Poo. Fart. Chips. for me.

I'm baaa-aaack!

Yep, it's been ten and a half weeks since my last posting (how Catholic-sounding of me), but I'm gonna try REALLY hard this time to keep a regular commitment.

REALLY.

Ok, so life's been very full over the last few months. Nothing new in that. Well, apart from my brother's wedding interstate, at which ALL THREE of my kids were in the bridal party, and I was MC! Eeek! No pressure! It was a wonderful time though, the kids rose to the occasion and we all had fun catching up with LOTS of family, old and new. Thanks Unca J and welcome to the family Aunty C!



Then there was our holiday to The Snow. That was hard work, but fun. Kind of. Might have been more fun if we hadn't arrived in the middle of a blizzard, but hey, now we can look back and laugh. Golly, it was cold. Beach next time.





What else? Oh yeah, the usual flurry of school routine and activity - the massive annual School Fair, school projects, after-school sport, playdates, therapy appointments, toddler gym, International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day, oh, and work. And lots of other stuff in between.

And then there was that horrible week when my Darling Hubby was rushed to hospital with a sudden and life-threatening problem that was finally resolved by surgery after he lay in extreme agony for three days, before developing a secondary problem which was also very serious before he finally got better enough to come home. Thank goodness that week is behind us.

So, during all this I've been playing with my new toy - an iPhone. MY iPhone. I'd been interested in getting one so Princess could have something to access and play with. The touchscreen really is quite fab, and Princess does have some fun with it. I'm scouring for applications all the time that are useful for her and the boys. It's so easy!

What caught me by surprise is how much fun I'm having with it! It's great! Not so much as a mobile phone, but as a hand-held touchscreen computer it's beaut.

Little Man likes to borrow MY iPhone to play games on every now and then. Sometimes he gives it back to me with a maniacal laugh, and it took me a while to work out why. I recently opened the 'shopping list' application (daggy but handy) - you may have already guessed, this post's title is what I read on my shopping list...
Poo.
Fart.
Chips. for me.

Ahh, eight-year-olds...don't you just love 'em?! Can't wait to discover what else lurks in there.

Belated and Brief Update

It seems I’ve been missing for a bit. Life has a tiresome habit of getting in the way of regular blogging! So here's a simplified update on what we've been up to - the very ordinary lives of, well, us.

We had an active time leading up to the end of term at school, with school Sports Day and Under Eights Day, and lots of other things besides. Phew. Sports Day was great fun - Little Man got 2nd place in a relay, having run strategically and come up from behind to surprise another team. We were still hearing about his brilliant tactic days later :) Despite lacking in confidence at the start of the day, I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Princess particularly enjoyed getting 1st place in the wheelchair race (between her and one other boy who'd recently had complex surgery on his foot) - it helped that her 'pusher' was a fit young student teacher, keen and raring to go!

She also had fun in the Prep Relay race, the Jumping Ball race (with the ball between her legs while one of her friends pushed her chair, jumping), the Egg and Spoon race (holding the spoon ever-so-tightly!), Throw the Bean-bag in the Bucket, and of course cheering on her team for other events. She took a keen interest in the tallying of house points and was keen to scorn the other houses at any opportunity - we will teach her about good sportsmanship for next year!

Princess also ended Term 2 of school by receiving a Student of the Week award at her mainstream school! She was awarded for speaking up and answering questions loudly and clearly without the pregnant pause we've come to expect from her. Or, as her teacher put it "Patient [Princess] perceived the perils of Prep, prudently, quelling a penchant for prattle and proceeding with precision" (apparently the preppers really dig alliteration). Yay for Princess!

We were present at the whole school assembly at which she received her award. We were worried how Little "everyone in the WHOLE school knows HER, and nobody even knows I'm her brother!" Man would feel about it. So it was really extra special when Mr C, the school principal, invited Little Man up to the front of assembly as Princess' Important Older Brother, to assist her in receiving her award. I couldn't really see what was going on for the tears in my eyes, but I could tell Little Man was happy and proud to receive the acknowledgement he's craved all year, and Princess was genuinely surprised and thrilled. Of course, it was right at that time that my camera battery failed, but thanks to my good friend Merc, we have a picture to show...

During the school holidays, Little Man finally got a haircut (never thought it would happen, thank goodness he's open to bribes!), but even better than that, we celebrated his eighth birthday! We took him and a bunch of his good friends to the movies, followed by a feast of sushi, chips, vegie sticks, cake and lollies (all his faves). I've never heard the "you look like a monkey" version of Happy Birthday sung in such spontaneous unison before, and with such gusto! Little Man couldn't have been prouder. Awww. Here he is opening presents...

He has a talent for hamming things up, among many other things. These pics deserve to see light of day somewhere, may as well be here...

Happy Birthday Little Man. Here's looking to a fantastic year of being 8!

And finally a mention for wee Chuckles. Well, not so wee any more. Chuckles is bounding along - he's a happy fellow who adores his older brother at all the worst possible times, reveres his older sister but not enough to not steal toys/food/mummy's cuddles from her, and has the audacity to yell back at her when she yells at him for these misdemeanors! He often gets shuttled around from one commitment to the next, and it turns out he is a great companion throughout the day. And he is soooo adorably cheeky, he just always puts a smile on my face.

So that's a very small bit about us for now. Will try and post more often - easy to say, harder to do...

All's well that ends...

I have previously alluded to the fact that Little Man wasn't an entirely happy camper when he started the new year at school. He's in a different class to most of his friends, he's suspicious of his teacher's motives and worst of all, suddenly everyone at his school knows his little sister and he's "just a nobody". Ouch. Life just is not fair.

So, after his first week at school, and a weekend jam-packed with fun, Little Man succumbed to Sunday night-itis, and gee whiz, he's only seven. Sigh. He announced he didn't want to go to school anymore. The next logical step was to pack his bags and run away. This was at dinner time on a Sunday night - I asked if he wanted to eat before he left, and he told me no, he'd get something on the road. Oh, okay, if you're sure then.

We watched him go, laden down with his gear. We had hesitatingly kissed him goodbye, then spied through the front windows, hoping against hope this was going to play out in our favour.

It did. He got as far as the end of our driveway (about 20 metres from the front door) and stood there watching the sunset for a few minutes, no doubt contemplating the un-fairness of life. Then he shrugged to no-one in particular, trudged back across the front yard, rang the doorbell and greeted us with a huge sheepish smile. Well, maybe he might have dinner with us after all, and leave tomorrow when it was lighter. Good idea, Little Man, we all agreed. It's good to have you home. (Of course, by next morning, the whole thing was forgotten, and it turns out he had a great time at school. Phew!).

I'm pleased to say that the kid knows how to pack well - every contingency covered - clothes for all kinds of weather, spare undies and socks, a torch, a book (on science experiments - go figure), sunscreen and a hat, even a pen and paper to write home!

On that note (no pun intended!), Princess had been getting increasingly upset as Little Man had begun packing. She was in awe that he was attempting such a feat, but getting chin wobbles at the thought of him going too. Until, that is, he told her not to worry about him - he would write a letter to her every day, maybe even twice a day! "Really?" She was getting excited. "Well, off you go then! Don't forget to write!" She was yelling with excitement now. "Mummy, Little Man's running away from home and he's going to write me a letter every day! I'm going to get lots of letters!" (This actually comes out as "wots of wetters'. Very cute). She simply could not contain her excitement. Not exactly the support I was hoping for.

Lucky for us, Little Man's internal compass still points to home, no matter what.

And (completely unrelated) he makes a dapper Qui-Gon Jinn, I reckon. The ensemble below was put together for a 'space' themed costume day at Joey Scouts. Every child there turned up in a Star Wars themed costume. The Force is strong indeed.

Only twelve more years to go!

Well it's been more than a week - a long and interesting and fairly exciting week - since school began.

I am pleased to report that things are going well. For Princess, things are going better than expected (so far!). Maybe not so much for Little Man, but we're working on it. He didn't really want to participate in our first day photos and was pretty cool about going up to his new classroom and just getting on with things, but we all know still waters run deep, and that's a whole other post... Overall though, they've both had a good start to the school year.

For her Prep year, Princess is actually attending two schools - three days a week our local state school, and two days at a nearby special school (officially an ECDP, but don't ask me what that stands for!). We're hoping this combination will cater for her needs socially, intellectually, physically, etc. By the time she begins Grade One next year, she'll be ready to hold her own in the mainstream world!

Anyway, Princess's first ever school day began at home like this...

The excitement was palpable...

...and she wasn't let down. As we all arrived at our local school and began walking/wheeling up the path to her classroom, we were joined quite coincidentally by one of Princess's 'best friends' from her old kindy. Instant relaxation. It was just like old times! On entering her classroom, although busy, a lovely sense of excited calm pervaded. Princess had her factory default face on, but she was clearly happy to be there.

We met her teacher, the fantastic Mrs A, and her new teacher aide, the lovely Ms L. We are really pleased that Ms L is a full-time aide to Princess (as well as another little girl in the class), for the three days she's at that school. Ms L has many years experience working with kids with extra needs, and they've been getting along well.

Thankfully, her teachers already knew lots about Princess before we arrived. The previous week, our OT, AVT:PI (that's Occupational Therapist and Advisory Visiting Teacher:Physical Impairment, respectively) and myself had given a powerpoint presentation all about her to the entire school staff, taking up a fair amount of their pupil-free day too. (Now staff come up and say hi to me all the time, and I haven't a clue who they are! This happens a lot around Princess).

Her OT and AVT:PI were also there on the first day, making adjustments as necessary to the two posture chairs and corner seat acquired for the classroom. A tradesman had been putting the finishing touches onto the purpose-built cubicle in the adjacent bathroom, big enough to accommodate a toilet chair for Princess, with an accessible sink, and we managed to put together a makeshift change table in there as well.

Parents were welcome to hang out for as long as they needed. I stayed quite some time, not because Princess wanted me there - she couldn't have given two hoots! - but it took a while to get the equipment set up right and I was asked to give my input, so I did! I saw Princess happily listening to Mrs A during circle time on the floor (albeit in her wheelchair on the first day - now she sits in her corner chair on the floor with the other children).

After morning tea, Princess sat in her posture chair with a few other kids at the specially-acquired inclusion table to help make a batch of playdough. Another boy she knew from kindy held the bowl for her, unprompted, when it was her turn to stir. I was impressed.

As I finally left, Ms L was about to take her outside to do some easel painting standing up. I kissed Princess goodbye, she gaily said "Bye Mummy, see you when you pick me up!" and didn't look back. Yippee, I sung to myself. This is great. The school has been wonderfully supportive, and the effect has already been positive.

Long may it last.

Back home at the end of their first day the kids didn't feel like smiling for the camera anymore, preferring to ham it up. But truly, they'd had a good day...



Next instalment, First Day at The Other School, coming soon...

Looking Up

I can hardly believe the school year is beginning again...we seem to have had a very busy time of it lately - birthday parties, roller-skating, playdates, movies, shopping for school supplies, a beach holiday, the list goes on. I'm exhausted.

And now I have not only my big Little Man going back to school, but our Princess begins Prep tomorrow too. She's very excited, though she admitted to me tonight that she was feeling "a little bit nervous about it". We're all prepared, her new teacher and teacher's aides are prepared, after two years of kindy I think Princess really is quite prepared. And yet I still have no idea what to expect. Lucky for me though, I know Princess will work it out.

...Stay tuned...

One of the best things that happened during the holidays - Princess finally got her first ever manual wheelchair, and of course, it's pink!

Until recently, Princess has been getting around in a supportive stroller, and while it's been very useful, there was no way she was going to go to big school in a stroller! That's for babies! So after several months of measurements, waiting for funding applications to process and of course the wheelchair to be custom made, we finally have it, just in time for the start of school.

I wondered if I might feel sad about the finality of Princess having a wheelchair - the fact is that she is unlikely to ever be able to walk, though we could kind of pretend when she was only in a stroller like so many other very young children...

But nope, I am actually excited about the wheelchair. A wheelchair means an instant explanation - yes, my daughter is special, yes, she uses a wheelchair, end of story. No need for sidelong glances from strangers wondering why does that child still use a stroller at her age?

She looks great in it too, don't you think? (The pics were taken when we were flying kites on our beach holiday on Queensland's Sunshine Coast).

And the company that made the wheelchair have only just introduced pink as a frame colour, and Princess has the first one out of the factory (they've got orders for at least 12 more so far). We've been told they've officially named the colour after her. How cool is that!

What those Romans needed

Okay, I know what I said, but promises are meant to be broken - or something like that. This is too good to keep to myself...

Still on the subject of Baby Jesus, myself, Little Man and Princess were having dinner, and once again discussing the concept of Christmas Day. Little Man went on to ask about how Jesus died - "Wasn't he killed? Who killed Jesus, Mum?"
"Well, it was the Romans" I replied.
"How did they do it again?' he asked. Princess pipes up, "And wasn't there a cross?", so I went on to give a very brief summary of crucifixion, to which Little Man commented "It's like torture, it must have been horrible", and happily skipped away.
I began to clear dinner. Princess was thinking.
After a minute or two, she said "Do you know what those Romans needed, Mummy?"
"No, what darling?"
"A good smack on the bum!"

Indeed.

All time favourite

While I'm on the subject of cute things my kids have said (I promise this will be the last one for a while), I may as well tell you my all time favourite, to date...

It was the day after I had given birth to wee Chuckles, and the whole newly expanded family was quite ceremoniously, if somewhat chaotically, leaving the hospital. The large glass doors at the front of the main building glided open for us to make our exit into a glorious blue sky day.

Little Man, then aged 5, enthusiastically grabbed at my arm, rendering Chuckles at more or less his eye level, and with a flourish of his arm and all the worldly experience a five year old can muster exclaimed "Look Chuckles! This is the world!"

I still tear up at it, even now.

Xmas Cheer

Naturally, Christmas is always cause for excitement in our household. The anticipation and festivity is consumed with gusto by my three kids.

We’ll be talking about shopping or fruit cakes or some such thing, and Princess pipes up with “Speaking of Christmas, let’s sing Jingle Bells” (or Rudolph, or Drummer Boy, etc).

In the lead-up to last Christmas we had a bit of a chuckle. Princess was going through the phase where she loved babies and anything to do with them. Was completely fascinated by the story of Baby Jesus, asking things like “Why did Baby Jesus have to be born in a stable?” or "Did Baby Jesus get cold?".

During one of these Q&A sessions, Little Man, hungry for a snack, was complaining for something to eat. I opened the fridge door and noticed a packet of Babybel cheeses.

“Darling why don’t you have one of your baby cheeses?”

There was a cheeky chortle from Princess.

“What are you laughing at, Miss?”

Princess, grinning wickedly, replied “Baby Cheesus!”.

What a giggle.

Ticketyboo

Princess' heart surgery went well. She now has a tiny little coil in her heart, plugging up the duct, and her heart beats as noiselessly as the next person's (if you'd heard the murmur she used to have, you'd know what I mean).

We are most relieved.

It all seems quite surreal now, almost like it was over in a heartbeat (oh, stop, my sides are aching!) - seriously, Princess was only in hospital for less than 30 hrs. She proved herself to be the brave, strong, stoic little soul she is - showed Darling Husband and I a thing or two about fortitude and patience, like she always does. She received excellent care and so did we for that matter. It all went like clockwork.

We owe so much to the expertise and care of the Queensland Paediatric Cardiac Services team, particularly Dr Robert Justo, Dr Bennett Sheridan and Susannne our care co-ordinator. Great job, and thank you.

As a postscript, I have to mention Little Man and Chuckles were so sweet when they visited the hospital. Little Man especially has a lot of room in his heart for Princess - he's not afraid to tell her or show her he loves her. 'Swonderful.

Star of My Life

Little Man got a 'Star of the Week' award at his school assembly today!

This means a lot. He has been wanting to earn it all year. There have been times when he has felt his good work and behaviour has gone unnoticed at school, though he's dryly observed that his less-than-acceptable behaviour never goes unnoticed! Anyway, he's finally done it. And his chest is puffed out and he's smiling and he's proud.

Good on you, Little Man. You've certainly made your mother proud. You're so much more than a Star of the Week to me.