Uh Oh!!!

Well it had to happen eventually. I was brushing my teeth this morning and came downstairs and saw a lock of long hair on the carpet. No, no, no.

"Katie, come here now please! What have you done??"

She came out of the sitting room and burst into tears. She'd taken Ben's racing driver suit I'd just bought off him and between cries -

"But racing car drivers have short hair, not long hair"

I found more hair in the kitchen (and the scissors!) and brushed her hair and it kept coming. Luckily, she must have cut at the back at the crown, so it is not a complete hatchet job. You can't really tell unless you know where to look.

She kept insisting she needed short, tiny little hair like Joseph (from nursery) and I had kept insisting that she was also a princess so needed long beautiful hair. It's not that long really, just shoulder length, but I was trying to grow her fringe out.

Could have been a lot worse, for her hair and her fingers!

How they have grown

Had to be my child!

Yesterday was a bank holiday so no school/nursery and today is a teacher training day for Jack, so I had to take all 3 kids to drop Katie off for nursery this afternoon. Jack was beginning to object so I took them over to see the tadpoles and one of Katie's teachers comes over... "Now Katie, we don't put anything in the tank, do we?!" Katie then looks very sheepish. Me "What did you do??" No answer, head down and fidgeting feet. Apparently she put something in the tank on Friday and all the tadpoles died! They had only had them one day. They think she was copying another child, but I was mortified. We shall be having a talk about consequences of actions when she gets home later. She has ALWAYS had a thing for water, either pouring water or putting things in water, you have to watch her like a hawk at home. Sigh. Still, even though it was an awful thing that happened, this is the first time in 8 months of her being at nursery that I've had a bad report about her. She is still so impulsive!

Fake laugh

Ben is a little copy cat these days. He has now developed a fake laugh and cough and I'm sure he did a fake sneeze today. He sounds so cute when he does it, he's a really funny kid. He still doesn't have very many words at all and is becoming a bit creative. He had something in his mouth tonight, so came up to me, grabbed my finger and stuck it in to get it out.

He's also developing quite the tantrum - thanks to examples from big sister and brother! Since he can't walk, he just crawls around like a little puppy, shouting and yelling. He doesn't know what to do with himself when he gets in a mood - he crawled into the corner of the room, turned around and crossed the room, crawled behind a chair, circled it and then went back to the corner, lol.

The hair

You can't really see it properly in the pictures I've just posted of Ben. It is wispy at the sides but has cute little curls at the nape of his neck, so I've just kept it. He has not even had a trim in his entire life. I get hassle all the time from my mam and sister, and brother actually, to cut it. Last week when I took him to see Tony at work, 4 different people commented isn't *she* lovely. Even though he was top to toe in blue. I don't want to cut it!! He doesn't look like a girl, does he??

My little dormouse

Katie had her first performance event today. Her school had an autumn harvest assembly and the younger kids all dressed up and sang songs. Katie's class were dormice. She was so cute. All day she kept saying "you'll come back to see me be a dormouse, yes?". I assured her I would. Her face was a picture when she saw me. I love when she is like that.



Compare that to my little grumpy guts ;-)
I'm not sure what was wrong with him, I think he was just tired as it was 2.15. He wouldn't look at me or respond to any cajoling. He's still cute though, even though he was a sourpuss.

Feeding clinic

I had an appointment with Jack's school today at the "feeding clinic". Basically, he is little Mr Independent these days and will not accept any help from anyone for anything. Getting him ready for school in the morning is a nightmare. Even though he has the will, he obviously doesn't have the motor skills to do it himself so it is a constant battle. This transfers to his "feeding". He very vehemently expresses that he only wants to do it himself. He only really has the use of his right hand so he maybe gets a teaspoon or two and still only yoghurt. His swallow leaves a lot to be desired and he still has pretty major tongue thrust. Drinking is non existant.

Anyway, the whole point is that they are saying the longer he remains tube fed, the less likely he will be to come off it. He is 5 next month and has been tube fed since birth. There is no medical explanation, he has just not made any natural progression, so we are looking at years to even get to the point of a possibility where he may take enough orally to reduce his tube feedings or come off it. Pesimistic me agrees with the speech therapist/paediatrician that he has missed the learning window (infancy) so I really don't know what will happen. I hate that tube, I really really do.

Katie - ism's

K - Mammy, chocolate milk is very good for me you know...
Me - is that right?


Me - called her Ben's nickname
K - I'm not Bobo, I'm a girl!


K (excited) - I have an idea in the fridge!
Me - in the fridge?
K - yes, come, look, in the fridge
(Go to the fridge)
K - there, on the shelf, that chocolate
Me - ahhh.


K - Mammy, you can just tidy my toys for me. Come on, help yourself up.

:)

Nemo on Ice

We took the kids to see Disney's Nemo on Ice today. We managed to get some reduced rate tickets through Down Syndrom North East, otherwise I would not have chanced that Jack would behave if I'd had to pay full price.

He didn't like while we waited to get our tickets checked, didn't like all the people, didn't like all the way overpriced merchandise (yeah, I still got suckered in and bought Katie a flashing Nemo light thing), and then when it started he screamed and kicked for 20 minutes. The background noise was actually really loud, but I'm hoping the parents in that section were a little more forgiving as DSNE must have bought that whole block.

When he did stop crying, he really enjoyed it, so this is one of the first times we've managed to do a family thing like this!

The kids were so cute, there was this toddler stuffing candy floss in his mouth, it was hilarious. And a teenager in front of us when Nemo and Marlin were reunited was so excited.

Jack is getting worse in his behaviour in some ways and a little *tiny* bit better in others, so hopefully we can hang in there until it works itself out. Been 3 years now, but you never know ;-)

Ok, that was bad.

How awful to have gone so long without posting. Things have been kind of hectic, plus I haven't really felt like writing anything.

I know I said it last time, but I will try from now to keep up.

Some of the things I should have blogged about in the past couple of months -

Paris was wonderful. It was lovely to spend time alone with Tony. We did a lot of walking, but had so many sights to see, it was marvellous.

Unfortunately, Tony's mam passed away in mid August. That was pretty awful for everyone and there will need to be an inquest into her death next year as initial coroner report suggests the hospital/surgery may bear the blame for mucking up on her surgery and care. She'd had a blood clot in her leg in July which was operated on and then there were weeks of no action and a second surgery the day before she died where it looks like they did something they shouldn't have :(

We took all the kids to Chester Zoo. That was "interesting". Not as bad as it could have been with Jack's outbursts, but still some stressful times.

Jack went back to school, full time! Hurray, for both of us ;-)
He has made a lot of progress with his communication over the school break and we've been working with him physically, so he can now just about stand up if we hold his hands and give him a little pull. Not so much weight bearing, he is still *very* weak, but he is at least making efforts.

Katie began nursery school in the afternoons. It went from 2 weeks of "ok, bye mammy" to "I need you, I don't want to go, I miss you" and many tears! She has been slowly getting better so hopefully will be ok soon.

Ben restarted active treatment for his talipes as his feet still aren't straight and he is almost 20 months now and still unable to stand unassisted or walk. He was in plaster casts, changed each week, for 3 weeks on both legs up to his thighs :( This then got changed to knee length casts and can you believe, he escaped them!!!! Must have just kept working his feet back and forward until he got his heel/ankle out. They weren't loose either, so I have no idea how he did it. That's why nothing is working for him, because he's Houdini! He's back in his shoes/brace and not liking that, until we get in to see the consultant. We're just stuck because he's still a bit young for the surgical treatment they are looking at and in the meantime, without his brace, his feet just turn and he stands on the outside edge of his feet and keeps going over on them so can't weight bear.

I have kept up with my running and CRAZILY entered the Edinburgh MARATHON next May. The furthest I've run without stopping is 14.5 miles so I need some serious training over the winter. Which brings me onto... I did my first official half marathon on Sunday gone, and what an event for my first. The Great North Run, biggest event in the world with 52,000 entrants!!! At the time I didn't appreciate just how fantastic it was, especially over the last few miles uphill, it was tough, but looking back, it was really something else. Phenomenal race with amazing spectator support. My official time was 1:58:28. I'm hoping I'll be further up the field next year as I was dodging a lot of people. I got under my target of 2 hours, but was hoping for closer to 1:55. When I finished I panicked - "and I have to run this distance immediately again for the marathon??!!"

I think those are the major highlights.