Birthday Boy

April 27th was Ammon's 1st birthday.
He and I spent it visiting Nana and doing grocery shopping, exciting stuff! Our only plans for his birthday was dinner with his grandparents and a little cake to follow. He demolished the cake quite well after putting his finger in the candle flame(!)...

and seemed quite taken with his Thomas the tank engine from Aunty Yvette.I can't believe he is one now, that we've had him for a whole year. The time has gone fast and except for the lack of sleep I've loved it all.

Ammon now weighs 11.0kg and is 78cm tall. At the same age Emerson was 9.9kg & 81.5cm and Leah was 9.4kg & 77.4cm. Here is the three of them at age 1 (Em on bike, Leah eating cake).

Cousins

The girls got to spend a night each with Brooke/Elisa and Ryan/Logan and they had a fab time. I asked them what their favourite part of the holiday was and their response:
Leah - the beach and Lollipops Playland
Emerson - the spa, mini putt and McDonalds (with Papa on the way home)
You can see pics here.

It was a good way to do it not sending them to the same house at the same time, then they didn't fight over who got to play with that cousin or get left out from the play altogether.
Ammon even got to have a holiday with a night at Nanny's. He is teething again, his third tooth finally arrived during the week and number four is on it's way too.

Nate took the girls to the ANZAC dawn service this morning followed by a pancake breakfast with the youth at the chapel. Now they are settling down to play with Ryan's train set we have borrowed. Leah is very keen on trains. Must get that from her Papa.

Home again

Well we made it home last night after picking up Ammon from Mum's (thank you so much for dinner Mum!) and all went to bed early. The girls were fast asleep at 7pm, Ammon at 8pm, myself around 8.30pm and Nate sometime after that.

We arrived at Hospital at 9am Sunday, but she didn't get her medicine till 12pm. Each dose is 6 hours apart so she couldn't have another one that day hence not alot happened. She amused herself with colouring, reading, watching movies, playing games, admiring her viewand watching the older girls in her room and wishing she could "hang" with them but they weren't too interested in a younger girl hanging around. She was not allowed to eat before her medicine and after that could only have sugar-free juice, diabetic jelly and strained soup. She was so hungry! Of course there was no way I was going to eat in front of her so I fasted most of Sunday and had something to eat when she was asleep or visiting with family. Her visitors were Nanny, Papa, Daddy, Jennie, Ammon and Leah.

We shared her bed (so much better than the lazyboy!) and dealt with her throwing up at 2am.

Monday medicine arrived at 8am and the playroom opened at 9am so she spent the entire morning in there doing art and craft. She loved it. She couldn't handle anymore soup or jelly so decided not to eat anything on Monday and was thrilled when Papa brought her some sprite-zero that she could drink - a new flavour. The playroom closed at lunchtime but they gave her a tray of things to do in her room for the afternoon. Next medicine was at 1pm and things finally started happening. The doc came in at 4pm and said we could go home and to continue at home as we have been doing all along. You should have seen her face when the doc said she could eat now!! My goodness, such delight!! She has been eating since.

So we are sticking close to home today in case her medicine still affects her, but tomorrow Emerson and Leah are off on holiday to their cousins. They are so excited.

Eggs, Penguins, Doctors and Smiles

We've had a great Easter weekend!
It started Thursday night when we helped the Easter Bunny set up the Easter Egg Hunt, and it's lucky we did because the girls were ready at 7am to go egg hunting. There was great excitement and delight when the girls discovered that EB had left them money in their eggs instead of chocolates or toys (about 20-30c per egg). It meant they could go visit DADDY'S EASTER SHOP and buy the chocolates they wanted. It also meant Mummy gets to eat what wasn't purchased - yay for me! It showed us that Emerson goes for the biggest prize while Leah's is based on colour. They were very happy with what they were able to buy. The rest of the day was a very lazy one at home while Daddy went to ride his motorbike in Tokoroa.

Saturday was family day with a trip to Kelly Tarlton's. The girls LOVED it!! Immensely.

Leah is just fascinated by sharks and it was the only thing she really wanted to see. Emerson really enjoyed the penguin ride and both girls shrieked when the killer whale popped out of the ocean. Very funny. Ammon's favourite part was probably the games room where he could hang out with his little penguin friends and explore as he wished. Fortunately he didn't get squashed as he crawled under the turtle research submarine while Mum and Dad weren't watching!! The stingrays were a hit and I really liked the coral reef tank. It was a great time.

Sunday was church. The girls wanted to share the Easter Nests we had made on Friday with their teachers and a few friends so that was enjoyed by many. I guess the momentous event of the day came at the end when Nan offered to have the kids for the night so we could have a full nights sleep. Well... so I could have a full nights sleep (my husband has fantastic sleeping abilities, he can sleep through anything - even a small boy screaming his head off a few times a night). It was Ammon's first night away from me and apparently was a great success for him but really, he may as well have stayed home for all the sleep I got that night. I guess I'm just too used to waking that my body didn't know it was allowed to stay in dreamland. Ah well... it made me decide to wean Ammon off the night time feed so that's a good thing - for me. Freedom....!!!

Monday we could have slept in, but when you can you don't, and when you can't you want to. We did a few jobs before the kids came home and Mum and I went off to a wedding. The first one I have been to where you take your own picnic and blanket. All they supplied was the cake and drink. It was great. Very relaxed. The bride went from blanket to blanket and got to try everyone's food while she visited. Mind you she didn't get much from us, we took Subway (too lazy to cook). The evening rounded off with Nate's family coming over for an impromptu dinner. The cousins really don't spend enough time together.

Today is Tuesday. The kids had photos done at Pixifoto - very quick and easy with plenty of smiles at the ready. Of course they turned a little downcast with one big girl after I told her she has to go to the hospital on Sunday. She really does not want to go but she will. We've also had a nit-combing session today. I really don't know where the girls bring them home from! Takes ages and the girls hate having to sit so still. I still need to think about dinner and tonight we have our tithing settlement interview.

What a busy weekend but it's been good and I survived. Lets see how the rest of the school holidays go....

Will you cross your fingers too?

Emerson had her check up today at the childrens clinic at the hospital. It's been two years since she had her surgery, she came home easter weekend 2007 and hobbled around making an easter egg hunt for her family.

The memory brings anguish to my heart and tears to my eyes. My poor girl - all that she has had to go through. I just want it finished for her! It has been a really hard road for her, for me, for her Daddy. So much frustration, so many times when we should have been easier on her... it just feels endless. I wish I could take it away from her, she's had to endure it for too long now.

Her visit today may result in a hospital stay during the holidays. That may not be a bad thing. She will hate it, but this time it won't be invasive or painful, she won't be poked and prodded or drugged out of her mind. I won't have to watch my baby in pain or cry at her bedside and maybe, just maybe this might fix it all.

Gosh I wish I had more fingers to cross.

Back to Work

I've had two days back at work now and it's almost like being at a new job all together rather than returning to one. Although I do know how to do everything and I've remembered most things pretty well, there is still the uncertainty that I am actually doing it all correctly.
Fortunately it is fairly quiet there right now so it's been a good way to ease into being back there. At the same time, it is a bit too quiet and I sit there twiddling my thumbs at times. I spent yesterday just cleaning out my area and doing alot of filing and making room and throwing away the unnecessary. It has been asked that we volunteer to help others in the office if we have the time, but I'm just getting used to my job again so I'm not going to offer to help someone else just yet.
Of course I'll probably be back into the swing of things completely in a week or two but for now I plan to cruise along and find my feet again.

I miss Ammon. I don't think he misses me though. He's been having a fabulous time with his Nan playing outside and inside and going for walks. When I came home yesterday he was happy to see me but wanted to go straight back to Nanny. Mmm... nice to see you too son.

So it's taking some organizing now on the mornings that I work and can get a little frantic if we're running late. It's not going to get much easier coming into winter, I mean really - who wants to get out of bed on a foggy and cold Waikato morning?? Oh it's gonna be fun...