40th Birthday Surprises

Yesterday was Karina's 40th birthday. She thought she was going to spend a quiet birthday on her own as Gordon has been away in Victoria for weeks, as he works for Centrelink and had to go over to help out because of the bushfires. However she was pleasantly surprised!

Her first surprise was her sister and niece turned up at the doorstep from Victoria the night before her birthday. The next day (her birthday!) Gordon snuck into the bedroom and then rang her from his mobile phone. He asked her what could make her birthday better and she of course said 'you being here', to which he appeared from out of the bedroom! What an excellent surprise!

Tonight a few of us waited at The Prickly Cactus for her to turn up with Kylie, her sister and her niece. Kylie had said to her that they should go out for her birthday, but she had no clue that we were all going to be there. It was so funny as she was looking straight in the window towards us, but didn't actually see us till she came in. Jackie, Alicia and Lisa were desperately trying to look inconspicuous!

I think she was happy to see us all! :) Not sure if she appreciated us (and half the restaurant!) singing 'happy birthday' as she walked in though!

It was lots of fun - great food and great company :)

It was quite funny as the water was served in old bottles of tequila. Since none of us are drinkers we thought it was very amusing - we are amused very easily!

Instead of having dessert there, we decided to go for a walk to get gelato for dessert.

It was hard choosing between all the flavours. I ended up getting turkish delight and hazelnut.

It was fun to be a part of Karina's third birthday surprise!

Our Little Shadow

I had forgotten how much a little person loves to be with you. Now that Kobe is moving around all the time, I find he is always at my feet - literally!

It seems like you can't go anywhere without him following you. If I go out to the laundry he tags along behind me and isn't happy until I either pick him up or do something with him.

Whenever we go out to the clothesline, he waits at the screen door until we come back in.

The fridge is by far his favourite thing to get into - if he spots me opening the door - even for just a second, he crawls over at full speed to get there before the door shuts.

My quiet time on the computer is no longer quiet! It's more frustrating than anything as he pulls himself up and taps away at the keyboard and grabs the mouse.

Of course he turns on the charm, so I don't get too cranky with him!

Who Does He Look Like?

I always get people asking me 'who does he look like?' when they see Kobe. At first he looked a lot like Noah - for about 2 weeks. Then he really started to change to look more like Harri. Yesterday Harri pulled out an old photo album of Jalen when he was a baby, and I couldn't believe how much this pic of Jay looks like Kobe! I hadn't thought that he looked like Jalen at all before.

Patrick is in the photo next to him - amazing to think that our little babies will be ten this year! Man I'm getting old!

In On The Action

Whenever Aaron wrestles with Jay and Harri, Kobe gets so excited. He sits there with the biggest grin on his face - all excited about what is going on.

Sometimes he will even sit there and clap them on! I'm not sure which one he is barracking for.

He especially loves it when he can get in on the action, and crawls over to join in.


I don't know whether he actually gets what is going on yet though, as he always ends up just giving them all a cuddle. The boys aren't usually happy about it either, as it means he has ruined their wrestling session with Dad, as they have to be more careful when he is around.

Back To School Barbie

Tonight Newstead Heights School put on a welcome back BBQ. It's so nice living so close to school as we were able to just walk up there from home. They had lots of things out for the kids to use, and all the teachers and some aides were also there.


Last year the playground was redeveloped and now has this great big sandpit that is right in the the ground, so the kids can get to it easily.

Harri had a great time playing in it the whole night - he decided it was even better than getting a sausage and didn't eat the entire time!

It was nice to catch up with some of the families. Luca and Noah have known each other since they were babies as they went to Early Learning together. They are in the same group at school, but are only together one day per week this year.

One of Noah's friends - Jess, has a little sister - Eve. She was born a week earlier than Kobe, so it was nice to catch up with her family and see how she is going.

Everyone loved having a turn on the liberty swing. Some of the kids in wheelchairs love going really high and fast! It is so fun to watch them and how excited they get. Noah likes to go nice and slow, however!

I had a turn a long time ago and it made me feel really sick - it has a different feeling to a normal swing. Jay was dying for a turn, and loved it and would've stayed on all night if we let him. He now is begging to go back on the weekend.

Aaron (my skinny husband! He has lost something like 5 kg -wish it was me!) also had a turn and was carrying on, pretending it was making him feel sick. Really I think deep down he was scared, but was pretending not to be, by making jokes!

Quilts 4 Kids

About a year ago we heard about an Australian group called 'Quilts 4 Kids'. They are a group of cross stitchers world wide who cross stitch squares to make into large quilts for kids with a life threatening or terminal illness.

I checked out their website and was amazed at how beautiful the quilts were that they made as a gift to these children. Noah is one of the 'Kids of 2009' and are currently asking for stitchers for his quilt and also for 3 other children. You can check it out here.

It is so nice to hear of people doing things like this for the kids and their families. We are looking forward to seeing the completed quilt within the next few months. Here is just one of the beautiful completed quilts that they have put together.

A Good Year

After church today we went up to the Gorge to celebrate Annie's 1st birthday. As Bec said when we were just about to have the cake 'it's been a good year'. It's so nice for Bec and Tony to have such a happy year with little Annie (Toni - do you recognise the dress!!? A friend of Bec's made it for her).

The kids had a great time together. Some of them had a splash in the pool.


Others were just happy to sit on the side lines and watch the action.





Bec was doing a great job of being papparrazzi for the day.

Harri loved all the party food. He kept saying 'can we be here for a long time!?'.

Happy birthday Annie!!!

NAB Cup

Today these mad Hawks fans went off to watch the NAB cup game live at Aurora - Hawthorn V Melbourne.

While they were off cheering on the hawks, I was busy looking after my three boys, plus Maddi and little Alex.


It's too hard to go with Noah and because I was going to be stuck at home anyway, I offered to look after them so Nicki could go along with Alex. It was very busy, but they were great. Little Alex is a go-er and I had to watch him all the time, but he is such a happy boy. I just dumped out all the toys and let them go for it.

Maddi was a crack up. She is so cute and would come out with stuff that would make me laugh like 'Noah isn't talking today - he is sick'. Later on he started yelling and Maddi says 'Noah's better now!'. She also just comes out with 'I love Grandma, and Poppy'. She then told me 'if I hit baby boy (meaning little Alex) I have to sit in time out'. I asked her if her Mum gets angry when she hits him and she said 'no, she gets cross'. She was so cute!

Beautiful Bronte

Today Noah went to a birthday party for his friend Bronte's birthday. Bronte and Noah go to school together at Newstead Heights, and supposedly they have a bit of 'a thing' happening! Everyone tells me that Noah always seems to watch Bronte very closely and vice versa. When we arrived Bronte had the biggest smile to see Noah.

She had three of her good friends from school come as well as family, and her carers.

It was so hard to choose a present for her - now I know what my family go through every Christmas and birthday for Noah! It is hard enough to find things for Noah ourselves, but even harder for Bronte as I wasn't sure what she already had. We ended up buying her a cute little penguin fan that runs by battery. They were very excited about it and said they will use it when she is having her postural drainage done (which is a lot!).

Bronte's best friends - Elly and Dana were both there. They are both so funny as they have the funniest sense of humor. Elly loves to tell jokes - especially if they are a bit rude!

We had cake and food which is always 'funny' as the kids all have PEG tubes, and don't eat orally anyway. The rest of us enjoyed the food anyway, and Elly did have a little taste of cake.

Bronte's grandfather is so lovely. I used to see him walking Bronte every Saturday, but he isn't able to do it anymore because of his health.

The party was held at the school playground which we all have a key for. It's a great place to have it as the kids in wheelchairs get to use the liberty swing.


Noah seemed to love the swing, and was wide eyed once it started moving.


It was nice to share Bronte's 14th birthday with her. We have known the other families for a few years now (lots of trips to hospital together and we also see them during the school holiday program), and its nice as we always know exactly what we are all going through with the kids and caring for them day to day. When you are out with other families who don't have kids with disabilities it is often very different as you get that pitiful tone where they say 'oh it must be so hard', but with these families you don't even talk about things like that, but just share information and stories about carers, meds, feeds, hospital, therapy and school and know that they know exactly what you are talking about.