Celebrations

Well this was a busy weekend. Forst we had Dad's birthday. Tom reminded me all day that we had to get a birthday cake for Dad so we stopped in at Pane e Vino on the way home and got this little heart shaped chocolate mud cake. Daddy scored a beautiful new watch, as well as lots of other stuff like t-shirts, a book and a new shirt to go out in.

The outing was for dinner at Tetsuyas. Wow that was absolutely fantastic. Or as Mark puts it 'a peak dining experience'. We spent 5 hours enjoying 12 courses (Degustation) of Japanese dishes, using Australian ingredients done the French way. We chose to do wine pairing which meant we also polished off 9 glasses each. Mark even got to tour the kitchen and along with a candle in his dessert, was given a present - two bottles of Tetsuya's dressing, one for oysters, one for salad. Our favourite was the Ocean Trout with Kombu, Mark recons the oysters were the best he'd ever tasted and was very partial to the oxtail. I loved the spatchcock too.

And the third celebration this weekend was for mother's day. Luckily we had packed the kids of to grandparents in Cronulla - knowing that we would be feeling a little delicate the next morning. So for Mother's day I got a real lye-in, a long relaxing walk along the water with the dog, coffee and a chance to read more than 2 pages of the newspaper. The kids came back after lunch and spoiled me with hugs and kisses and best behaviours. Ela had chosen a small present from the Mother's Day stall at school - a towel to dry my hair and some pomegranate body butter. Bless her. She even got up on Monday morning and asked if she could pretend it was still Mother's Day? Absolutely I replied - if it means you keep up your good behaviours and helpful manner. Needless to say by the time we were frantically leaving the house for school/work we were all back in melt-down mode, tempers frayed and well, back to normal. Oh and I also scored a new bike - pretty in pink which I am loving.

Poor Tom

Today we had some good news about Tom's foot. But first lets rewind the clock.

Friday afternoon - dad picks Tom up from childcare...he crawls to meet him. A bit odd. Mum comes home from work, watches Tom crawling along the hallway to the bathroom. More oddness. It eventuates that he has a sore foot. we monitor it overnight but end up for 4hrs on Saturday morning in Westmead Children's Hospital. He hasn't broken it but they place his foot and leg in a cast to protect the swelling and ask us to return on Tuesday to see a bone specialist. And here comes the punchline "make sure you keep his foot well rested, keep him off his feet". Yeah sure a 2yr old boy whose favourite toy is a stepladder....

Actually it wasn't as difficult as we imagined and his sister managed to nurse him to death, not to mention introduce him to all her favourite movies. Carrying him everywhere has probably done more damage to our backs than anything his foot may have been inflicted with.

Anyhow relieved to say that the cast is now off, he is running around as normal and nothing to worry about. We have pulled him from that childcare - this incident was just the final icing on the cake really. Just an accident but one that wasn't reported and could have resulted in more permanent damage if we had left it longer. And no doubt this will not be the last visit to Westmead in Tom's life for an x-ray, so glad we now know where it is.

Iron Man 2

This time its Dad's turn to be the hero. Mark took part in his first triathlon competition today, the BRW corporate triathlon series in Sydney harbour. He has been training for a while now and although he said he was really nervous, he did himself proud by completing the three legs in 34.5 minutes. In fact his personal time placed him at 450 out of 4000 finishers.

He certainly looked the part with his 'teflon coated triathlon suit' made us laugh anyhow. He even went out and bought the proper grab type laces for his shoes....

He says the toughest part was climbing out of the water and running up a very steep incline to get on the bike. But he had written the kids names on his wrist and he said he kept glancing down all the time to give himself the spurt he needed.

Now he is super keen for the next challenge which at this stage looks like it will be a half marathon in September. I have my good friend Maggie to 'thank' for this as she's the one who put the ideas in his head when we visited her at Christmas.

P-Party

Today we went to Sally's 3rd birthday and it was heaps of fun for all. All the family were dressed as P's Elliot looked fabulous in his Pink Panther outfit, Sally's Princess dress was gorgeous and hand made by nana and even Vanessa and Glen as a princess and pirate looked great.

They had  done out their house in the most amazing pink, purple and P decorations, with all the food beginning with P (Pizza, pork and pies), then the desserts came out - pink pavlovas, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and picnic bars, and the drinks too - there was Pepsi, Punch and Perrier and even the activities began with P - painting, pass the parcel, play-doh and Pinata.

It was certainly a party to top all parties and the kids didn't want to leave. Tom turned many heads with his policeman outfit although it came off after 5 minutes and Salli Splat the bubble lady was a great entertainer.

A quick trip

We decided to take a last minute holiday to the Gold Coast and visit Angie, Jamie and cousin Sophie.

The short flight was a doddle in comparison to our trip from hell in January. There was a minor amount of disturbance from Tom but in all it was pretty painfree.

They live in a beautiful complex at Broadbeach Waters with 2 pools, 2 gyms and just a quick walk from the beach. Our daily routine consisted of breakfast and play (with Sophie's toys), a walk to the beach, a half hour of wave dodging, shell collecting and hole digging. Back a block for a coffee and kids playground and ride on the Carousel, then back for Sophies morning sleep.

Ela and Tom then spent 2 hours in the pool whilst Dad did his workout in training for his upcoming triathlon. Lunch on the terrace once Sophie was up was then followed by a long walk for mum pushing Tom to have his afternoon nap. Then it was early dinner, play and bed for the kids whilst mum n dad got to go out for Gelatto or even a full Japanese meal one night. The wonderful thing was that Tom ate and slept much better than he has in months. Whether it was the sun and swimming or just the change of scene, it worked a treat.

When the Royals arrived with Nannie and Grandad the routine was only slightly altered - more mouths to feed but plenty of running chasing and playing by the kids.

In fact we had such a relaxing time that we wished we had booked for longer and will be looking to go up again in the next school holidays.

When we got back we were just in time to pick up Charlie from the Vet's where the guys from Hanrob (the boarding kennels) had dropped him back. Much to our surprise it was a more feminine Charlie that greeted us - complete with a bow in his hair - Charlene perhaps.

An Eggciting Easter

Well we certainly made the most of our four day long weekend.

Friday: We spent the day at the Royal Easter show

We mistakenly took the ferry only to find the stop is nowhere near the showground and there was no shuttle bus. We started walking but it was too far and so we gave up and waited for the local bus which took us halfway back to concord before we got there!

However things got better and the kids had a great time running from ride to ride. We went to see the farmyard animals and Ela enjoyed petting all the lambs and goats. Tom wasn't as confident but trailed around after her.



Whilst Tom had a sleep Ela chose to go on a white knuckled ride - it was this rotating swing that went pretty high and pretty fast. Not sure who was more scared her or us (watching!) She alo did the giant slide with her Dad and was suitably disappointed when she hooked a plastic duck only to win a cheap tiara and not the giant cuddly toy she had her eye on.

Then there was the ABC kids roadshow - we watched the Rory show and Justine Clark even put in an appearance. We had to record the obligatory DVD and this time Ela chose a Wiggles song - for Tom's benefit. However Tom was too stupefied to sing when he realised his heroes were playing behind him.




Saturday: this was our 'day off' where we did normal weekend stuff  -  we worked in the garden (on the roses) then went to the local park to kick a ball. Then we had visitors (Izzy and her mum Anna) who stayed for a play, followed by shopping at Rhodes.

Sunday: it was back in Easter mode and the day was nearly off to a disaster. Before Ela went to bed last night she left a note for the Easter bunny with a few of her small chocolate eggs. 'These are for you' she wrote (in the hope that he would leave her even more treats for her kindness). When she came in to our room this morning and said , come on Tom lets go down and see what the Easter bunny has left us, I shot up in terror - I had forgotten to remove the eggs and I had also forgotten to buy any Easter eggs for them! But I managed to fob off the grumpy reply that came bouncing back upstairs with 'He hasn't been' by telling her it was probably because he knew she was going to Cronulla and surely he was leaving her something there instead (phew). This seemed to mollify her.

So we drove to Nannie and Grandad's house to find the Easter Bunny had just been and left buckets for all the kids (The Royals were already there waiting for our arrival). A great time was had by all, running around the garden and filling their buckets. Mark and I even got an Easter treat - baby sitting whilst we went to the movies to see the Blind Side.

Monday: My birthday so i was allowed a 'lie in'. As usual the kids couldn't contain themselves and came bursting in at about 7 o'clock with my cards and cuppa. We were having friends over for lunch so we embarked on a big tidy up - managed to dump a bin bag full of rubbish from the toy room - very therapeutic.

I read the riot act to Ela just before they arrived - 2 rules for the day. 1 - no mention of chocolate (as Sally is allergic) and 2. No tantrums when its time for people to go home. If both rules were kept I promised she could eat as many chocolates as she wanted.

The kids (Ela, Tom, Elliot, Sally, Bo and Tia) amazed me by eating fish and rice followed by sausages (the back up plan for those who wouldn't eat the fish - all did except for Tom of course) then had a ball chasing each other around and playing hide and seek. Leaving the adults to enjoy some interesting conversations about the strange habits of kids and of course our favourite subject of house building and renovations.

Ela almost managed to keep to the rules but couldn't quite help herself - as the last kids were walking out the door she exclaimed happily 'oh good now I can have as much chocolate as I want'.

Iron Man

Well I finally took the bull by the horns and went to see a pediatrician about Tom's sleeping - or lack of it. We spent a good hour discussing all aspects of his routine and family history. Dr Deloughery was certain by the end of our visit that he wasn't waking because of sleep apnea but thought it was a combination of him 'playing' me and also something else.

He sent us off for blood tests to check levels of Ferratin - as we'd discussed Tom's reluctance to eat meat and his general fussiness over any foods. I was instructed to cut down significantly his intake of milk - too hard thought I - so that he becomes more hungry. We also had to have a head X-ray to check the size of his adenoids.

The Blood test obviously knocked him for six - I was a bit shaky too. And the little might fell asleep in my arms in the waiting room of the X-ray clinic. I don't think he's done that since he was a few months old!

Anyway the results are in and yes his iron levels are extremely low (13 when  'normal' levels range from 30-150) - so he is know taking an oral iron supplement. I was told not to expect too much too soon as it can take months for the iron stores to begin to build up and the bone marrow to grow. But at least I have something to peg it on. I've also just finished a book recommended by a friend called Save Our Sleep by Tizzie Hall. She has lots of useful suggestions and scenarios for help - one of which is so simple but the fact that maintaining body temp at the right level can make all the difference. So armed with this we are now on a mission to get Tom sleeping through the night and I have to say (quietly without risking jinxing it all) that so far we are seeing small improvements. Yippeeeee.