Sleep Study

Yesterday Tom went to the sleep disorders clinic in Wahroonga (SAN) hospital. The idea was to do a sleep study to test what it is that is keeping him awake all night. The doctor said it could be one of three things, restless leg syndrome which can be treated with drugs, nasal/adenoids which can be treated by removal or behavioural.
We pretended that Tom was going to be an astronaut and go up in a spaceship, and we wired him up to the machinery. He had pipes in his nose, electrodes on his head, a microphone under his chin and his arms and legs were also wired up. 36 wires in all, which was awful - way more than i had expected. Tom actually fell straight to sleep (i think he was in shock) but woke after about 2 hours and proceeded to cry, shout, get angry and then get distraught to the point where i had to tell the nurse to unwire him (after 2.5hrs of unrest), he was going home. So at midnight we came home and i felt awful for putting him through such an ordeal.
We did get a call from the clinic to say we needed to go see the ENT specialist which means they were able to get enough info and i suppose we'll need to remove adenoids, but for now we will just wait it out, continuing to take iron supplements as these seem to have made the world of difference.

update Oct '10: Tom now sleeps through 6/7 nights and we haven't yet been to see the specialist!

Dreamworld

We decided to take another trip to the Gold Coast and visit Aunty Angie and Uncle Jamie and cousin Sophie for the long weekend. However our trip was decidedly different this time around. Firstly, Ela got really ill - came down with a really high fever which turned out to be tonsillitis. Poor love spent most of the weekend on the sofa watching movies and taking antibiotics.
Secondly, the weather wasn't great. It was cloudy and overcast the forst few days and then sunny but quite cold after that. So there wasn't much swimming happening. Tom loved splashing about in the water but of course hated getting out. Mark and I got our laps in every day and he even sdid some running but there was no lazing by the pool sipping cocktails and reading books :)
We did venture to the beach too, but again it was short and sweet. The kids got their face painted one day and we enjoyed a local markets and music festival.

But the highlight of the trip was our visit to Dreamworld. Its only half an hour drive from the apartment, and it was pretty quiet as it was low season. We headed straight to Wiggles world and the kids went on Dorothy's rosey tea-cup ride, the Big Red Car ride through the Wiggles house and played on Captain Feathersword's ship.

Then we headed to the wildlife area to see Koalas, Kangaroos and Crocodiles. Tom was a little hesitant at first but soon got his shoes off and started patting the Roo!  After lunch Ela started to deteriorate again and Tom was getting ferral so we headed back home. But it was certainly a day to remember.

Then finally we had a few nightmares on our flight back to Sydney as it turned out to be an International flight en-route from Japan to Sydney. What should have been a few hours hop skip and a jump home turned into a four hour ordeal!

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.