a post full of things I want to remember always

firstly.... yesterday was Ailish's 10th birthday so we all went up to her house for dinner (burgers were awesome Kristie, thanks). We had just finished dinner & the kids were all running around when all of a sudden there is a crash & Olivia has tripped over *NOTHING* & her head has broken her fall by colliding with a metal suitcase (you know, the ones that your ancestors took to war...). We all jumped up & Neil was the first to reach her. Apon inspection of her forehead it was obvious that we would be leaving & on our way to the ER very shortly.

So we left the party & took ourselves down to Womens & Childrens hospital where we were seen straight away in a "see & treat" area where they literally glued her skin back together & we were on our way back home.

I was really proud of her. Despite the fact that she would not allow me to touch her head to even mop up the blood & the fact that she screamed ALL the way down the freeway right until she started to fall asleep when we were just about there, she let all the nurses & Dr's have a look & fix up her wound. We were sceptical & warned everyone to expect the worst so they brought in an extra nurse to hold her down if they needed too. But it wasnt needed in the end. I lay on the bed with her & 1 nurse lightly held her face still while the Doc applied the glue. She was soo brave.

See that tongue... she sticks it out when she concentrates, just like her Dad.

So, while we were waiting for the nurse to come back in the room last night we were singing songs & playing games to distract Olivia. Olivia & I were clapping and Xander decided that looked like fun & started clapping too. It was the first time he has managed to co-ordinate his hands enough to do it. It was a bit exciting & we were all suitably impressed. (I wish I had a photo of it).

The last thing (for now) I want to remember always is this:

I hope its obvious who wrote it.... She did it this evening while I was preparing dinner. It was the first time she has written her own name all by herself (can you see the little l between the O & i). We have been practising for a little while & although I had written it out for her to copy she really didnt refer to it. She loves being able to write her name & gets so excited when I suggest that we practice. i love it!!!

another time maybe...

2 days before I was due to fly off to New York I went to the docs, Xander's nose had been very mildly runny that week & I wanted to make sure he was OK before we went to the states. Well as it turns out he had an ear infection & the docs recommendation was that I not risk the 28.5 hour flight so that was the end of that trip.

So I missed.... the inflight movies, the experience of an entirely new (to me) continent & country, wearing a bathrobe at a heated rooftop bar, a broadway show, central park zoo, times square & I dont even want to know what else.

Instead I.... got to have mothers day with BOTH my kids, celebrated Lolly's 4th birthday, got to see my friend raising money for charity by standing in underwear in a shop window (very modest I promise), made sure that Lolly got to have kindy photos

This photo was taken the day before we were meant to fly out, (ignore the horrible pink slipper in the background), notice how he doesnt even have the decency to look sick!!!!

Happy 4th Birthday my first born love

Yesterday, 12th May, my baby girl turned 4. She celebrated the day with many of her favourite things, an early morning bike ride (on a brand new bike), a morning at kindy (with a marshmallow caterpillar to share), a picnic in Botanic Gardens with Nana, Grandad & Auntie Mandi (with the requested giraffe cake), followed by an afternoon at the zoo (where the 2 wombats were the star attraction).

This last year has been a big one for her, she has firstly adjusted to being in childcare full time, followed by being home full time & then having her mum time rudely interrupted by a little brother who seemed to take a while to get the message about who runs the show around this place (dont worry he has learnt that lesson many times over now). The introduction of Xander to this family was initially welcomed but after the honeymoon period of about a week she realised he was here to stay & thats when the "issues" started. Oh not much, just pushing his head into his seat if we were going out, or pushing/hitting him when I was feeding him, or taking stuff away from him so that he didnt have anything to play with. When I think about it, Xanders place in our car is very representative of his place in Olivia's heart. Before he was born we asked her where she wanted the new baby to sit, "next to me" came the reply, once he had been here for a few weeks she demanded that he be moved so that there was space between them, once he had been here for a few months the request came to move him back. The other day I caught them sitting silently holding hands. He is now firmly implanted in her heart & her in his. They do so love each other.

Her speech has come on in leaps and bounds with a long way still to go. Even at the start of this year she would miss a lot of words out of sentences and would only say the main sound in each word (generally the vowel). After a lot of work on her part she now has "d" "p" "f" "l" "t" "th" all down pat, the next thing to do it work on shortening the gaps between that sound & the rest of the word. But progress is progress and I am so proud of her every day.

Kindy is the other big thing this past year. She started in Jan & has been excited to go every day since. Within the first few weeks she was invited to an exclusive party by a girl at kindy & that gave me so much hope for her time there. It took her an entire term to really get comfortable enough to start talking (even to the adults) but now even the kids have told me "she is talking lots more now". Her eyes light up each day when she is has something to show me for time there & her "hard work" is paying off, she can almost write her own name unassisted & she drew an animal for the first time the other day which had a definate head, body, legs, eyes & mouth. It was the day of her birthday so she was also able to show Neil her fantastic drawing & that was her present to us for the day. I am a little anxious at the thought that she may get into a special speech & language kindy program for term 4 and then have to more centres and build brand new relationships only to do it again 3 terms later for school but hopefully the benefits outway the anxiety.

Each day she is a gift to us and can make me laugh or cry at the flip of a coin but I dont ever want to do anything else or be anywhere else other than here with her.

Now for some photos of the day:

mastering her first "real" bike

everyone at kindy ready for some marshmallow

getting smoked out by the sparklers

  

(notice the non donkey/thyroid horse/wombat-iness of the cake this year)

We love you Lolly-girl

life is good

Xanders trick of the moment is pointing. When Neil picks him up in the morning the first thing he does is point at the door, when we put him in bed at night he points at his cot. From morning to night that boy is pointing.

Except tonight. Mum had come with us to the shops & when we got home Amy informed us that Xander had fallen asleep, turning the car off caused the interior light to come on & woke the poor little man. Just as we were saying "aaawwwww" he looked at us, grinned the biggest grin & stuck out his thumb.

Life certainly is good.

yay, all is not lost

apparently all i needed to do to get my elements back was "upgrade" my template, yippee for that button!!! now to solve the rest....

i'm just having one of those days/weeks

this week i decided that I was a bit tired of my blog look so I went looking for a different template. I found one I loved & took the plunge & used it. Well it seems that its better then devil you know.... I lost the nav bar at the top so everytime I want to "sign in" I had to go to the kitchen comfort blog & sign in from there to be able to do ANYTHING on my blog. I also tried to change the photos at the top but they were massive & all you could see was a tiny little piece of the top of each photo.

So today I decided to go have a play around to correct it & am totally regretting it. In the end I just wanted to take it back to how it used to be but now I have lost all my "elements" and cant add them back in & I cant seem to change my template again. oh man this is the last thing I need today....

I am going away on Saturday & am feeling a bit anxious about the flight with Xander & the fact that I am leaving my Lolly-girl & Ron Ron behind. I am going to miss Mother's day, Olivia's birthday & there is a good chance that Olivia will miss her first ever "school" photos because of my trip. I have found a million things this week that I should be spending the money on rather than a frivilous holiday & I feel like other aspects of my life are running out of control with no clear direction of the best way to resolve it.

to top it off, after a couple of solid months of word games I have lost motivation to play the same games twice a day with Olivia, i dont even have the energy to deal with her frustration when i try to correct her speech in conversation. She NEEDS the games & my attention for her speech to improve & she has come such a long way since Jan. however, this week mummy is starting holidays, so tv is going back on & you can eat as many "treats" as you want & drink as many warm milos that your little belly can handle.

i will deal with the consequenses of this week when i get back from NY & hopefully the week away is exactly want i need to restore motivation & get back on track with the blog & the life....

So for now blog, you have won but I promise that you have not seen the last of me!

Oh I almost forgot. I finished my first ever quilt. Olivia's first quilt was made by my Nana but she unfortunately passed away in May 2007 & so I wanted Xander to have something as well. I love it & so does he....

I could not have done it without Amelia or Kristie, fantasticly talented women to learn from, thanks.

I'm just hoping this is going to work

bear with me while I play around with my blog....