More Catch up

A little more about our trip to WA. It was HOT, really really hot. Mostly 35 - 38C. This is the second year of the three year trial of daylight saving in WA, and however lovely it may be in Autumn, it is really horrid in January & February. The maxima are reached around 4.00 to 5.00pm and it is still high 30s at 6.00pm. I tried to get David to sleep from around 2.00pm until 4.30 to 5.00pm, because it was just too hot to do anything. He was waking up with his pillow soaked with sweat, and then as soon as the shadows started to come over, going out to run around the back paved area. After a little while in Wagin there was a change, and a bit of rain over the weekend (lots in Perth) and while Perth went back to VERY hot days and nights, Wagin was having cooler, windy nights (the Albany doctor) and cooler overcast mornings. Mid morning the sun was out and it would suddenly be roasting, but the wind at night was a blessing.

I have attached a couple of photos with trucks from the backyard. Nanna and Uncle Steve provided a fantastic Tonka truck, which David ran up and down the driveway (and into Charlie's fence) and a yellow digger. The best trick was pushing the truck down the hill in the driveway and watching how far it would go, and if you could hit the fence. There was also the great fun of beating and stabbing the hedge on Charlie's side of the boundary with a very large metal hook (one of the hanging basket hooks). Charlie was marvelous, and helped David get the hook out when it was stuck, rather than telling him off.

In this one, David is wearing his spiderman cap, which has been wonderful, because David enjoys wearing it. That is also the photo with the two crashed trucks - David is proudly showing off the stacked, crashed trucks.

We were also swimming a lot until Nanna got too sick - sometimes in the morning (but again, it was getting really hot, too hot to be coming home when the Wagin pool closed at 1.00pm) or in the evening, as the pool was open until 7.00pm. The best time was from around 6.00pm, again because it was so hot. Nanna came down one day to watch us. Another day, I walked down for a swim myself, which was marvelous, and Nanna dropped David off later. David was really enjoying the different pools- paddler, deeper paddler and the full olympic size pool. There is also a proper diving pool (4.8m) with diving tower, but I did convince him that it was too deep, and that you have to be 11 to use the diving tower. The Wagin pool is lovely, clean, a great temperature and never crowded. Other than during vacation swimming lessons, it opens for three sessions - early morning from 6.00 to 8.00am, then from 11.00 to 2.00pm, then again in the afternoon from 3.00pm to 7.00pm. It is staying open later because of the daylight saving. The two guys who look after the pool are lovely and very friendly. They take care of the Australian flag on the flagpole outside, and David really liked seeing our flag every time we went to the pool. We got to know a couple of regular swimmers - Seb who is 6years old and Meg who is 11 years old. Sorry but there are no photos of David swimming, mostly because I was always in the pool with him. David also loves getting out of the pool and running around - from one end to the other, on the grass, up the hill to the diving pool, and over to the toddler pool. It was pretty hard on my shoulders, with all the lifting and jumping and supporting him in the water. My back & shoulders got a bit proppy after a few weeks.

He hadn't been swimming for approximately 12 mths until getting to WA, but he quickly got more confident and loved it all. I have taken him swimming only once since we got back - to Leichhardt pool. I thought we would go for an hour, but we stayed for three. We were both exhausted after we got home, and my shoulders took a few days to recover. I think we need to keep it to shorter sessions.

The Library was also a great place for us to go. Rita, one of Nanna's friends operates the library, and we were able to borrow books, DVDs and videos for David on Nanna's card. David loved them all, and loved visiting. It is a small library, but with a good selection for toddlers. Hooray for LSWA!

Cats etc in Wagin

While in Wagin, David got up close and personal with Puss, Nanna Jan's cat. Puss took it very well. At first he just kept moving away, when David invaded his personal space, and when it got too much, went next door to Charlie's house, or Av and Cyril Jenz's house. Not that David saw that as much of a problem - the day we arrived, he happily followed Puss into the Jenz front yard, up on the verandah and round towards the back, with Mum in pursuit. He tried to follow Puss into Charlie's house, but was somewhat hampered by the thick hedge along the fence, and the fence itself. Bare feet were best, because the gravel on the verge was a bit too hard on his feet to make the going easy. With shoes, there was very little to stop him.

After a week or so Puss got used to David and would hang around more, generally taking the patting in good part. Puss also got used to not being able to use his cat door. I understand that after we left, he went happily back to using the door, and to sleeping in David's bed.

It took David until day 2 to get the hang of the cat door. On lots of days, if the doors were open, he would do circuits - in the cat door, then out the back screen door, and round again. We kept it locked up at night, because I had visions of David taking off up the street after Puss in the middle of the night. It didn't happen, mostly because David was having too much fun running around the house until all hours of the night. He is big enough to climb out of the bed in Wagin, and boy was that fun! Some nights I was putting him back every couple of minutes. Growling didn't have any effect. When I told him it was naughty to keep getting out of bed, David took off for the naughty mat like it was an excuse to rampage out in the living area! I am still not sure how to deal with that reaction.

He also said that he was frightened of the dark, so we were leaving a light on for him. It didn't keep him in bed though.

Uncle Steve also has a cat, Ted. Ted had no doubts at all about David. As Steve said, he was convinced that David was a bogeyman, and behaved accordingly. I saw Ted a couple of times, but David only saw him disappearing into the distance.

David was very comfortable in Wagin, including the morning, after we had been staying for some week, when with Paul and I both in the house, and getting ready to go for a walk, we lost David between us. He had decided that it was all taking too long, and took off for uncle Steve's house. He was there, in the back yard, having closed the gate behind him. We had about three minutes of fear, becasue David wasn't anywhere, until I thought to check Steve's place. Then he was walked back, with a big talking to, and he said sorry. I almost thought that I was wrong on the way down, because Ted was sitting calmly in the front yard, but he did have a disgusted look on his face, so he had seen David shoot past.

David and the gun and the motor bike

Well, boys are boys, and David is a boy. It is amazing what kids seem to pick up by osmosis (compared with say, learning to brush their teeth, which seems to take years). This is David's first gun, photo taken 14 January 2008. We were at Paul's cousin Debbie's house for a bbq, and Debbie brought out a box of Duplo. Guess what David found in the box? Yes, a gun. No idea about the trigger, but able to point it and say bang very loudly. I was shot, and so was Daddy and most of the family. He didn't want to let it go!

Subsequently, when staying at Grif and Mac's house in February, David and the boys found a noisy gun in the toys in the garage. That was a large sub-machine gun type with sound effects. Kel didn't even know it was there. Heaven on a stick. Even now, we can be driving down the road in the car and David will say "Grif and Mac have a gun." "Where are Grif and Mac?" "I want to go to Grif and Mac's house." (I wonder why?)

Lots of things are now guns - sticks, bits of pipe off my bke handle bars, a bike pump, a caulking gun, anything really. If there is no gun, then David uses his Buzz Lightyear laser instead.

Liam was given swords (made of soft foam) for his birthday this month. He loves them and so do David and Katie. Remember Oscar Wilde "yet each man kills the thing he loves"? Well, two-year olds love shooting stabbing and killing those that they love, a lot! Over and over again! With much love and affection and no malice at all.

The second photo is also at cousin Debbie's house - with her son's trail bike. As David said "Better than a forklift!" His cousin turned it on for David, but the engine was a bit loud for him. He does like sitting on it though!

This week - and Easter - lots happening.

Well, where to start? This week Paul was away again travelling, this time back to Perth. The good part was that the trip went very well from a work point of view. As Mum is still in hospital, he reorganised and extended the trip for the whole week, returning Good Friday and was able to visit her, drop off warm slippers and some photos of David. Jan is finally starting to improve, and we hope that she will be well enough to go home at the end of next week, after another session of chemotherapy.

Paul is now home and we are all happy that he is not travelling at all next week.

David has now dropped back to two days a week at daycare. After discussion with the director, she suggested it as a way of making the transition smoother - we will just go Monday and Tuesday for a couple of months, and perhaps move to three days when David is settled and happy. He finds it very hard and upsetting to see me leave in the mornings. The perfect result would be that he was at daycare and that I was there too for the whole day. He does enjoy it, and is getting more settled and happier - he didn't want to leave on Monday afternoon - and is starting to make friends. He is also sleeping well and starting to eat the food. But, he looks for me during the day and asks about me. Outside daycare, he now says (quite regularly) "David can't find mummy at daycare." and occasionally "David can't find daddy at daycare." We will see how the shorter week goes.

This week has been warm, with temperatures around 27C to 30C. On Wednesday we went to the pool, for three hours. Lots of fun, and David in the last hour wanted to swim - kicking with his hands and using his feet - not just paddle & play. We were so tired that we both went to sleep in the afternoon, and my shoulders were still stiff from all the lifting the next day. On Thursday we met Zoe, Liam and Finn and went to the Washhouse to play all morning. On Friday the weather changed to cool, raining and miserable for the long Easter weekend. We visited friends in the afternoon before Daddy came home.

Today, Easter Sunday, we have been to church and visited the cousins, Matthew and Evan. David and Matthew really enjoy playing together. Both David and Matthew were very excited and looking forward to the visit. David managed to have small easter eggs at church and chips for lunch. How exciting!

Other things about this week. I have been giving David his water in a grown up cup at dinner more often lately. This week he decided to again start dunking his food in the water - he has done this before. He was dunking his bread and avocado and then eating it and saying "Delicious." Very funny.

Yesterday we had a fairly quiet day at home. I got out the hand drill to put a door stop on David's bedroom door and a hook on the back of his bathroom door. David loves tools, and loves screwdrivers. He also loves the handdrill so this was all fairly exciting and he was a big help. Since I used the hand drill about a week and a half ago, he is very excited by it. He knows about drill bits and how to turn the wheel, and the first time I got it out he practiced with drilling holes in a spare piece of pine in the garage. It made a big impression because he spoke to Katrina at daycare about it. She told me on Monday that David asked her if she had a hand drill. She wasn't sure what he was talking about, but when she said she didn't have a hand drill, he told her that everyone has a hand drill! That's it until next time.

Catch up photos - January 2008

And because David isn't asleep yet (at 9.10pm) here are a couple of photos from January.

This is the carousel or mery go round at Darling Harbour. It has the old fashioned steam or pipe organ music, and horses and sleighs for riding. David & I went into Darling Harbour on the light rail, then played in the fountains (his feet were really wet) then had two rides on the merry go round. The first time on the sleigh, then this second time on the horse. David had a great day.

This second photo is of David playing with his Duplo train set. He is older and playing a lot more constructively with the Duplo. Of course it really helps if we play too .... And it is a lot more interesting. We make trains, farms, zoos, and I add the fences, flowers, trees and other girly bits! One of the best things for him still is the noise when he tips up the whole box of Duplo onto the floor.

The new year - and how life is sometimes

Well, there is probably enough for another blog in "catch up" for early January, but it will have to wait. I have attached a couple of photos of David in Wagin, including David at the Giant Ram.

We came back to Sydney for a week or so, before going to Perth on 13 January. We stayed a couple of days with my friend Carolyn, and celebrated her birthday. David inherited some excellent toys from Carolyn's niece & nephew (many thanks) and then we went to Wagin to stay with Gran & Uncle Steve. Paul headed off to work and home, leaving David & I for a few weeks R&R in Wagin.

The thing was, that Gran was a little unwell. Her cough had come back from last year, and she had no energy, and was losing weight without trying to. She had been going to the doctor (in fact a series of GPs in Wagin) had been referred for tests but without anything being detected. Gran got a lot worse over the next couple of weeks. The cough prevented her from sleeping, and then from even lying down, or reclining in bed.

We went out for a drive to Lake Norring on Australia Day, and that was about the last thing that we could do, because she got a lot worse. Eventually she was admitted to hospital with a build up of fluid in her chest cavity on Tuesday 2 February. The cough stopped when she was put on oxygen, and they immediately drained 600mls of fluid out of her chest. More followed in the next weeks, litres in all. A diagnosis took more than two weeks. It was overian cancer. Jan has now had surgery and the first session of chemotherapy. She is still in hospital, and still on oxygen. The lung is improving, but overall she has been very slow to improve after the surgery. The doctors drained her abdomen today for the first time (1.6l so far this afternoon) as the bloating wasn't clearing by itself. We are not sure whether she will be home for Easter, but that may mean that she has her second dose of chemo before she leaves.

David & I came back to Sydney after the surgery after being in Wagin for four weeks, and Perth for nearly two weeks. Paul has been back twice (and is still there now) on business and to visit Jan. I think that Jan is actually improving slightly over the last couple of days. She finally sounds a little more like herself on the phone. She has also been able to enjoy a couple of visitors in the last few days.

Also, in January, Paul's dad, Grandad Reg, also became very weak, and no longer had the strength to get around. This was a big shock, after a good Christmas with the whole family. He was admitted to hospital after a number of collapses, and then transferred to palliative care. While he initially looked very weak, and we thought that he might slip away quite quickly, that has not been the case. The palliative care has been marvelous, and he is very comfortable, and peaceful. Nanna Josie visits him everyday. Paul has been visiting Melbourne whenever he can. Unfortunately, David & I have not been able to get to Melbourne since Christmas.

All in all, a very stressful time for all of us. It is not over yet. All this and the other stresses and pressures of work and life. David has coped remarkably well with all that has been happening, and has started daycare. We will survive. It has been a blessing that I have not been working while this has been happening.

after Christmas

Well, after Christmas we stayed on for a week or so into the new year. David had a lot of fun with Matthew and got to see Georgy (the dog) and learn to say "No, Georgy, down". She is a jumpy little dog and she thought David was new and exciting. The photo is of the cousins, David and Matthew giggling in Matthew's bed at Auntie Gaye's house. This was after Matthew had taught David how to jump on the bed. The boys are laughing a lot!

The second photo is of David on a forklift - one of his favourite things. We went for a picnic lunch at Gary's house after Christmas, but due to sewerage problems at his house in Eltham, we relocated to a nearby vinyard, that had a forklift and tractor in its shed. Guess who got to play on the forklift AND the tractor? David and two other boys. Heaven! David also got to run around on a very hot day in the vinyard with two lovely bigger boys, who were very gentle with him.

That's all for this update.

Christmas 2007 and a photo at last!

Well, there are a lot of photos from the new camera, and where to start? I am going to start with a couple that I liked from Christmas.

We spent Christmas in Melbourne with the Haselhurst clan. Cold for Christmas, (David wore his spiderman rubber boots and Matthew carried his new umbrella everywhere) but it warmed up to 37C the day we left. Hurray for taking two wardrobes! David had a lovely Christmas - playing with the cousins Matthew and Evan and seeing all the relatives. We drove down, leaving on Saturday 22 December after I finished up work on Thrusday and Paul got back from Townsville on Friday. We bought a new portable DVD player for the car, and managed it in a day, even when leaving late. David was restless, but slept a little, and watched lots of DVDs, like Toy Story and Toy Story 2.

The Photo incorporates two aspects of Christmas - David's new Buzz Lightyear toy, that he got from Mum & Dad, and his Buzz pyjamas. It also shows one of his loves at Christmas; playing in the suitcase. It made packing hard because David was always emptying the suitcase and climbing in. It is his car or plane, and he fastens his seatbelt.

We put up Christmas decorations in Sydney - lots of garlands and greenery and decorations on the stairs, but only put the Christmas tree up when we got to Nanna and Grandad's house, on Sunday 23 December. David and Mum and Nanna all worked on it together and had a good time, and we put it in the front window where it caught the light.

On Christmas day, David opened his stocking up for the presents from Santa first thing in the morning. Then we had the majority of presents, from under the tree with Mum and Dad and the grandparents later in the morning. Then we went to Aunty Gaye & Uncle David's house for Christmas lunch, and he got a few more presents. There were more on Boxing Day and a few more purchases or presents sprinkled throughout the week. By the end of the holiday, David was just asking about presents whenever he saw someone new, or went out, on the basis that he usually got something! Lots of small matchbox or similar cars trucks and similar items, as well as clothes, pyjamas, Cars backpack (or schoolbag), water bottle, barrel of monkeys and of course Buzz and Spiderman Mr Potato Head.

Even now (in March) he still really likes a model 30's Chevrolet vintage car we bought in Moonee Ponds, which he chose himself from a car and cigar shop. The doors open backwards and the dickey seat opens.

Reg was very quiet and tired for most of the holiday, but enjoyed David, and David enjoyed showing him things, and helping operate grandad's chair. David was very gentle with him, and very cautious when grandad was asleep, so as not to wake him.

David was out of the highchair on this trip and sitting having dinner with us all at the table. Generally he was sitting between grandad at his new chair, and me. One night we had takeaway roast chicken, and chips. Well, David discovered chips (in a big way). He had a few on his plate, with the rest of his dinner. He ate those, saying "chippies" over and over and then happily stole the majority of mine, off my plate and then stole grandad's chips. Chippies is a new favourite. We suspect that he has been trying a few somewhere else recently, because when I tried him with them months previously he said he didn't like them!

That is all for now. I will try to cover more territory chronologically in the next little while.

March already & starting daycare

Well, today was David's first day at Day Care - more about what has been happening in the last few months shortly. There has been a lot happening.

It went well, but he is not sleeping well - he is yelling out at me from bed as I type this.

David went from 10.00 am to 3.00pm. He didn't eat the food, but he did have a short sleep. He liked the toys - he played in the sand pit, and with two fire engines and a digger. We came home to see Dad before he headed off to Brisbane and Perth for just over a week. After a long bath, a play, a DVD another play and two long books, he should be sleepy..... But perhaps not.

As well as a couple of trial visits before Christmas and one in January, we went twice last week. David went it alone for half an hour last Thursday, and had his nappy changed by one of the girls.

He is enrolled for three days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. He likes it and all the toys. We will see how long before the novelty wears off.

I am hoping to have coffee tomorrow with someone from Zurich. Wish us luck!