What's happening at our place # 1

Soooo .. I have nothing to blog

.. so I'll do a bit of sharing and hiding my head to how bad my house cleaning has got ..

.. Miss did a bit of baby sitting .. and swinging ..

 

Cam decided a swim was the order of the day ..

 

Mike decided he was cleaning out the book shelf and his room and everywhere else he could find books .. and then putting them in piles .. and then trying to cram them all back in to the shelves

.. apparently I'm doing the last part "with him" .. read .. I'm doing the last part ..

 

.. oh and he's also making his bed .. and hanging out the washing for me ... :-)

Miss is walking her bike .. and singing to herself .. and the flowers ..

€

.. I'm weeding ..

Miss is swinging ..

Mike is still struggling with the books ..

 

Miss is still swinging but now without her gumboots on

.. thank goodness .. coz it is seriously hot .. and why the heck would you wear gumboots when bare-feet is soooo much cooler ?????

I'm mowing the lawns .. vacuuming ..

.. trying to find my floor under all that washing to fold ..

 

.. looking at the boys room .. shaking my head

.. but walking away as it's their attempt to make their beds and clean up ..

.. Miss decided to "unpack" all her baby stuff .. WTF!!!!

 

.. and rumble through the DVD's and videos ..

.. I tidied the lounge .. and found the floor .. hah

.. but the washing still stayed there and became Mt Wash-a-lot .. Mt Washmore .. and Mt-Fall-on-the-floor-coz-there-is-just-so-much

.. then caught some of the sunset ..

... oh and how could I forget the boys devising and then writing out the rules for their new hut .. now on a big piece of "water-proof" card-board .. with about 2 rolls of sello-tape over it so the felt-tip pen doesn't run in the rain !!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. You have to run around the house 2 times ..

2.You have to run down the drive-way and back ..

3. You have to pay us $1 and we give you $2 back ..

(I said to them that they might be losing money on that.. but they disagreed - but later came back and changed it to the other way around)

Boys are allowed ..

Girls are allowed ..

.. and on the BAD front ..

Cam decided to wake up puffy .. and with a bit of a black eye from tripping and finding the coffee table - YOUUUCH!!!

.. he was very brave .. (but understandably howled his head off when it happened) .. and was lucky to miss his eye .. and it finally went down after a couple of days

.. the thing he was "sad" about was not being able to wear his goggles swimming .. but he found some in the play-room that were quite wide .. and missing out on finishing the "duck dance" with his sister .. but now he's happy :-)

A different perspective .. a blog to read

One of the mum's in the American support group I'm in called Hope for Children with HLHS mentioned that she has a blog and personally I found it quite interesting to read .. www.henrytheblog.com .. a different perspective to what you normally would read on a heart kids blog ..

This is the blurb from the blog the Mum has written .. (I found her straight forward approach quite refreshing in a different kind of way to my own child's blog ) ..

What is Henry (the Blog)?

I could have written a blog about my kid – the one born with a funky heart. But Henry (the blog) is more than just sharing Henry’s story. Sure, it chronicles our lives during Henry’s years in and out of hospitals, multiple surgeries and terminal maternal hysteria. Good times, indeed!

But I put this site up because I think there needs to be more resources for moms of “heart kids.” There are oodles of great websites to learn more about congenital hearts defects (CHD) and you can find several here. I don’t dispense medical advice, I share coping advice. Rather said, I’ll tell you what I went through so that you can breathe a sigh of relief and say, “Well, at least I am not as crazy as that lady…”

Face it, as hard as this is on your kid, it is also hard on you. When Henry was in the hospital the first, seventh, nineteenth time, I really craved the insight of another CHD mom. That’s what I am trying to do here -- telling my story, scars and all. Every CHD mom experiences their child’s suffering differently. I did it in the most selfish way. As much as I obsessed about my son’s health, I also fixated on how devastating this was to me.

Henry’s particular defect is Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome or HLHS. I also refer to HLHS as “Henry’s Little Heart Sucks.” My son underwent numerous cardiac surgeries and then a heart transplant in February 2008.

This blog is primarily for CHD families to find some common ground, solace and a few laughs. Turns out staph infections, snotty doctors and g-tubes can produce some giggles. I’ve added some resources so that you can find “doctor approved” information about CHD as well as articles about the impact on families caring for chronically ill children.

Anyway thought I'd share for others who might like a read ..

Foxton Beach Holiday - private

Just the start of what went in to the car ;-p

.. after a few hours and a few trips back inside to get stuff we MIGHT need .. we left at 11.30am .

We stopped in at Wanganui Playground and the kids had a play ...

.. and checked out the bird aviary ...

.. then we went for a walk over to the Gazebo ..

.. the view looking over the lake ..

.. we also caught up with Frances and Pete and the kids (on their way back from Waitere)

.. so the kids did some more playing ..

.. about 5 hours after we left (as we took our time and stopped a few times we got to the bach .. the kids were soooo excited ..

.. then after I unpacked .. they settled in and I settled down with a coffee ..lol ..

... doing some drawings ...

.. playing some Trouble ...

MONDAY

.. the next morning I woke up to them all being busy in the kitchen making milkshakes for breakfast ...

.. then packed up a lunch and went to the beach ...

.. the boys checked out the surf ..

.. while Abbie got used to the surroundings .. then the sea ..

.. she would sneak up then run like anything back again before it came in .. I went in with her a few times and she got a bit frightened but after a while got used to it ..

.. then it was home for lunch (as it started to rain a little) ..

.. then Michael decided it was time to vacuum the floor

.. me and my girl :-)

.. we checked out Foxton .. and had a wee look at the windmill (from outside) ...

.. then the boys wanted to check out hte skate park just down the block from the bach ..

.. Abbie wanted to check out the playground while the boys biked around ...

.. pictures of the bach and inside ..and our creations from last year ..

.. then we went for a walk down to the school .. and the kids played and biked ..

TUESDAY

... we went back to the skate park for a small stop on the way to Palmerston North ..

.. we had lunch in the square (as I got a bit confused as to where it was I should have been going) .. and so called in to the info centre there ..

.. it was a quick stop at the cafe for ice-blocks and a coffee for me at the Esplanade

.. then it was time for a ride on the train ..

.. and a second ride on the train with a stop at the playground ...

..attempting to get the rolling barrel going ..

.. the octopus swing ...

... fun on the slide ..

.. going up.. up .. and up ..

.. Michael was brave enough to have a go at the flying fox after a tentative to-ing and fro-ing .. about whether he would or not ..

... then back on the train back to the car again ..

WEDNESDAY

.. we travelled to Waikanae to visit Michael and Maria and called in to the playground before we headed home .. with McDonalds for dinner ..

.. it was a bit cramped in bed that night ;-(

THURSDAY

... we had a chill out day at the bach ..

.. the lawns got mowed .. and the gardens weeded a little ..

.. some dancing and singing ..

.. some DVD watching and chilling ..

.. then a quick trip to the school .. then back to Steve and Alana's to drop off the lawnmower ..

.. then we went for a walk along Sunset Walk after dinner of Fish and Chips ..

.. the sunset was gorgeous that night .. I didn't have my camera for photos of it across the sea .. but got some photos when we got back to the bach ..

FRIDAY

.. that morning was a clean up day and packing stuff back in to the car ..

.. then a quick trip to the skate park AGAIN .. to check out the up-skilling .. and to take a few videos ..

.. and a stop at Subway for lunch at Bulls .. then another stop at Wanganui playground for a break ..

.. and another visit to the bird aviary ..

... then home again in time for dinner .. pretty good considering weleft Foxton at 12.30 .. and were home at 4.45 ..