Now We Are Five

 Emily's last day of kindergarten was Friday the 15th of April. Her birthday was the next day, the first day of the holidays, so she has a bit of a wait before she starts school.

 At Em's kindy they have a wee celebration for the children who are going off to school. (For those of you unfamiliar with the NZ system, Kindergarten here is for preschoolers from about ages 3-5. Ours still has the traditional sessions, with the littlest attending 3 sessions a week from 1.15 to 3.15 pm. The bigger kids attend up to 5 mornings a week, from 8.30am to 12.30pm.)

 The birthday kid gets to choose their favourite book to share. Em chose Wonky Donkey, and they all sang along to the CD. They also choose their favourite learning story to share, and Em's was called Emily Creates. They make and decorate a playdough 'cake' and blow out the candles, and the child leaving gives the kindy a present if they choose. Em gave the kindy a Slinky Malinki book and some decorations for the kids to use with the hot glue gun.

 Then they sing Happy Birthday, and the birthday girl got to bring her profile books home to keep.

Saturday morning was the main event. Marked by present opening and some bad behaviour from the child concerned.

 The brothers were very generous and even helpful. This did not improve her mood.

 The friends arrived, and there was a lot of pink involved.

 We were having a tea party, so we decorated cupcakes. I ended up making the icing with 6 little helpers, which wasn't in the plan, but ended safely.

 Even the boys were keen to have a go, just not using the pink icing.

 The food went down a treat, although some little girls had eyes larger than their stomachs, and some food evidently looked good, but was not fit for human consumption!

 Emily caused a bit of a ruction by wanting to always sit next to one particular child who was wearing (in Em's opinion) the most beautiful dress. She's deep, my daughter.

 Then it was time for the cake. A lovely concoction created by the Daddy, who is obviously in touch with his feminine side ;)

 Then it was time for the nail polish and other girly activities. Notice the close proximity to THE DRESS.

Later on the boys had some fun with man stuff.

The next day we went to The Wiggles concert. Ben did not come, as he had informed me he was too old for that. He was not however too old to covet one of the helium balloons which came home with us.

Luke loved it, and Emily, who is usually quite shy and attaches herself to my leg at such events, ended up dancing.

We even got to meet Murray, the red Wiggle.

So all in all a big weekend. Next stop is school- not sure this mummy is ready for that. I have a week off from being a kindy mum, and then Luke starts afternoons. They're all growing up too fast- which is not what I say when they're up in the night!

Where have we been?

Well, it's been a long time. Again. Hopeless.

There's been a lot happening in our lives of course. We are nearly at the end of the first term of the school year. I have had all 3 kids in swimming lessons all term, and have to get in the pool with Luke. Love that- especially when I am the only mum in there because he is just so much shorter. Can't they get a shallower pool?!

Emily has had 3 school visits, and turns 5 in a couple of weeks. She has to wait to start school though, because her birthday is the first day of the holidays. She has had some issues with the uniform too. I can't wait- one less problem in the morning. How can you be 4 and have trouble deciding what to put on every day? Also, how come she is surprised to see that the uniform top is jade green? Ben has been wearing the uniform every week day for 5 terms now, so surely she must have noticed at some point? Apparently not, because the very idea of trying on a top of THAT COLOUR caused a meltdown in the shop the other day.

Ben has had Rippa Rugby games for the past five weeks, and now Saturday soccer starts for the winter today. Luke is now not keen on sitting in the buggy for an entire game, (not that he was too keen on that last winter either), so I will have to chase him off the field repeatedly. He loves soccer, and I know he just wants to join in. Ben is also going through a Harry Potter phase, so often has a lightning bolt scar drawn across his forehead.

Luke is coming on in leaps and bounds. His latest sentence was a very clear "I love you". Although it was preceded by the name "Ella", who is the naughty dog. I'm pretty sure he didn't learn that sentence from her, so she is on half rations for stealing my thunder ;)

We have missed a couple of therapy sessions due to the Christchurch earthquake. I was teaching that day, and mum had Em and Luke in Christchurch with her, so once we realised the severity of the situation it was a nervous wait for an hour or so until we heard from them as the phone systems were down. They had been shopping and were in a pet shop looking at the fish, and mum said she was worried the tanks were going to fall down on them. Luckily they were on the east side of the city, where the damage was not too bad, and were able to bundle the kids into the car and out of town, straight home. Phew.

Some of Luke's therapists have lost their homes. Mum's place had very minor damage, but lots of the neighbour's homes are uninhabitable. We had Mum and Chris staying with us the first few nights as there were no services on, and then had my step-sister Kate and her partner Kerry visit, as well as Luke's friend Aidan's family overnight. All have suffered considerable damage to their homes, but luckily were unhurt. So things are beginning to return to normal, but the damage to their houses (in Kate and Kerry's case, a new house is needed) is going to take a long time to sort out, and there is a lot of uncertainty for them.

Luke is due to start kindy next month. He is entitled to some teacher aide support at Playcentre/kindy from when he turned 3, but this hasn't worked out and has been pretty stressful to sort out. The person organising it hasn't been very organised, so when I started asking last year was told it was too soon. But surprise surprise, when the term began back, two weeks after Luke's 3rd birthday, I still hadn't been contacted. Annoying. Then while I was waiting to hear back about when the meeting with the teacher aide and Playcentre etc was, I was working at a fundraiser for the Playcentre when a woman there announced to us all that she was going to be working at our centre with a little boy called Luke, starting from the Monday. I do not like surprises, and so poor Neil had to deal with that when I got home at 11.45 pm. Hopefully things are sorted now, and so when he starts kindy things will be in place.

I also became an aunty on my side of the family for the first time, with Samuel being born (my brother's son). Unfortunately they live in the UK so it will be a while before I get to meet him.



Baby Sam



I have also been closely following the journey of a friend I met through UpsideofDowns (not in person yet, but hopefully one day). Bridget often leaves lovely comments on my blog, and tells funny stories about her son Pete. Pete is 7, apparently very naughty- hard to believe as he has the face of an angel- and had DS. Pete has been battling leukaemia for several years, and was in remission at the end of last year. Unfortunately it has returned and he is in the fight of his life. He is one tough cookie, and so is his mum, so please spare them a thought. We have been so lucky with Luke's health so far.

As you can see, some things never change!

The Birthday

 What could be better than Elmo wrapping paper?

 A fire engine in Elmo paper, of course!

 Yay!

 And a fire station from Mummy and Daddy.

 More pressies- super yay!

 Party time

Checking out the cake Daddy made and iced :)

 Aidan steals the show with his cheeky smile.

As you can see, he's a real pro at blowing out the candles. And Aidan is all set for his turn in a couple of months.

Happy birthday our lovely Luke!



Toilet Training

We have made a start. Luke has been happy to sit on the toilet for a while now, and occasionally did a wee. But seeing as it's summer, Neil is home on holiday, and Luke is nearly 3 I decided it was time to bite the bullet and go for it.

We started with putting him on the potty right before he got into the bath. This was mainly because he would often get in and wee right away. But I noticed that if I put him on the potty at any other time of day, he would try to get undressed first. Around that time I read another blog where a gorgeous wee boy was getting naked every time (very cute), as well as a mum of an adult with DS mention that she knows of a couple of adults with DS who do the same- the key for them being to make sure that the door is locked! So I decided on a change of plan. No more weeing in the nude before the bath, and we now just use the toilet. Start as we mean to go on.

Things have been going pretty well. We have just gone straight to undies and shorts, which means I have to do lots of loads of washing during the day. Today is day 5. So far Luke has progressed from wetting every few minutes (very tempting to go back into pull-ups) to much longer periods of time- up to an hour or so. He has gone from having no idea of when he is going or is wet to holding himself and sometimes coming to show us. Occasionally he has come and taken us to the toilet. He is definitely more aware of what is happening, because his pull-ups are so absorbent that he just had no idea. Having him in undies gives him that feedback.

We are also working on teaching him how to pull his pants up and down. This means occasionally he takes them off and appears without them, but we are getting there!

It would be easy to give up, but I am seeing progress, so for now we will keep going.

Health-wise Luke is well as it is summer, so fewer bugs and things about. He had been getting up anywhere from 5.45 to 6.15am, and that is not so popular when the whole family is on holiday. For Christmas one of his presents was a monkey sleep training clock, which my other kids got for the previous Christmas. He was rapt, and it is working pretty well. When Luke goes to bed we close the monkey's eyes, and the monkey wakes up at the time you set the alarm for. This is either quietly or it plays a jungle theme. Luke loves it and on the mornings he is up before the alarm, one of us goes and lies with him until the monkey wakes up. He definitely knows what's going on and looks at the clock expectantly until the monkey, or 'key' as he calls it, wakes up. Then he's up like a shot!

We had an appointment with the ENT before Christmas. I had requested an appointment just to check him out last winter as he was always full up and is a bit of a snorer at times. I know this is an issue for our kids. Neil looked at me when I was going on about it, thinking that he wasn't that bad, but I was determined to get to see and ENT, so a little exaggeration wasn't going to hurt. Luke also failed his hearing test earlier in the year, but his ears are full of wax.  How anyone can hear properly like that is beyond me. So I finally got my appointment, and went along with Luke and Emily in tow. The doctor (not a talkative one) looked in his throat and ears. I told him about the hearing test (luckily I had taken the letter from the audiologist with me) and then announced he needed tonsils out (huge and blocking 3/4 of his throat), adenoids out (didn't look but could tell they are big by Luke's breathing sounds), and he will clear out his ears and insert grommets if needed. Apparently he has so much wax in there that it would hurt to even put the instrument in properly to look.

This took all of 5 minutes. I was speechless, which takes some doing. I couldn't even think of any sensible questions to ask. So we are now waiting for an appointment for the op. I am really cross when I think of all the times I have taken him to the GP with a cold and they look in his ears and tell me he's fine or that he has one ear blocked with wax, but they think he's fine. Turns out, he's not. I will be saying something the next time I am in there. Luckily there is one doctor at our practice (not our GP but I can make an appointment to see him instead) who had a sister with a different trisomy, so has an interest in kids with DS who will be a bit better at handling these kind of things.

Emily's cast comes off on Wednesday, which will be great for her. It's not much of a summer when you can't get around very well and have to wear a cover swimming.

Luke turns 3 in 3 more sleeps. Can't quite believe it. He will start afternoon kindergarten in Term 2, at the same time as Emily starts school. They are growing up so fast.

Photo Fest

Well, what can I say. We have been busy, and I have been slack. So the only thing to do is get back on the horse.

In December we went to the local Down Syndrome Association Christmas Party, which was put on by a cricket club for us. I don't know why, but it was a lovely place, and we had fun. There were pony rides and a lolly scramble, a barbecue and tea and scones, and of course Santa and presents.

 Emily does not 'do' Santa. Firstly he is a man. Secondly he is a stranger. Thirdly he has a beard. So her rep (Ben) passed the gift on to her. She does 'do' presents.

 Luke does 'do' Santa. In a big way. Firstly he is a man. Secondly he is a stranger. Thirdly he has a beard.

 Santa kindly gave Luke a whistle. A loud whistle. Luke is good at blowing whistles long and loud. I can't think where that whistle has got to, but yes, it did make it home.

 We also went to the Special Children's Party, against my better judgement. We won't be going again, but Luke had fun. Only fitting that Luke Skywalker had his photo taken with some storm troopers.

 Luke and Aidan with the fire engine. This was about 10 seconds before Aidan went missing. He was found heading for the exit. My thoughts exactly Aidan.

 Luke and the fireman. Need I say more?

 Santa and a couple of fans.

 Christmas eve. You may notice Luke is eating a Christmas mince pie. We narrowly avoided a riot, as we had more. Luke thought Santa didn't need any more treats, judging by the look of his waistline. The other kids disagreed.

 Luke has mastered the skill of ripping open presents. This will come in handy on his birthday next week.

 His favourite present.

 4 pairs of Disney princess shoes and a mermaid outfit. What more could a girl want?

 A pink scooter of course!

 And a bear with a tutu!

 Just because he's cute.

 And cheeky!

 Guess who broke her leg on the 30th? On the new million-dollar trampoline that is 'The world's only safe trampoline'. Which replaced the old unsafe trampoline, with a record number of zero serious injuries in the 5 years we have owned it.

 Guess who likes candy canes?

 We went swimming.

 Luke learned exactly how deep the water can be to safely sit down in. The hard way.

Emily modelling the latest beach chic.

Coming soon: health update and toilet training progress. Not for the faint hearted.