Spring has Sprung!

 Last Monday we went on a trip with Playcentre to a local garden which is open for viewing, and for weddings in case any of you are interested ;)

This church was moved here from its original site, which was out in the country near Neil's school. 

 Emily and Luke testing out the pews.



 Luke's new pastime is running...away.

 The main event- the daffodils. I love them!

 Emily was not keen on posing for the camera and Luke refused to get out of the buggy.

 We also got to feed some Highland Cattle, which Luke LOVED.

 He would still be there if he had his way.

He was also pretty keen on the owner's vintage car collection. Again had to be dragged away...

On the medical front, his thyroid and coeliacs retests came back normal, and he does not have the coeliacs gene. I don't know how that changes the risk that seems to increase with DS, but less than 10% of people with coeliacs don't have the gene, so it's definitely in our favour. Not that it's the end of the world if he did have it, just that three kids are difficult to feed sometimes already...

Eyes in the Back of My Head

I was running the bath tonight, and I left the bathroom to get the kids' pjs ready. I lock the door from the outside, so a certain someone doesn't fall into the bath. I came back and unlocked the door, and this is what I found.

On the positives, he now has good wrist rotation- evidenced by his ability to turn the lock, and good finger strength. It's not easy to open the lock from the outside.

SO no more leaving the bathroom while I run the bath.

Poor Ben is not well, with a sore throat and temp since Friday. I think it is tonsillitis, but the Dr did not, and after some pressure from me he took a swab. No results yet, but if he is still unwell tomorrow we will be going back. He was having an iceblock to help soothe his throat.

This little brother copies everything his big brother does. Luke is not keen on cold foods like icecream, and has only occasionally tasted the odd bite, and wouldn't even consider an iceblock until he saw Ben having one last night. Then he was at the freezer opening the door and helping himself! He did really well and ate almost the entire thing.

As you can see, he has the perfect tongue for licking an iceblock!

Please Help Our Friends the Bearsley Family

Our friends the Bearsley family need your help. They are in a competition to win a new kitchen, and need you to vote for them. They are part of the DS community- their third child Jono (3) has DS as well as multiple other medical problems, including heart surgery as a young baby, coeliacs disease, drinking issues, and bouts of pneumonia and bronchialitis.

Their kitchen is plain dangerous especially with 4 young children in it, so please follow this link and vote. They are #8.

Thanks so much.

The Shaky Isles

We were woken at 4.35am by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. I heard it coming and jumped up and got Luke out of bed, and stood with him in Emily's doorway. I could see she was ok, and she woke up and came to us. Neil was slightly slower- "What's going on?"- and grabbed Ben down from his bed (he sleeps in a mezzanine bunk thing) and came to the doorway too.

The earthquake seemed to go on forever and was very rocky and it made a loud rumbling noise, like a truck. The big kids were pretty scared, and Luke was just grumpy that we'd woken him up! We all jumped into our bed once it was over- next time we get a new bed, it needs to be bigger ;) Luke was grizzling and carrying on, so after the first few aftershocks I put him back to bed. The others were still scared and the aftershocks kept coming for the rest of the night. In fact we have just had another as I sit here, and it's 5pm. I felt bad putting Luke to bed but he was perfectly safe and I am just on the other side of the wall from him. I thought about how it would look if anything happened to any of us and the 4 of us were together and the little one with DS was not- would look a bit suspicious, but that's not the case at all. He is the one I went for first because he is the littlest.

Anyway we have not had any damage, but my step-sister and her partner's house has been damaged, with the concrete floor buckling and the walls having big cracks through them. The lines in the centre of their street are now wiggly I've been told and there are cracks in the road and driveway. We live an hour away from Christchurch, so luckily we have less damage than they do. Mum and Chris had no power all morning, and as it snowed there yesterday it was pretty cold. The sun came out today though, so that warmed everyone up.

You can see some of the damage here if you haven't already: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4094986/Army-wanted-in-quake-hit-Canterbury

We haven't had much sleep since the earthquake hit, so there are some very tired kids and parents here- think it'll be an early night for us all.

The Tooth Fairy Pays Her First Visit

Ben has had slightly wiggly teeth for a while now, but being a bit of a wimp like his uncle (not naming any names David!) hadn't really had much of a go at getting any out. The Dental Nurse gave him a check up at school just a couple of weeks ago, which he passed no trouble.

Then I discovered his next tooth had appeared behind the front bottom baby teeth. Nice. I have a shark for a son. So the front baby tooth must go, I told Ben. I had a go myself but no joy. We decided to wait for Dad to get home with the pliers and promptly forgot all about it.

The next day Mum came to look after the kids while I went to work. Except they were all sick, so I stayed home and she helped me out. In the afternoon I went to the supermarket alone (bliss!) and got a text from Mum. The tooth had come out and there was a need for tooth fairy funds!

The story goes like this:

Ben has a book called Goodnight and Thanks for the Teeth which contains a list of prices the Tooth Fairy pays for different types of teeth, taking condition into account. For example a clean incisor is worth $2, where a dirty one is only worth $1.50. There is also a list of conditions of removal, for example money off if the tooth is lost in a skateboarding accident, or extra money if it comes out by being attached with a length of cotton to the door. Ben, being the shrewd businessman that he is, but also not brave, decided that the $2 was sufficient and the ways to get more looked too painful for him. So he got a tissue, gave the tooth a tug, and out it came.

So here he is minus his first tooth. You can see the new one in behind, so no real gap.

So the tooth went under the pillow that night, and in the morning it was gone and a $2 coin in its place. He came running into our room all excited, because he saw a tooth on the floor and thought the Tooth Fairy had dropped it by accident. Turned out to be a shell!

He rang Nana to tell her the good news, and told her all about how he'd seen the Tooth Fairy flying around his room because he was only pretending to be asleep, and how her wings were shiny and see-through.

He has imagination, that's for sure ;)