me while I was with the autistic girl and said 'come on Mum, get your shoes on!'. I told him that I was working and showed him my name tag. He then said 'oh - is she your friend?', and I told him she was. He said 'hi' and then was happy to go back and bowl again.

It was great as Noah was wide awake and happy the whole time. The past few days he has been awake most of the day which has been really nice.


Proof that I was actually there working hard, with my very official looking name badge on ;)

Tomorrow I am working two shifts - Kids Paradise in the morning, and then in the afternoon swimming for two hours. We usually take it in shifts where we are in the pool for half the session and 'spotting' and helping with dressing etc. the other half.

Bedroom buddies

Harri loved sharing a bedroom at St Helen's so much that last night he came and asked if he could sleep in Jay's room. He knew that when the baby comes that they would be sharing a room. He came up to me and asked 'has your baby gone Mum?'. He often asks me that as some days it is very obvious that I am pregnant, and other days it isn't so obvious (to a 3 year old anyway - depending on what I am wearing). On the days when I have looser tops on he comes and asks 'has your baby gone Mum?'. I show him my big tummy and he smiles and goes 'oh' and is happy as he knows it is still on the way.

When he asked me if the baby was still there last night, I showed him my tummy and he said 'I sleep in Jay's room after tea and brush teeth - not when baby comes' - meaning that he wanted to sleep in there that night.

We had a talk to Jay about it and he straight away burst into tears, saying he didn't want him to share with him just yet! After about an hour of tears and talking Jay came around to the idea. By the time it was bedtime both the boys were very excited!


It took them a little while to go to sleep, but not too long. It was funny listening to them chat away. Hopefully after a few nights Harri will be used to it and will go straight to sleep like he usually does.

This morning Jay said that he loved having Harri share his room and that they were 'buddies'.

Now we have the job of clearing out Harri's old room and moving all his stuff into Jay's room, to get ready for the baby.

Bing Bong Bay

We just spent a beautiful week away at St Helen's. It was the best year for weather that we have had. Usually we get a few cold, windy, rainy days during the week, but the only rainy day was today which was our last day anyway.

It is lucky that we have our van as we had to take so much stuff with all our bedding etc! It is lucky that Noah is still small enough to fit in his baby car seat.

Harri couldn't remember staying there last year, and was so excited when we arrived at the house. He kept calling it 'Helen's house'. Every time we would pull up to the house he would say 'I wike Helen's house!'.


The house is so close to the bay - with just a house in front of it. You can see the water from inside the house. It is nice to sit and eat tea and look out at the bay through the windows.


Every day we would sleep in, laze around all morning and then at about lunch time we would head to Binalong Bay. It took Jay a few days to finally call it 'Binalong Bay', rather than 'Billabong' Bay. We kept reminding him of the name by telling him to remember 'it's 'been-a-long day' at Binalong Bay'. He finally got it! Harri however kept calling it 'Bing Bong Bay', so we all just ended up saying 'let's go to Bing Bong Bay'.


We would usually spend about three hours at the beach. The boys loved it and would spend their time playing in the waves, collecting shells, digging in the sand, sunbaking, and Jay actually learnt how to body board by himself this time! On the last day he was so excited as he was actually catching waves himself.







The water was very 'fresh', but okay once you got used to it. Most days I would go for a walk to the other end of the beach, and would just sit and enjoy the view and the peace and quiet. By the time I got back I was used to the temperature of the water as I would walk in the waves, and was hot from walking so even I went in!


It was way too cold for Noah to go in, but he enjoyed laying in the tent listening to the sounds.



Mum and Dad came down to spend a night, before they had to go to Hobart the next morning. The boys were so excited to see them and all night Harri kept singing 'Grandma and Grandpa'.

Noah was really happy all night and smiling when Mum would move his legs up and down.

We made the most of having babysitters and took Harri and Jay to the sand dunes that were just up the road from the house. We had never got to go there before (wheelchairs and sand dunes don't mix very well!), so the boys were so excited and had a great time running up and down them.


Some days we would do a few things in town before heading to the beach. We made the most of the library and got a few magazines and books out for the week. While we were there the librarian asked the boys if they would like to come back to their activity session where they were making Superhero costumes. Of course they wanted to, so one afternoon we went back and did that. The boys spent the rest of the week 'flying' around the house with their costumes on.

We also spent a couple of afternoons fishing off the wharf. Harri was excited to use his new fishing rod that he got for Christmas, but after a few casts and no fish, he decided the playground looked more exciting. Aaron caught a couple of fish but they were too small, so we didn't get to eat them for tea :(


It was a great week and nice to be away from everything for a little while. Harri fell asleep on the way home and when we got here he saw our house and said 'what's this house?'. We reminded him it was our house and he burst into tears and said ' I don't want to go to that house!'.

I carried Noah inside and laid him on the floor and told him we were home and Harri then says 'he's not talking to you Mum!'. He cracks me up.