Sore Heart

Hearts are a funny thing aren’t they? Rather strange but in a good way. They are the core to your soul in more ways then one. They keep you alive and they keep you living – by living, I mean living in the sense of love, fulfilment and joy.

Yesterday afternoon my father in law had a heart attack. He came home from voting complaining of chest pains. They (my mother and father in law) went straight to hospital – apparently the cheeky bugger had had chest pains for a little while! At hospital they wasted no time in hooking him up to the machines wherein it was noted he was in the grip of a heart attack and it wasn’t a mild heart attack either. Apparently it was a major one. He is 56 years old!!!

Trevor was in a bit of a state as one could imagine and rushed to the hospital to see his dad. Byron didn’t quite understand what was going on. He wanted to go and see Poppy but sadly that was not appropriate. I stayed home with the kids.

Currently, ‘Poppy’ is doing ok. He is in the ICU hooked up to machines but doing well. He has to stay in for another week for monitoring and tests. Fingers crossed all goes well and he will be home and well within the week.

I pray that things will be ok with Trevor’s dad. He has been through a few health issues this past year – prostate cancer being number one. He got through that, so no doubt he can fight this too. I hope for a speedy recover and that his heart gives him no more trouble.

The one thing I have noticed about getting older is that I worry more about my parents and their mortality. As you get older so do your parents. The thought of something happening to them frightens the bejesus out of me, really it does. I simply prefer not to think such things.

No Such Luck!

There was the threat of a storm last night and the threat of rain today. The darn sky never delivered on either threat which just plain sucks. It sucks because, despite the hope something might have been done, the builder’s stayed away. I hate the thought that two perfect days were wasted; wasted for nothing. At least if it had of rained it wouldn’t seem as bad – at least I could curse the weather and not the builder. At the moment I feel like every sunny day has to be made the most of, especially when rain is forecast for the coming days and months.

Disclaimer: You’ve probably noticed a lot of focus of late on my lovely patch of dirt. You see, I’m desperate for things to get cracking. Please ignore my ramblings. My only excuse being I'm completely and utterly over the whole process...I want it to start and my patience has long since gone.

Hand, Foot and Mouth

On Tuesday kindy rang to tell me I would have to come and get Lily because she had a few little blisters on her feet and one on her hand. They thought she might have hand, foot and mouth (not the cow version – the children’s version). They had sent another baby home that day whom they were positive had it. It wasn’t looking good! I jumped straight on the phone and made an urgent doctor’s appointment. Luckily for me they were accommodating.

Being unable to get a hold of Trevor (close to his finishing time – but that’s a whole other story) I had to pack up, yet again, and go and get my baby. Lucky for me I have a reasonable employer who is happy (for want of a better word) to let me leave and work from home when I need to. I know that is neither here no there when talking sick kids but it does make things a little less stressful and easier to manage for me.

When I picked her up she was sleeping soundly. Meanwhile, the carers in the babies’ room were busily disinfecting and cleaning madly in the hope they could curb some outbreak. They showed me Lily’s feet – there was a grand old total of 3 blisters on her feet, nothing in her mouth and I could not see anything on her hands. Nevertheless, they thought she had it and who was I to argue.

My visit to the doctor shed no light. The doctor could not confirm whether she was infected at all, so we had to make another appointment for Wednesday and watch over night to see if she had developed any more blisters.

So we watched...and we watched...and NOTHING!

Not a single new blister – nothing. We thought for sure she would get the all clear. To our surprise, a different doctor on Wednesday thought she might have a mild case and therefore she would have to stay at home until the blisters dried up.

The blisters are minute – that is the two she has (one on each heel) are barely noticeable. It's amazing how two doctors can make completely separate diagnosis’. We have made another appointment for her on Saturday to get the all clear. Finger’s crossed for then.

In the meantime, we have been lucky and managed to juggle Lily’s ailment so I don’t have to have yet another day off work. My mother in law had her this morning until she had to go to work. Then it was off to visit Nanna at work for an hour or two until Daddy finished work at lunch time. The same process tomorrow...I have no doubt Lily loves all the attention.

Poor little Lily seems to pick up more bugs then what Byron ever did. She seems more susceptible. I wonder if she will grow out of it sooner rather then later. Byron is a trooper now. He has had barely a day off kindy through illness this year, which for a working mother is fantastic...makes things much easier to manage.

Wooohooo!!!

We have progress. More progress. Not a huge amount, but progress all the same. I’m delighted.

(See the wood???? Progress!!!)

I spoke to the builder today and he said they have earmarked tomorrow and Friday to do the foundations/footings so long as it doesn’t rain. According to him they will not dig trenches if there is a chance they will fill up with water. So, I’m praying we don’t get much rain and/or storms for the next few weeks.

If all goes to plan (read: no rain) on Tuesday they hope to do the plumbing and electrical work and *drum roll* they have booked the concreters to lay the slab on Thursday the 29th.

Things seem to be moving along now....one step closer. Wooohooo!!!

In other good news, we got our car back today. Three weeks after the dear bus driver took her bus on a bit of a detour into...ummm...a few parked cars! There were some dilemmas with the excess. The repairer rang and informed me they had not received authority to waive the excess so there would be a fee when we pick it up. Needless to say I wasn’t impressed at all. Five phone calls later (and a claims officer telling me, an insurance lawyer, that people – meaning me – some times don’t understand the insurance process! *cough* *cough* I soon put him in his place) things were sorted.

I’m impressed with the car. It looks great – nice and shiny. I must say, if there is anything good to come out of this, it’s the lovely cut, polish and detail - inside and out - my car received. It smells delicious except for the paint.

In other not so good news, it seems Lily has a mild case of hand, foot and mouth but I'll save that interesting news for tomorrow. I don't want to spoil the wooohooo factor of today!

A Day of Breakthrough

Today has been a glorious day so far. Byron played brilliantly at soccer this morning. By that I mean he participated. He participated for the whole hour only popping off to get some water. He looked liked he had a great time out there. We thought last week would end much the same as it had the previous weeks. He refused to go on for the first half of soccer until this lovely chap played some ball activities with him on the sideline, eventually coaxing him out to participate with the other kids wherein he scored a goal – a mini breakthrough.

It seems that same chap was coaching the littlies this week due to the normal coach being away. I’m not sure if Byron just felt more comfortable with the coach of the week but whatever it was, I'm just so happy he gave it a go. Fingers crossed he has adopted more of a 'can do' attitude to soccer.

In other splendid news...THE LOT HAS BEEN ‘CUT’!!!!!!!!!!

It was the most magical thing to see (especially in pouring rain). As I drove there today I thought for sure nothing would be different. I was so over the moon to see something had been done. I am so relieved things are finally starting albeit at a snail's pace. Can you believe it is raining again here today? I just can’t get over this weather. I wonder if we will have some plumbing next Saturday...hmmmm.

Story Time

I thought I would share a little bit of useless information...Lily, being the clever girl she is, can blow her nose. I could scarcely believe it when I put a tissue to her nose the other day and said “blow”. She did exactly that! She blew her nose like a very big girl. I still struggle with Byron when it comes to blowing his nose. He just doesn’t seem to have the knack. Lily on the other hand is an old hat; it’s like she has been doing it forever!

There is one thing Lily isn’t too good at and that is reading books. Not reading in the literal sense of course because she is far too young for that. I’m talking about listening and relaxing whilst mummy reads a story. I have tried on many occasions to read books to her, so much so that I have lost count. But alas, she won’t have a bar of it. One page through the book (any kind of book) and she is off. She just doesn’t seem to be interested at all.

Her kindy carer advised me a few weeks ago that Lily doesn’t have the greatest attention span (she was speaking in consideration of her age). She doesn’t like to focus on things for very long periods, and this includes story time. I know she is young and I am not expecting her to sit back whilst I read countless chapters of Harry Potter. I’m thinking more along the lines of say ‘Spot’. Byron was a lover of books and still is. I could read 10 stories to him when he was around Lily’s age and he would be content to listen to 20 more.

I have wondered if Lily’s lack of interest in books is the result of my time poor lifestyle and the fact I didn’t read many books to her when she was a young baby like I did with Byron. I guess that’s the thing with the first born – it seems you have all the time in the world to do all that fun stuff. For me, it was a case of trying to continue with the routine of reading books with Byron that Lily kinda feel out of the mix. Being a little baby, she wasn’t ‘interested’ in the kind of stories I would be reading with Byron. We generally do (behaviour permitting) stories with Byron before bed but sadly, and I’m embarrassed to say, Lily doesn’t fair in that experience. Every time we have tired, she has mucked around, crawled off and shown no interest at all that it has become distractive for Byron, so we gave up.

Maybe that’s why she just doesn’t seem to like books – there wasn’t enough exposure!?? *bows head in disgrace*

I’m going to make more of a concerted effort with books and Lily. I know there is nothing more frustrating then trying to read a story to a child that is hardly interested in a word you have to say but nevertheless I will persevere and see how it goes. I thought I might try reading her a story while she has her bottle at night – when things are calm.

Tomorrow night, I think I’ll try 'Spot' with the hope that one day she might enjoy the reading experience of 'Where is the Green Sheep', Byron’s most treasured toddler story (and secretly one of mine).

Sickness and stuff

I've had another bout of the good ol' viral bug these last few days. I felt dreadful yesterday. I hobbled off to work for half the day because I had an urgent piece of work to get out, before coming home to bed, which is pretty much where I stayed until this morning. Thankfully it was ‘Grandma’ day yesterday so my not so well children didn’t have to go to kindy.

I can’t believe my run of bad lack this year. Whilst not as bad as the first winter after Byron was born (which was dreadful) I think I'm still entitled to put up my hand and say I've had my fair share of colds. Similarly, Lily would have to do the same. Byron has not done too badly except for this week’s bug. Trevor, a.k.a ‘superman’ as he would call himself, hasn’t had any remanence of a cold for quite a while. He likes to brag about that fact..."when I get sick...oh wait that never happens...". Hmmm, me thinks he better touch some wood before he gets bitten on the bum.

Moving on from anything viral, the car is still getting fixed. It has been 2 weeks and they have said another week and we should have it. Meanwhile, I’m getting too used to driving around in my brand new hire car. So used to it in fact, that I might have to keep it (he he he).