Movie night

Today Levi got up at the crack of dawn.  Actually dawn hadn't cracked yet!  It was 4.30am.  That teaches me for being cocky about Levi's sleep pattern now!  I should have just shut up and ridden the wave but No I had to get excited and talk about it.  Jinxed it!  I should have known. 

I am not going to talk about tonight, that would be a nightmare.  Actually, I will.  Levi went to bed at 9.30pm so to say he was trashed would be an understatement.  I had a 40th party to go to but I only knew the lady with the birthday and another family.  Mim (from work) very sweetly offered to babysit Levi.  I vacillated; about everything.  I decided to not go to the party and instead I'd drop Levi off and go to a movie.  Then Jac called and wanted a lift to the party and I re decided to go to the party.  So dropped Levi off and drove toward Samford to go to the party.  Halfway there, Jac texted not wanting a lift and without someone there I knew, I re decided to go to the movies and drove back to a cinema next to where Levi was. 

It was actually I pretty good decision, even if it took me forever and several miles to decide.  I went and saw The Hunger Games and I am afraid that for all the hype, I was bitterly disappointed.  I thought the acting average, esp from whoever played Rue.  I am also amazed that the whole thing is seen as original at all!  It seems like a poorer mixed version of Richard Bachman's (Stephen King) books; The Long Walk and The Running Man (the book not the movie which was very loosely based on the book).  There were elements of Lord of the Flies as well but I suspect that the copyright on that has likely run it's course.

Anyway it was mindless drivel that helped me suspend thought for a couple of hours.  Well worth the money and time!

New Sleeping Arrangments!

Of course, just as I get used to one set of sleeping arrangements, it changes!  At least we are getting closer to what I would see as ideal.  Levi is now in the bunk bed.  The top one.  Tonight he decided that was where he wanted to be.  He doesn't need to be close to the door and the light anymore.  He is happy to be in the internal room where it is darker.  This will make a huge difference to me if he sleeps in longer in the morning.  He spent some time setting up the lower bunk as his 'home'; complete with mirror and computer.  He said that the punching bag is there just in case he needs to exercise immediately upon rising of a morning.  As Levi is not a morning person and his greatest exercise to date is moving from the bed to the sofa in front of the TV, I suspect, not much punching will be happening.

He did have to sleep with his head up the end toward me and he had his night vision goggles hung over the railing within arms reach.  If you look really close to his face, you will see that Icy still maintains his favored toy status and helps guard Levi as he goes to sleep at night.  Still Levi now goes to sleep without any crying and happily.  He isn't scared anymore and that gladdens my heart.

Starting today, Levi is on vacation for two weeks.  I have to work about four days of that two weeks.  He has Vacation Care for two of those days and he is staying with friends on the other two.  I am going to be grateful to just not have to get up early and not to have to do homework.  He needs a break.  I need a break.

On Wednesday, Jane came back from helping out at the school and told me that Levi had done badly at some literacy task and that he needed extra work in this area.  I was confused.  I had seen the teacher that afternoon picking Levi up and she had said nothing.  I was also fairly cranky about the whole thing.  If Levi is having trouble with something then tell me, not an auntie helping out, esp. an unreliable messenger.  I sent an Email to the teacher to ask her but the answer more addressed that Levi felt he was having a bad day, not that the teacher felt that.  I am still cranky about the transmission of the message and less about the message itself.

There is a big difference between Levi's skills in Math and English; not so much because his reading is low but because his math is high.  On talking to the teacher today, she reported that his reading was average still.  His math isn't average by any definition.  Actually by one definition perhaps.  His rote learning of math facts is average.  His understanding of what to do with the ideas behind the facts - exceptional!  She felt that Levi should be pushed a little in his reading, because he would start to believe that it wasn't something he liked and then it would be nigh impossible to push his English/reading.  I actually agree with this mentality and actually agree to push him based on that.  She said to give him the two weeks off and then she would decide where to go from there.  I am feeling better about the whole thing!

Our internet is being annoying.  It is working on and off.  Last night it was off all night!  I hate being offline.  The phone goes off as well because it is connected to the internet.  I feel very disconnected when that happens.  Isn't that a difference from ten years ago, when we had the internet but didn't rely on it and feel lost without it!

This Sunday Frankie would have turned twelve.  I think that, and the fact that I am tired is contributing to my overall crankiness.  Watch out!!

Stability

When I started the job here in Australia it involved travelling on Outreach trips four times a year for about a week at a time.  I knew at the time that I was going to have to set up some things to help Levi feel stable in his place in the world while I was gone.  He would stay upstairs, which fairly rigid rules and little flexibility.  I started by writing him notes.  Initially the notes were just his name and a love heart because he couldn't read at all.  As he got better at reading the notes got more complex and the vocabulary more complicated.  Still he loves the notes.  He has a secret stash of them all somewhere.  He won't let me throw them out.  That and the phone calls morning and night have made those trips work for both of us. 

Now it has gone full circle.  He is writing me notes.  He puts them all over the house on Post it notes.  I find them at different times and I love it so much.  I now have my secret stash of love notes.  I love that you can tell his age by the backward 's' and 'f'.  I love that he writes them to 'Sue' because he knows that Jo is also a 'Mum' and he doesn't want them to be confused. 

Asthma is still kicking Levi a bit at the moment.  He sleeping in the high guard asthma position.  He obviously needs more stability through his shoulder girdle to breathe at night at the moment.  He locks his arms back and can sleep that way.  I can help him a little with the ventolin but it is still reflected in his sleep posture.  He is not too sick but just reminding me that he hasn't yet grown out of this.  I hate him being sick even though he doesn't really even notice it.  He just keeps on going and is now pretty independent with the spacer.  He just walks past and takes a couple of puffs and keeps going. 



Actually it is hard to watch him sleep like this at this time of year.  As Frankie's birthday comes closer, I think about him more and more and am reminded of his sleep pattern watching Levi.  Frankie always needed help to breathe at night and always slept in a stabilizing position.  I know in my head that it isn't the same.  My brain tells me that Levi just has asthma.  Even though Frankie's first diagnosis was asthma, it never looked like this.  It was always worse.  It was always less responsive to medication.  It was different!  Oh my brain is really good at this.  It is my heart that must be convinced and that is a much harder task. 

Sleeping Arrangements

There are moments when we really should just be still and wait.  I am often not good at that part of parenting.  I am not good with allowing things to just follow the path that they need to go without trying to change the speed or direction.  Levi is back to sleeping on his own and will go to sleep happily and without stress almost immediately.  Such a change from three weeks ago when I was pulling my hair out stressing about Levi's sleeping, or not sleeping, more specifically.  The dragon made a difference but the biggest change was just time.

Time for him to work out how to go to sleep by himself

Time for him to remember the logic

Time to reconcile his imagination with reality

Time for me to just let him be and work it out for himself

I am so happy that he did work it out.  I am grateful that he did it quickly!  I can be still and let him find his own way but I am not very patient.  He still has asthma that comes at night but it has also settled down a little in the last couple of days.  I went nutso about cleaning the dust after the egg hunt in the hope that it would improve it and I think that it worked, a little.  I even vacuumed his mattress.  Yes, I know, but I already admitted that I went nutso with the cleaning.  I hope that it has the desired affect at least!

Aftermath

Today I was hoping that Levi would sleep in after the festivities of yesterday.  Of course not!  What were you thinking?  He got up at his usual time but we had one of those more fragile days.  He had a new friend from his class over for the day and that was lucky and unlucky.  Lucky, because it gave Levi a distraction.  Unlucky because it was a bit much after yesterday.  Plus the kid's family didn't pick him up until way late (I had started dinner) and it meant that by that stage homework and chill out time was not going to happen.  Levi and his friend had lunch up in the cubby and as I went up the ladder realised that a large chunk of the railing is rotting.  So much for treated wood!  I have no idea what caused the wood in that area (and just that area) to rot.  The wood either side and with the same amount of rain is just fine.  Who knows but I have a bit of work to do fairly soon!

Today I cleaned up the backyard.  I found two eggs that hadn't been found.  Levi has decided that eating them whole is the way to go and he managed to knock off most of his egg stash today, esp as he very sweetly shared them all with his mate from school.  Other than the last bits of clean up there wasn't much to do.  We had to clean out the fish tank.  Poor Dibber now flinches anytime anyone comes near the tank after a sweet and well meaning two year old fed him a year's supply of food yesterday.  Actually that's an exaggeration, he only flinches if you go anywhere near the food container! 

Dibber is happily swimming around in his new tank water and continues to live despite all efforts to the contrary.  When you talk to the people at the pet store, there are all these things you have to do for your fish so it doesn't die.  I think that we have done none of them and yet Dibber continues to swim happily and grow exponentially.  We feed him a tank full of food so you can't see through the water and Dibber ignores it and swims happily (and apparently) healthily around.  I tell you, this is the strongest fish on earth.  Even the snails; Ultralord and Ultralord 2 are happy!  Maybe we should feed them once a year at large volume.  They are thriving on it!

Egg Hunt

Today was the big Easter egg hunt.  After raining fairly consistently for the last about two weeks, it really was touch and go until the last minute.  The day didn't disappoint though.  It was beautiful and sunny all day; not long enough to dry the ground completely but enough to make the day lovely.  It was a fantastic day.  The kids all had a blast.  The parents are all very relaxed together and it is a pleasure to have them here.  It is great when you are relaxed that all the parents there are as happy to pick up a random kid and kiss them and dust them off after a fall, as discipline them.  You never have to keep a close eye on your child, because really, everyone there has their eye on him.  Naturally with that many kids of different ages, real falls are common and then you just pick up said child and find one of their real parental units! 

I love watching the kids all having fun and playing together.  The big kids all really got the rules about leaving the blue eggs for the little kids to find.  In fact, one family got there late and after the hunt; and the kids instead of hoarding the eggs, all gave up some of their eggs, re hid them and enjoyed watching the hunt with the rest of us.  I love that they are turning into empathetic little people.

Overall we had fun and all agreed that the best part of an 'Annual' event is that at the end, you can always look forward to the next year.  Levi is still a bit sick, mostly from asthma coughing at night now rather than an infective type process.  I would like to see him grow out of that little nasty.  Even though it isn't too bad for him and he doesn't often need medication and never needs hospitalization, I would love to see him be able to sleep the night through without wheezing quietly in the background or coughing himself awake.  You can see he faded a bit at the end of the party and got really fragile by the photo but he still loved every minute.  The other upshot of a relaxed party like that too is that jobs get done without ever asking anyone.  After the party was winding down, I went inside and the dishes were all but done and there were two friends, elbow deep in hot water!  Oh that is a true friend! 

Sweet Boy

Really there are no words for things like this.  Levi made this little Lego heart and a note he wrote after he cut the heart from something.  He has been sick but not crushingly so.  He just needed a day at home in his pyjamas without an expectation or stress.  I love that he is starting to use words spontaneously.  I love that he still does his 'f' backwards.  I love that he still needs cuddle time on the couch with his Mum.  I love that some days, I can give that to him

Wild Weather

It has been a wild few days.  It must be full moon or something like it.  Everyone seems to be a little off, Levi, Me, the kids at work.  It has been exaggerated by the fact that the weather has been crazy as well.  There hasn't been a day when there wasn't any rain at all.  Some days worse than others.

Levi has been a little ill.  It is getting worse but is still not bad enough to completely stop him.  Wednesday night, he played his double soccer.  As it was the last week for the Brisbane Roar coaching at school, they had an inflatable soccer field and a goody bag at the end.  Levi was stoked!  He concentrates really hard but was 'off his game'.  He cried a couple of times and when he tried to kick the ball it would go off track and he hates that!  I think that there were real injuries behind the tears at times but I also think that he likely would have had a higher tolerance than that!  So either he was getting sick or he was channeling an Italian soccer player.  Still he is getting there with soccer and really loves it, so that is a bonus for us both. 

This afternoon, the rain started to come down and there was a Severe Weather warning from the government, by radio and by text.  Our early warning system for flooding has improved significantly since the loss of life seen in the big floods last year!  You can now sign up for a text message alert and it has helped me out a lot.  I then got the next important warning.  My mother called to let me know that the causeway was at 0.35m and rising.  I called the school and had then get Levi out of class and meet me at the front of the school.  By the time that I had picked him up and driven home (about half an hour) the causeway was above that which I felt was completely safe.  We drove around the back and Levi and I went on a great 'adventure'.  We walked in.  Up and down a couple of hills and acres of mud.  Levi loved it!  It was pouring with rain.  Levi almost went over several times.  It was a wonderful fun activity for him and I loved that we had time holding hands and walking in the rain. 

However tonight his cough is worse and his asthma has kicked in further.  I am so happy that we came home and he is sleeping in his own bed tonight.  I can look after him better tomorrow, snuggled up on his own couch, in his own clothes (or more likely pyjamas).  I can not feel pressured to go to work because now I can't really do it on two levels.  I put him to bed early tonight and he went to sleep

Jet Packs and Rainbows

Jet packs, Rocket cars, Rocket boys.  He continues to invent and create things.  This time it was a jet pack and it has all the accessories that you would expect from a modern jet pack.  He built a jet pack out of cardboard, straws and a sawn off diet coke container.  Oh and lots and lots of tape, always lots and lots of tape.  He made the jet first by shoving straws through the top of the bottle and taping everything down.  He added shoulder straps and a GPS.  The GPS is the piece of paper that folds out near his right shoulder.  It tells you where to go even though it just looks like a fold out describing dinosaurs to you and I.  He also wanted me to write him a story about the jet pack, which he then attached (Yes, lots and lots of tape) onto the back so he would always have it with him.  The photos are bad because they are iPhone ones and Levi was moving and frankly sometimes my photo taking just sucks! 

He is insanely excited about the Easter egg hunt and has all sorts of bike races and obstacle courses planned for the kids when they come over.  I am not sure if much of it will come to pass because generally with that many kids converging together, there is more mayhem than organized sport but he can always hope. 

Today going to work, my phone pulled out a pretty good photo.  No help from me, I can assure you.  The rainbow made me smile on several levels.  It is so beautiful, it made my heart glad.  That and it promises more rain, so there is a vague possibility that I will be flooded in tomorrow!

Exploding

Levi said at the end of last week that his face hurt.  I dismissed it as 'boy pain' and didn't really think about it.  Then an hour or so later he said;

I feel like my face is exploding from the inside"

I didn't stress much about it, as he has a flair for the dramatic but did give him some Motrin to help him out.  Then I really looked at him and realized that his face was changing shape.  Not as dramatically as he was saying but still, I noticed that the gap between his teeth is widening.  Where two teeth fell out, leaving a gap of just over 1 cm there was now a gap of 2.2 cms.  As his big teeth are coming down they are forcing his upper jaw to widen at an impressive speed.  His face really is exploding from the inside and that was a very apt description.  I think it must be like the pain when braces are put on for the first time and your teeth and jaw have to change rapidly.  Today I measured again and he is nearly at 2.4 cm (nearly an inch) so I can almost see his jaw growing.  He has a cute speech pattern at the moment, lisping his 's' sounds and dragging his 'th' sounds as his tongue refuses to do what it is supposed to without the teeth to guide it.  Luckily I think his jaw growth is slowing down and you can see both adult teeth coming down.  I will try to be more sympathetic as they do!

I am organizing the annual Easter Egg Hunt at our house again this year and the creek may not co operate.  It is still running over and as it rains on and off during the day, the creek level is fairly steady and so the name has been altered somewhat;

The Annual

‘Brave the Creek Crossing’

Easter Egg Hunt

Anyway it is a fun task to organize and it will be great if the weather will hold out long enough for the kids to have a little play!  I am getting about a dozen eggs per child.  We put them all out and then all the kids run out and search at once.  It is a bit like organized mayhem but really fun!  The kids search eggs by color and the color based on age.  The youngest kids search for any color.  Then over four year olds search for all but red (which are just laying on the grass for the babies).  It means that the parents can stay in some semblance of control, which will be hard this year as it has become bigger than Ben Hur!

Coast Weekend

This weekend we went to the coast with Julie and had such a wonderful time!  It was just what we all needed but I can only really speak for me and Levi.  We had a little house very close to the beach and it was all set up.  It made everything so relaxing to not have to worry about anything.  Initially we drove down with Julie and found the house in pounding rain, making both the adults a little nervous about the weather report for the next few days.  We shouldn't have worried.  By morning the weather had cleared somewhat. 

Julie gave Levi a 'Dinosaur Dig', where he needed to dig a dinosaur from the plaster 'soil', so the day started with that.  Then we went to the beach.  It wasn't really sunny but didn't pour with rain so good enough.  We all swam for about three hours.  It was lovely to have concentrated time with Levi for me and I think he reveled in the time as well!  For the first time, Levi learned how to time the waves on his Boogie board.  He learned to catch waves.  He learned the most important rule of all, that if a wave looks too big to jump over, you go under and if it looks too big for that then turn around and catch it with your board.  He had so much fun and it was lovely to help him do that!  Julie and I stayed out about break level for the waves and chatted.  We could stop Levi from going too far, put him on the wave, cheer him on and chat all without getting pounded by the waves ourselves!  Levi had to fight his way out through the breakers to get to us each wave.

 

By lunch, we went home and had a bit of quiet time, watching a movie and a bit of recuperating our strength.  Then we went to the creek and played there.  We built a castle and climbed trees.  We played soccer and we went for a walk.  It was just a great day.  A great weekend.  The next day?  More of the same.  Just swimming and sunshine!  Ah it is these weekends that dreams are made of!

Soccer Afternoon

Wednesday is supposed to be my early day.  Actually it is my early day but that is just about work.  I left work, got home in time to grab a water bottle and some clothes for Levi.  I picked him up from school and took him to soccer.  There is a program at school that teaches soccer on the oval after the day ends.  Soccer mad Levi wanted to do it, even if it was the same day as his regular soccer. So, it was one soccer and then the second at the big fields.  If this all sounds complicated and frenzied, it is.  If it sounds like I arrive just slightly late to every thing, you are right.  However Levi has a blast and that is what keeps it all going.  In the first soccer he has Ruby and in the second he has Matthew and Zoe. 

Then we got home and finished off the fish tank.  We set it all up and finally Dibber is swimming happily.  Ultralord is doing his snail job and so is the new Ultralord 2 (OK we don't have very unique names around here!).  Actually, just between you and me, Ultralord is new too but Levi has forgotten that the original died.  I am happy that he is loving it.  He went to sleep watching the fish tonight.  Another calming influence.  One of my friends, Jac asked him today if he liked his dragon.  He told her that it gave him good dreams and that it chased away his bad ones!  I don't want to get too ahead of myself and jinx it but I think (touch wood, heck touch anything!) that the dragon experiment worked and he is proving to all of us that if you believe in something strongly enough it becomes real.

 As you can see, Icy still plays a big role in his protection as well and even though Icy is getting a bit scruffy from repeated washing, he has already become 'real'.  

Our life continues to cycle busier and busier, yet soccer on the weekend has not even started!  Levi is in full blown packing mode.  We are going to the coast with my friend and one of Levi's Godmother, Julie.  She lives in Cairns and is coming down for work Thursday and Friday and staying for the weekend.  Of course, anytime we are going anywhere, for any length of time, Levi packs.  Unfortunately, he packs randomly.  In random little bags everywhere and in big bags there is 'packing'.  Oh I can only hope that at least one bag has clothes!

Mother of the Year

Today I won a competition from the radio station that I listen to. I won 'Mother of the Year', well for the week anyway. I had written out the story about stealing from Levi's piggy bank to pay for his tooth fairy money. They loved it and I won $50. Win win!  So maybe I should give some of that money to the tooth fairy, because she was the one who earned it!

Levi is going through another stage.  Thank goodness it isn't a bad one.  He has started tying knots in everything.  I go into the room and am stopped by a long rope tied between the bunk bed and the double bed.  I try to untie it but in the dark it is just impossible.  I go to get into bed and there is another tied from the head of the bed to the foot.  I think that I have to enrol him in scouts or something, so that he can learn to tie knots that can actually be undone without cutting the rope. 

I had a really long day today.  I had a meeting at the home office at 3.30 which puts me home around about 6pm.  I got a call from the school just as I got to Corinda, telling me that Levi was in sick bay and he had a tummy ache.  I hate being that far away at that stage.  I asked why his tummy hurt and he said he drank a lot of water and ran around and started to feel sick.  Really? Anyway I got Levi picked up fairly early anyway because you can never be sure but was racing around on his bike when I got home!  I'm thinking his tummy was much better by then.

Our fish, Dibber (or Dabber, still not sure which is which) outlived his tank.  This is a miracle for me.  Most fish I have had in the past, barely outlived the week, let alone had the tank fail first.  anyway this fish is the Methuselah of fish and yesterday I bought him/her a new tank.  Levi wanted to help put it together and so we did it tonight.

Maybe that will make up for my Mother of the Year award!  If not at least he has something to complain about to his Psychologist when he is older!

A Day For Me

Today was mine!  All mine!!  I had the day off today and Levi went to school and After School Care (he had chess).  I felt like I had a whole day to do the little things that needed to be done and to have a bit of 'me' time.  What I did was go to the movies.  I love losing myself in a movie and not thinking about what needs to be done or what's for dinner or any of those things.  I can be just somewhere else for a while.  I heard a fabulous quote today in one of the previews;

"It all turns out good in the end, so if it isn't good, it must not be the end"

I love the sentiment behind that statement and need to remember that more often when I am moaning about what is happening now or before.  The idea that the future is good is a very positive way to live life.  Most of the time I can do that but I will keep that beautiful thought in my memory.  I went and saw Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and it is a great movie.  Tragically sad in places as a family in multiple generations flail in their grief, but generally uplifting and true to the sentiment expressed in the preview (for a different movie).  The other concept that is very well portrayed in this movie is the idea of 'the worst day'.  The boy in the movie talks of 9/11 when his father dies as the 'worst day' but I think we all have them.  Days that will live in your mind.  Days where every sensation is heightened making every sensory input unforgettable and words and noises written on your soul.  I think that overall, we all have a 'worst day' and the degree of that depends on many different factors. 

I wonder about the 'best day'.  That day seems to have less impact, be less memorable somehow than the worst one.  Levi talks of his best day as one that has yet to occur and I hope that he stays that way.  I remember a quote (but not the person who said it);

"What's the best day of your life?"

"I don't know.  I haven't lived my whole life yet"

I can only hope that his best days are memorable and his bad days so mild that he doesn't render them any special significance.  I hope what all mothers hope.  I hope that he has enough tragedy to understand others in grief and build resilience, but that it is balanced (overbalanced?) by so much love and happiness that he is forever an optimist!

More Minutes in the Day?

More minutes in the day is a plea that I am sure every mother has asked for at some point.  I feel like I just need a few extra hours and things would be great.  It was one of those days for me.  I needed to clean the house, not a little, but in a 'get the shovel' kind of way.  Levi had done no homework at all while I was on Outreach, so he had a bunch of stuff that needed to be done independently and other homework that needed assistance.  Pam was coming over with her new little girl and I wanted to take a bunch of photos of her (the baby, not Pam) and I had tutoring for Jac. 

As you can imagine, theoretically, it all works out.  I can clean while Levi is doing his homework independently.  Well, you know how well that turns out!  At least I got the house mostly picked up and I got to play with a little baby.  Other than that, really, I just chased my tail.  All day.  I did take a bunch of photos of Jordyn, that I can't put up on the blog. 

So that was my busy but boring day today!  Now I need to go and vacuum! 

A Quiet One?

It has been another busy day!  First off, Levi lost another tooth.  His mouth is pretty much a desert when it comes to teeth now.  He has no front teeth at all.  There are two adult teeth in the bottom middle and he has lost the bottom left tooth beside them.  The twin to that one on the right is very very loose and will likely come out pretty soon.  If you tilt his head way way back and look up at the gaps (or big holes rather) that are left there are some little white promises of the future.  I even got a photo for him to see them.  I can see why it hurts so much less to 'teeth' at this age.  In infancy, the tooth cuts its way through the gum.  Levi needs none of that as the holes left from the baby teeth leave a direct path to the outside.  It is fun to watch. 

Levi spends some time working at his teeth now that he has worked out the direct link with the $3 that the tooth fairy brings.  I need to remember to go in after finishing this post and switch his tooth out.  Just between you and I, the tooth fairy had no change tonight and I had to steal some coins from his money box to give to her.  This tooth, I am glad to see gone.  It is the little grey one that he whacked at about 11 months.  The tooth never grew as long as the other and was a greyer color.  I am excited to see his face with those huge teeth that I see, down and healthy!  I love the new teeth too.  They grow up with little ridges that are well and truly worn off by the time they are teenagers.

So after the excitement of the tooth, we went shopping.  Levi had been given some money from his Godmother in Cairns for Christmas.  As she so aptly put it, "It makes a holiday last longer if you have people who are always late".  Anyway, with his pocket money and his tooth money, he wanted to go shopping.  He loves to wander around deciding and doing the maths required as he finds new things and puts back old things.  In the end we got first and foremost, a boat.  It is a remote controlled boat that is actually really fun.  He was also able to get a Scooby Doo movie, a superball and some candy.  He wanted to save some money as well, so actually decided to put some things back. 

Of course as soon as we were home, we went to the creek with the boat.  Levi played and played with it and then decided that he needed to walk across the treacherous rocks and over a waterfall to the quieter water.  I was understandably nervous, not because I couldn't save him, but that he was carrying the remote control.  Naturally about part way through, he tripped and saved himself by putting both hands in the water and submerging the controller.  I took possession, because its only hope is that it dries out completely before we try it again.  I think though, that hope is very slim indeed!

I put the boat and the drenched controller in the car and we played in the water for a long time.  Levi more than I, but we cooled off and got bitten by midges.  At least they weren't anything bigger. 

The rest of the day involved more yard work for me.  I got most of what was left over from last weekend done but Levi came down, bringing a picnic lunch and water and we had a very peaceful sit and just chatted about very little.  I think we both needed the reconnect after Outreach.  I am so grateful that I don't have to go away again for a long while.  I am happy on lots of levels.  I will be happier still after tackling the whole week of homework tomorrow!  At least we can start doing homework every night again! 

Face of God

See if you can find the bearded man that I see in this photo, hand raising up

Wildlife of Outreach

After a wild trip to get to Cairns, it was a pretty wild one when I got there.  I had never seen a wild cassowary and then on our drive into Mission Beach, there he was!  This lovely strong male was just walking along the road.  In fact we were just cursing at the car in front for being so slow and indecisive, and then we saw why.  Then of course, our car was slow and indecisive!  It is always a pleasure to see them in the wild.  It is more of a pleasure to see it from within a car's protection.  Cassowaries have their own form of protection, as you can see from this male's head!  We were all very excited and the only camera that I have on Outreach, is the iPhone.  So the picture isn't up to scratch but still ..... very cool!

Ignore the last little bit of the video, because we were excited (I know I have said it before) and I was driving, so Mim was struggling with the phone!

Then I saw this little beauty on my way home from the airport

He is an Emydura and was wandering around our creek (now drivable)!

A Busy Week

This was an Outreach week.  I went to Cairns this time and Levi stayed upstairs again.  I am grateful that I don't have to do this again for six more months, not because I don't like going but because it is always an incredibly long hard week and for Levi as much as for me.  It started with difficulty and continued in that vein!

First off, it rained!  Of course!  It seems that it is my lot this year to fight the elements to get to Outreach.  It rained and it rained and as the weathermen predicted cyclones and 75% of New South Wales went underwater, our causeway quickly failed and by morning was well underwater.  Levi had the day off and happily built a Pyramid, several in fact!  He settled in with the dog and my sister and created.  I walked.  After putting all my luggage in big plastic bags and the sensitive medical stuff in several plastic bags, I walked.  Jo and I walked out to the road through the deluge.  I called our Office Manager and said; "If you can, please bring the car and meet me partially down Lawson road."  She asked if that was the end of our street and I said that no, instead two random bedraggled humans were going to just appear out of the bush.  That is exactly what happened.  Jo and I appeared out of the bush and she picked me up.  Jo walked back down the hill and I got in, for the drive to the airport.  I will have to say that her thoughtfulness was heartwarming.  As I got into the car, pouring water, mud speckled and shivering, she turned around and passed me a mug of steaming tea, saying;

"I knew you would be cold and wet, so I made you a cup of tea."

You know that is why I love working with the people that I work with.  For all that we are all caring and thoughtful with the clients and their families, it is that and more so within the office itself!  She then drove me to the airport.

This is Levi (and Jane's) finished product.  The pyramids.  He was very proud of them!

It was a very eventful Cairns trip as well!  I will show you!

Dragons and Turtles

Turns out, I already had Levi's special night time protector!  Levi actually preferred this dragon after I told him the story of how I got him.  I nearly didn't buy this special dragon.  I vacillated about buying it.  I picked him up and carried him around the store and then I'd take him back and put him back on the shelf.  I couldn't leave without him but at the same time I was struggling with buying him at all.  I was at Disneyland, about six months pregnant with Levi.  We were in the Lego store on the avenue outside of Disneyland.  Ross and Evan were in heaven with all the options, so I had lots of time to go back and forwards, agonizing about this one little dragon.  I can't think of another purchase that I have spent so much time and emotional energy, deciding to buy it. 

 The dragon was always what Frankie loved.  It represented a gift, not for this new baby I was carrying but the one that I was missing so terribly.  The dilemma was that I wanted Levi to have a 'clean shot'.  I wanted him to be allowed to pick what he loved and what he wanted to play with.  I didn't want him to only have dragons and knight stuff because his mother wanted him to replace his brother.  I never wanted Levi to feel like the 'spare'.  I never want him to feel like he needs to live his life for his brother.  I never want to push him there either.  So that was what was going through my mind in the Lego store all those so many years ago!  I am glad that I bought it.  I am glad that Levi has now made it his own!  Mostly, I am glad that Levi is actually sleeping better with a fierce protector watching over him!

Today I found a turtle.  Actually more correctly, I found an Eastern Long-necked Turtle.  He was climbing up the road.  He was walking right up the middle of the road and every time I tried to move him to the side, he would get back onto the road.  Eventually I decided to just catch him and put him in the creek.  I did think to take a few photos of him first!  He had some sharp claws!

Baby Watching

Pam had her little girl on Thursday afternoon, so we went up to visit them on Friday afternoon after school.  Kath met Levi and I at the hospital.  It is always a joy to see healthy little newborns and I, of course, had to have a real play.  Levi, as you can see from these photos was enthralled with the baby and couldn't take his eyes off her.  OK, I'll admit, he played with the IPhone while I played with the baby.  He was very good and played very quietly, but he was so not interested it was funny.  He is not going to be a Pediatrician I suspect when he grows up!  It will be fun to watch her grow up.

It has been one of those weekends already.  It is incredibly busy and even without soccer starting yet, I feel as if there are just not enough free hours in the day.  It is raining hard again, so it will be interesting to see if we can get out tomorrow to do the shopping that I need to do.  I go on Outreach to Cairns next week and I need to get everything prepared for Levi's week, as he is stressed enough without things getting out of sync. 

On Friday afternoon, I talked to his teacher and it has made me feel a whole lot more relaxed about school.  I explained that he cried most afternoons and was checking if he was crying at school as well.  She and the other teacher she shares her job with had him pretty much pegged; that he is toughest on himself, that he copes poorly if he thinks he did something wrong and that you have to be really, really careful when criticizing him or you will lose him for the whole day!

Our mate, the water dragon is back again and much bigger.  He is still very tame and happy to wander around close to us.  I came out yesterday and he was swallowing (or trying to swallow) a slug about the size of his head.  I was amazed!  More amazed that he was happy to choke the thing down while we all watched.

D-U- Eye

I have some quick tips for today

Tip 1:  If you are really tired when you get up in the morning, don't just put eye drops in before checking the labels!

Today I had bleary eyes when I got up, likely because I was tired rather than any other reason.  I decided to put some eye drops in.  I reached for the bottle and squirted it in my eye.  I quickly realized that it wasn't in fact eye drops.  The searing pain and sudden deluge of tearing woke me up in a hurry.  It was ear drops not eye drops that I had put in my eye.  99.8% alcohol.  I can assure you it is not an experiment that I wish to repeat in a hurry.  I washed it out over and over and fairly quickly the pain went away.  My eye has been 'off' all day though and has been blurry.  I am thinking there is no long term detriment that I have to worry about.  After checking the Internet it seems I am not the first to try neat alcohol in the eye.  I looked up Children's Hospital Help lines and they had lots of good information about what not to put in your eye!

Tip 2:  Just because yesterday was good, it has no bearing on today!

Levi fought homework tooth and nail today.  There was nothing different from any other day today, but he was just not really in the mood.  We were even doing maths and he was just not there in mind or body today.  Eventually it was done but even his writing was more primitive than yesterday.  I am never going to understand this kid.

Tip 3:  No matter what happens in a day, it is not a bad day when we can welcome another little baby

Pam had her baby this afternoon and I can't, can't wait to meet her!