Understatement

Well that last sentence last night was the understatement of the century!  It was definitely a long night!  It started with Levi falling asleep on the sofa last night (see last post) and I picked him up and put him to bed.  At about 7.30pm I went in to check on him and he was hot; really hot.  That cooking hot that is a bit scary.  I took his ear temperature and it was 104.8F (40.5C).  I woke him to give him Ibuprofen and he came out and joined me on the couch again but drifting in and out of sleep.  The drug didn't help a whole lot.  He dropped a degree or so but nothing earth shattering.  By about 8.30pm he started getting a rash. 

I took a photo (the one above) and sent it to my brother.  I know that high temperature and rapidly evolving rash is a bad sign.  Jim called back almost immediately and told me to take him to the Royal Children's Hospital as quick as I could.  I told him that Levi didn't have a stiff neck or photo phobia and that the rash blanched to pressure (all good non-meningitis signs) but he said they could all be later signs and to still get him in there fast.

So I bundled him up (in a tiger rug) and went to tell Jo we were going.  She volunteered to drive us so I didn't have to find parking which was fabulous.  Then about 20 minutes and a few ignored red lights later we were in the hospital.  Levi was feeling achy but the temperature was coming down and the rash as well.  The doctor hadn't seen a rash like that before but he said that it wasn't meningitis and so I went home again.  Jim was still a bit nervous and so he said to keep an eye on him for a while into the night.  I stayed awake reading beside him until about 1am but he stabilized.

It is certainly a hard thing to approach Emergency rooms again after such a long time away from them.  It is hard to trust doctors in them when I don't know them.  I am able to stay calm and chill Levi out while we are in there but when we are back at home and he is peacefully sleeping again, I struggle to go to sleep; even after 1am. 

Really Bad Timing

Well, it has hit the fan!  Levi is now super sick with very high fevers and a cough.  He continues to be febrile even after Motrin.  I am hoping that he gets better really quickly, because the last thing that I want is for him to be rugged up in a corner somewhere while the kids all have fun around him.  We have decided to just keep going assuming that it is still on, hoping it is a 24 hour thing.  I am crossing everything in hope that it is just that.  He fell asleep on the sofa this afternoon after I got him from school.  His day at school was 'great, really great' but it deteriorated from there and now a hot floppy thing is lying on the couch beside me panting with the fever.  It will be a long night I suspect.



I think tomorrow at school is definitely out but it won't hurt him to have a quiet one and that might speed up his healing

Party Prep

First off, this is the crystal tree after three days.  It is looking great!  Levi checks it every morning first thing.  The Dolomite/Vinegar experiment is a complete failure and the rock looks exactly the same.  I think it is supposed to grow crystals on it from the vinegar but, so not happening at the moment.  At least the crystal tree is working and that keeps him going at the moment.

Tonight was soccer night and it was cold and raining on and off but it doesn't stop the kids happily running around for two hours.  After the practice, the coach came back shaking his head and laughing.  He said that last week, they were all so tired, he had to keep waking them up and doing very active things so they stayed on task.  Tonight he was checking for a full moon!!  The kids were all scatty and if there had been walls to bounce off out there, they would have been bouncing repeatedly!

 sThen we got home and Jo had finished the party bags!  Because it is a caveman theme, we wanted to have bags to take home that reflected that.  Jo volunteered to make the bags out of 'tiger skin'.  The tiger skin was a velour rug that I had bought from Kmart for $20.  Jo cut it into big pieces and folded them in half and sewed the edges.  Levi has been bugging me since the weekend to fill the bags even though they hadn't even been made yet.  Tonight I could finally let him at it.  The tiles on the floor were perfect for making little piles for each bag.  Levi had a blast sorting out all the contents and then he put it all into bags.  We put the bags into a laundry basket to wait, but I have to add a few chocolates first before we tie up the top with string (Assuming string was made in caveman times).  Given that I have morphed dinosaurs in there as well, I guess there is a large number of epochs represented in this party, all named 'caveman'! 

Tonight Levi was a bit tired but I guess he had enough of an excuse with two hours of soccer!

Normal Day

My back is starting to feel better.  I am hoping that it will be completely better by the weekend.  There is hope at least now.  I wasn't so sure yesterday even though I kept telling myself that it was getting better.  Levi is starting to lose that sing song tone that all beginning readers seem to have to travel through.  He read with inflection tonight and it was almost as fast as I would have read it allowed. 

He is sleeping better at the moment, I think more a function of exhaustion than that his excitement has began to wane.  I think you can only maintain that level for so long before you finally have to give up and start to sleep better again.  I am starting to count the days to the vacation.  Actually I am simultaneously counting the days and blindly trying to ignore what I have to do to get there.  I can't wait until we are on the plane and I have nothing to do but relax and go with the flow.  Levi is such a pleasure to have beside you on a plane.  I don't want to jinx it but he just slips into 'travel mode' and chills out.  With the shows on the box in front of him and the DVD player as well, plus someone coming to give him food and attention at random intervals it is kid heaven.  The plane is a closed environment, so he is able to get up and walk around and go to the bathroom by himself, which also makes it kid heaven. 

I am sitting here on the computer when I should be doing more birthday things but I am tired but not yet tired enough to sleep.  Ah I better get going but this sofa is comfortable!

Making a Cave

Today was an interesting one!  It started, well, poorly is am understatement.  Pretty much, my back decided that I wasn't looking after it and decided to spasm right up, starting at about 4am.  So the first night in forever that Levi slept in and I was up at 4am.  One of these days the sleeping patterns in this house will sync and that will be a miracle!  I know that pretty much, the best option for back pain like mine today is just to take pain relievers and try to do normal things. I had so much planned for the day there wasn't a big chance to sit around and sitting was pretty painful anyway! By tonight I am feeling much better and am not counting the minutes to the next pain reliever! I think that I will be much better tomorrow and maybe fixed entirely.  I figure that if I believe it strongly (?blindly) enough, it will come true! 

So after the standard Sunday morning homework session, we made crystals.  There were a bunch of experiments that came in an over sized test tube from Scholastic at school.  One of them involved making up a paper Christmas tree and putting it in water with dissolved crystals in it.  The water is pulled up and then the crystals form on the branches.  It starts off as white paper but Levi decided to put food coloring into the water, which is an even better effect because the tree goes blue but the crystals stay white over the top!

Then Levi went to Ty's and I worked on his party again.  This time I worked on the cave.  We are doing cave paintings.  So I put up newspaper in the crawl space wall and then spray painted it brown and red brown.  On the day of the party I will hang something on the air conditioner to hide it and then it will completely be a 'cave'.  I have painted three canvas' and will put them over the spray painted wall for the kids to do their paintings!

Levi is having fun with writing now, after all that time of me worrying about if it would ever happen!  He wrote this sign for the outside of our door.  I am loving that he is getting better at spelling faster than even I could have hoped for.  I am loving that but at the same time I am going to be a little sad when he starts to give me notes that are correct in every way.  I am going to miss 'parswerd' instead of 'password'.  True to form the password was 'explode'.  It really makes you think about how exactly that you say things, because the spelling of everything around here is very phonetic and very sound based.  I better be careful!

Saturday Fire Day

Today was about getting ready for next weekend. First off we had soccer as our standard Saturday morning event. Levi sored two goals and their team won which was great. They played a team that was fairly evenly matched and so the score was pretty equal. I love watching these games because the kids have to try really hard and they appreciate the other team, celebrating their goals as well. I have fun on the sideline because all the parents know each other and are good friends now and we chat as much (probably more) than we watch the kids! Jo and Jane come and watch fairly consistently as well now so they are getting to know the kids and their parents as well!

Levi's birthday party is next weekend.  OK to be more honest, the first of his birthday parties is next weekend.  I can't believe how quickly this has all happened even though the wait has seemed interminable.  Now I am thinking it will be hard to get everything done that I am wanting done before we leave.  The party is just the start!  Today was about cleaning up the backyard and sifting sand.  I had to sift the sand because it doesn't have a cover and I am going to have the kids search for dinosaurs in the sand next weekend.  Let me tell you my shoulders and back are sore!  After sifting wet sand for hours today, I think I will need to have a quieter one tomorrow!  Luckily tomorrow is about buying supplies and getting them organized rather than heavy manual labor.

By this afternoon, other people were coming over, so we planned to take them down to the creek and do farm things.  It was a beautiful day with bright sunshine but there was anedge to it.  There was a bite to the wind and in the shade it was coolish.  None of that stopped the kids from wading in the creek though.  At least with the fire we could warm them up afterwards.  The kids were city kids and not used to fires or creeks so they had a complete blast and Levi loves showing off his 'countryness'.  I bought a bag of marshmallows and the kids stuffed themselves.  Oh they will be impossible tonight for their respective parents but that would be their problem and not mine!

The other thing that Levi has to always demonstrate is that he is allowed to be in the car on the property without his seat belt.  In fact, he loves to stand on the front seat with his head out the sunroof with the wind on his face as I drive from the creek up to the house.  It isn't far and I go fairly slowly but he loves that he is stretching the rules somewhat, and more so that he can show that off when ever any new people come to the house! 

It has been hard to get anything done with the computer today as the internet has been really dodgy.  Luckily I have been so busy there is always something else to do!

Under 8's Day

Today was Under 8 day at school again.  In fact it is Levi's last  Under 8's Day because Grade 3s are not invited even though Levi correctly informs me that he will in fact still be under 8 years of age next year.  He is generally very cranky that he is still six while everyone in the class is seven.  He doesn't like being the youngest in the class but on days like this, he is happy to be young.  It might mean that he gets it again next year.  He won't.  Under 8s day is really fun for all involved and looks like organized chaos, or fairly disorganized organized chaos!  They made masks and bags.  They played on the playground and played with glue and string.  They painted and got painted on.  It is so much fun to watch all the kids having a blast.  They love it! 

The most fun was watching the kids at the Goop table.  Really there are different types of kids, or more correctly different sensory systems.  You can see just in Levi's group the different kinds.  Two of the kids (Levi was one of these) looked at the Goop and dipped their fingers in it, before shaking it off and quickly washing their hands!  Then there was one boy who looked at the Goop and physically backed away from it with his hands behind his back.  Then there was Jim.  He was up to his armpits in the stuff.  He played in it until we dragged him away and then begged to go back.  In fact the playground pictures of Levi are when we were waiting for him to finish the third time we went to Goop for Jim.  Yes it was really fun to watch these kids and be involved!

The day ends early and you can take the kids home afterwards.  I took Levi and Ty home because Ty would have had to wait until the normal time.  First we had lunch and movie time.  Then they went out in the rain to jump on the trampoline.  I think he will have the strongest calf muscles in the world because he and Ty jumped on that trampoline for nigh on two hours.  They jumped and I got to chat on the computer with a friend.  It was lovely.  Pam brought over her 3 month old as well.  I got to have baby time (which I love) but Jordy was pretty cranky (not loving that as much).  Still holding a baby is always a very calming thing for me, even when they aren't as calm.  Actually she didn't cry at all but it was a bit of effort to keep her that way.  At least Pam got to go for a run! 

Levi was very sweet at one point.  He was climbing on the play structure and then seemed to freeze in between climbing.  I was watching and took a photo and then I went over and asked him what was up.  He said;

"I just stopped to have a think"

An interesting position but still I thought that it was an interesting take on the 'Thinker' position. 

Tonight we had Fish and Chips for dinner and then Levi asked to go to bed.  He is just exhausted, but hopefully it means that he will wake late.

Student of the Week

It continues to be frenetically busy around here.  This is not helped by the fact that Levi is now so excited about going to USA he is waking early (this morning 4.45am).  Tonight he had no trouble at all going to sleep.  After waking early and two hours of soccer training tonight, Levi was tired and trashed this evening.  I took another tick off his head under his hair again tonight, I think.  It was quite a big lump by now and I was pretty blinded by his hair.  I asked Levi if he had anymore that he thought were in his hair, but he thinks I have them all now.  The lumps left over are pretty big and itchy so I hope he is better than his Mum at keeping his hands off them. 

This week at assembly, Levi got Student of the Week for his school.  They have about twenty kids a week chosen from the whole school and he was very proud!  It says; 'For consistently being a respectful class member who has many fascinating ideas to share'.  I am sure he is exactly that!  I can only hope that he will be tomorrow after a very tiring day today!

Ticked Off

Today was another busy one.  I had to go to the Gold Coast for work and then drive to Strathpine to complete the day.  It is a lot of driving but it is worth it.  I am having more and more fun being the mentor and I am gaining a lot from it as well.  I am busy mostly because it is only three weeks until I go to USA for holidays and there seems to be more and more to do rather than appearing that things are getting done.  I just hope that I get at least a chunk of it done before leaving.  The days are getting shorter and shorter and I can't wait until I fly to long days again.  Today I picked Levi up from After School Care right on sunset.  Tomorrow it will be much the same.  I wish that there were other options for me.  Even as I despair that I won't get everything done at work, I am lamenting that I am not spending time with Levi like a 'real' Mum.  I still remember that time when he asked me why I didn't pick him up from school like all the 'real' Mums.  Ah, they know how to push your buttons and twist the knife. 

When I looked at Levi after his shower, there was a red spot on his neck and a pretty hard knot under it.  On closer inspection I discovered it was a tick.  On closer still inspection I discovered it was a paralysis tick.  They are pretty safe for humans, even little ones like Levi.  I killed it and pulled it off.  Levi of course needed a photo of his neck with the tick in place.  The quality is poor for multiple reasons but primarily because the subject was so excited about the tick he couldn't keep still!!  Then when I was snuggling with him before sleep, I stroked his hair and he said;

"Oh, I have a lump on my head as well"

Yep, sure enough, there was another one just under the hairline.  He was even happier about that.  I decided that you must have a warped idea about excitement if poisonous ticks excite you but I also thought that I would keep that to myself! 

Autumn Day

I am so grateful that it is Autumn now.  I am mostly grateful because now these days of yard work are only once a month rather than once a week.  Levi went to a friend's house to play and I worked in the yard discovering the hard way what happens when you hit a fresh cow poo with a Weed Whacker.  I quite like the work especially when Levi is happy at a friend's house and I don't spend the whole time thinking I am not doing what I should be. 

Before I let Levi go to Phonix's place, I made sure that he had done his homework.  He had to write sentences about his favorite pet or object.  He had to use eight adjectives.  It was really cute and a bit of a stretch!  If you can't read it, it says;

"Pippy is a kind dog.  She is a whitish brown.  She chases brown small sticks.  Pippy is warm and very snuggly.  She eats like a hungry pig."

Now that is something to keep for the future!  His writing is getting much better and I am now despairing less that he will learn to write.  Really he is already there.  After talking with the teachers, he now has a 'f', 's' and '5' taped to his desk so he stops reversing them.  He is still a bit affronted by the 5 being there as he feels that he has that mastered.  I told him that likely the teachers will take it away once they are sure he can do it without thinking.  When writing a '3' last week he reversed it and his teacher asked if he needed it on his desk!  Definitive No there!

Random Video

In answer to that question.... No. No they didn't sleep to an even vaguely reasonable time. They were both wide awake and dressed and playing at about 4.30am. They played and played all day. Ty wanted to stay so he joined me in watching Levi's soccer game and was cheering from the sideline. As he knew the other team as well as I did, he cheered for them as well.  Tonight he fell asleep very very quickly but not before eating two dinners!

I have been looking back at some of the videos of Levi.  This was taken Christmas 2008.  It is so much fun to look back at some of these and realise just how much he has grown up in!

Tent Night

It is 9 O'Clock at night and there are still voices, but I haven't the heart to go out there and stop them.  It's Friday night.  Really, What is the worst that can happen?  Other than being tired tomorrow, it can't matter that much and it is good for them.  These are the nights that make good childhood memories.  Levi has a mate over for a sleepover and they are in the tent outside.  It has been freezing lately so I don't have high hopes for a sleep in.  Frankly I will be surprised if they make it much longer outside.  I think that when they stop bouncing around, unless they get really rugged up in the blankets and quilts, they will get cold in a very big hurry!  I love the voices!  They are a balm for my heart at the moment and remind me about happy things.

Well, look!  Finally there was silence and I went out and snuggled them both in.  I closed all the windows that they had unzipped, increasing the chances that they will actually sleep to a normal hour.  Ah I am really looking forward to a fairly simple weekend. 

Nine Years

Nine years is a really long time. It doesn't feel like nine years. It feels like ninety years that I have missed him. It does dull you know? That really searing pain of the first few years of missing him has damped a little. It turns into something different. It turns into something more like an ache. It isn't an easy ache and at times it is almost worse than the searing pain.  In a way though, it really does get a little easier.  I can't help but remember Frankie today.  I can't help but wish so many things.  I wish that even one of the things that I had wished for him at birth had come true, or more correctly, true for longer than a few months. 

When your baby is born.  You wish big things.  You wish that your baby will be happy and healthy.  You wish for a long fulfilling life for him.  You wish that they know little pain and only enough to make them better people.  You wish for so much for this beautiful life that has just been placed in your hands.  You believe that you can give much of that to them as well.  OK, I don't know what everyone wishes, but it was what I wished. 

  

In a way I got what I wished.  Frankie was happy, really happy for much of his life.  He had pain I know but he was happy through all of that.  He had people who loved him and he loved back with all of his huge heart.  He laughed and played enough for a lifetime.  Frankie had a very fulfilling life, albeit not a long one.  I can only continue to believe that.  He knew what he was here for.  He seemed too know anyway. 

 So maybe I got what I wished for but not the way I expected.  I will have photos to remind me.  I will still dream Frankie dreams at times and I will believe that you will be remembered, because I will remember you.  I will tell your brothers about you if they forget and I will tell Levi about you so he can have memories too.  But I will miss you and I will still cry myself to sleep tonight because much as I say that it is getting better, tonight it isn't better.  Tonight I long for you to be here.  Tonight I will regret every minute that I have not had you here.

Goodnight darling, wherever you are.  I still miss you.  I still love you and I will love you forever.

Regular days

I got home from work tonight at about 7.30 at night.  Admittedly, I went out to dinner with friends after work but really I feel like I am getting up, working, getting Levi and then going to bed.  I think it is more about just getting everything done that I need to do before going on vacation.  Still I am whining because it feels like it isn't worth it at times.  Of course, it will be worth it the second that I am on vacation but from here it looks a long way away.  I think that it is this hard coming into vacation just to make vacation worth while.

Levi is doing better at night.  He goes to bed and we have books and snuggle.  Then I give him a bit of time to read with the light on all by himself and wind down.  At 7.30 he turns out the light and goes to sleep.  Of course, because he is going to sleep later, he is getting up a bit earlier, because that is just how things work.  I hope in a few days or weeks he will equalise and start getting up later but I know that is a long shot. 

He is very excited because his teachers have made up a book for him to write in to take to USA.  He can then give a talk to everyone when he gets back.  We had a meeting the other night to talk about ... well lots of things ... but we talked about what work we needed to do and how to approach it.  This was one of those ideas.  So the plan is to write in the book, write the class Emails and postcards and to do Mathletics (Maths online).  It should be good fun!

You Love Me Back

My Mother's day started really early and I knew that was a really bad sign.  At 5.15am, Levi was wide awake.  Why?  I have no idea!  Nor did he!  It wasn't because he was excited about Mother's day.  It wasn't that we had something exciting planned, because we didn't.  It wasn't that the light woke him, because we are about a month and a half from the shortest day.  I have no idea about his sleep anymore. 

So we started the day and Levi had forgotten it was Mother's day even though he had given me a very funny 'back massage' the night before because his teachers told them all it was a good idea.  Anyway part way through the morning he came up with the quote of the century;

"Mum, can you hurry up and finish the dishes, so I can give you my present"

Not quite getting the concept of Mother's day I think but it was fine, because inside the card was a poem he wrote and it was a 'diamond something' poem.  I wasn't really paying attention to what it was called:

Mummy

Nice, Kind

Cleaning, Working

You are the best Mum living!

Loving, Caring

Sweet, Cool

Sue

So if that doesn't melt a mother's heart, nothing will.  Inside the card it said; "Dear Mum, You are awesome because you love me back.  Happy Mother's Day.  Love from Levi"

Ah he might not give me any sleep but he is so sweet and just a beautiful little person in there!

Simple Saturday

This is what we did today.  Well for some of it!  Levi had a soccer game in the morning and again the teams played well.  At one point I was cheering for Levi as he got a goal, when I realised that Levi was in fact sitting on the sideline!  Of course that started a teasing from the assembled parents that rivaled the competition on the field.  They all teased that they would ask Levi to raise his hand just prior to doing anything.  Of course about a minute later Levi raised his hand to call for the ball.  The laughter was loud and long!  It is great that we play kids from his own school, so we know the kids and the parents.  We spent most of the day doing fun things and some non fun things like homework.  On a beautiful, sunny, warm day it was just perfect!

Creekside Fire

This afternoon, we had one of Levi's friends over after school.  Mum and Dad were doing a ballet rehearsal for his younger sister.  Ty has been asking to do a fire by the creek for a while and so we went to the creek this afternoon to have a play.  As they have grown older and the creek grows smaller over winter, it is a very safe place to play now.  I can sit there next to the creek in the shade and just watch them having fun, without feeling like a parental unit is watching their every move.  First off, they went exploring and climbed trees around the banks of the creek.  They started off in their school uniforms but gradually, gradually as things got wet and they shed their clothes, they were much less dressed.  By the end I think they both wanted to start the fire because they were cold more than anything else!  Once that decision was made, the next step was collecting wood.  Both boys crossed the creek probably fifteen times bringing wood to my feet, while I sat beside a pile of driftwood about as high as my head while I sat in the folding chair.  Back and forward, co operating to carry huge logs over (for a fire that at most we could have for about 90 minutes), but it was all about the preparation!

The fire was worth it though.  It is just one of those things that spreads comfort.  You can feel the weight of tens of thousands of generations who have sat beside fires and poked them with sticks.  The boys acted like cavemen, so it wasn't a big stretch!  All in all, it was quite successful.  No one got hurt.  Nothing that we didn't want to burn was set on fire. 

Then we went back up the hill to the house.  Both boys saw the huge pile that had been delivered that day and wanted to run up and down the 'dirt pile'; except it wasn't dirt exactly.  Well not yet!  I mean cow manure eventually becomes dirt.  Right?

Kiedy

Levi has found another dog!  He called him Kiedy (rhymes with Icy).  I can see why he loves him because he is almost exactly the same as Icy, who is now about eighteen months worth of love old and is starting to show a little wear.  Icy actually has a waist now where he has been hugged at night.  Kiedy is the same feel as Icy is; or more correctly was.  Icy is still the most loved as you can see by the pride of place in his sleep, but Kiedy will get there I am sure.   

I am still pretty sore from the tooth extraction but it is getting there.  It still feels a little strange where there should be a tooth but it is just missing!  Tonight I also redid the sidebar of the blog.  I had forgotten really that there are people who don't know my story, or Levi's or Frankie's and I have added a very short story about Frankie and added a photo for those who didn't get to meet him in real life.  It is still a hard time of year. I am trying to stay positive, but the sore tooth is making that more difficult.  Now I am just rambling and I am going to bed! 

Tired and Toothless

Today was about luck.  Now I actually don't really believe in luck much and see it more of an exercise in statistics.  Today I could almost start believing in it again.  I was due to get my split tooth out today in the city.  I hate going into the city and today didn't change that at all!  I was going to ditch the car at a railway station and then catch a train in, because it is impossible to find parking and it costs a fortune!  So off I go with all the best intentions in the world.  It was impossible to find a park!  I'm glad I had left plenty of time in there for the trip.  There was no park at Ferny Grove.  Nothing at Keperra.  Zip at Grovely.  I was struggling and at the same time getting closer and closer to town.  By Grovely I started to feel like the car was handling poorly and so I pulled off and sure enough the back left tire was getting really flat.  I could feel the nail that was in it! 

So my next step was to go to a service station and fill it up.  Naturally, the air hose didn't work.  Actually more correctly, the air hose wouldn't work on the flat tire.  It didn't have any trouble on the other three but would not activate on the only tire that really needed it!  I drove to Kmart and had them fill it with their big machine.  I was feeling like a pathetic girl; one of those "Oh Officer, my nail broke so I can't fix my tire" kind of girls!  Probably to make me feel better rather than because there was any truth in it, the attendent said that sometimes the automatic hoses don't work if the tire is too flat.  Umm, thanks for trying buddy, but I still feel like an idiot!  By this time, I was too late to do anything other than drive into town and pay a million dollars to park. 

So I am in with the oral surgeon (who had the bedside manner of a brick) and he said that it would take him about five minutes to get the tooth out all told and that it wouldn't hurt too much afterward, just a bruised feeling!  Twenty minutes later, multiple tools and times when he was lifting and shaking my head around, the tooth finally comes out but not before he had to drill into the base over and over. At the end he shook his head and said;

"You know how I said it wouldn't hurt too much, I was wrong, this is really going to hurt. I will give you some better pain relief than I normally do"

'Great!' I am thinking! I think there were multiple factors involved in that one and the biggest of those is that I am not and likely will never be anywhere close to osteoporotic! I had my biometrics done lately and my bone mass percentage was around 10%. It is supposed to be around 7%. I am not going to tell you my fat percentage! When we were doing frame size/bone size in high school, I wasn't even on the female scale at all and I had to get to large on the men's scale. Yep, never going to be some petite thing!

On the way home and still numb (thankfully) I stopped and got the tire fixed properly, wandered around Kmart and then just as I'm thinking that I need to get home soon and try out those drugs, the car was done!

Tonight is the 70 million dollar lottery jackpot. When we went for pizza tonight I turned in last week's ticket and had won $320. So see! I had a lucky day!

Beach Bliss

We had a great long weekend.  Plenty of play time, plenty of beach time and lots of chill out time.  I love this time, when Levi and I go somewhere really fun and can just chill out and play, instead of stressing about routines and schedules.  It is more important after weeks where I have had to fly away, even if this time it was only for a day.  We played on the beach, making the now requisite sand castle.  This time we built parking lots and train stations as well and I am sure they will now be included forever, because that is just how his mind works!  I loved the light on the beach and there was barely anyone else around.  Levi was surfed a little bit with his Boogie board but the waves were way too choppy to make it fun and I was grateful, because I am a wimp and hate water that is even a little cold.  Levi is so sweet.  After he was finished with his surfing and wrapped up in his towel, he went over to the lifeguard and thanked him for 'watching him'.  I am sure that doesn't happen as often as it should!

Tonight after we got home, we went to Pam's for a project and then we all went to Sizzler.  Levi could not have had a better weekend if he had ordered it a la carte!  I found it relaxing too.  It helps me remember as May 16th comes closer and I find myself thinking, talking and remembering Frankie more. 

Currumbin

Today we went to the Wildlife Sanctuary.  We went with some friends from the Gold Coast.  Levi and I don't know this family very well but the kids are about the same age.  They have three boys, with one either side of Levi and a little one, who seemed to have enough patience for all the kids!  It was really fun to walk around the park and watch the kids having so much fun!  Oh, there were meltdowns and crankiness and toilet accidents (and that was just from the parents! - not really!), but generally they were just kids and it is so much fun making new friends.  Levi hates being an only child and is always wanting to find friends or alternatively begging for a brother.  For a little kid who is so like his mother in his need at times for quiet and alone time, he still at times craves to have someone his age to bounce things off.  Today he had that.  The boys either side of him, esp the one slightly (about 9 months) younger wanted to be with him. 

 The birds that are the signature of the Wildlife Sanctuary were conspicuous in their absence today but the kids all quickly forgot that with playgrounds and all the other things to do.  There is a high ropes course that we had talked about beforehand, and we went up there to have a look at it.  Levi made the height restriction but it was way way too scary.  I think the thing that took me down was watching some teen aged girl go flying over our heads and slam into a padded tree.  She then had to hold on while switching her safety harness.  Levi then decided that it was just too hard anyway.  If he hadn't, I think that I would have pulled the plug as well, because it scared the snot out of me, thinking that he would be way up there by himself!

Levi's favourite activity was digging for dinosaurs.  He spent quite a bit of time unearthing them. 

The playgrounds were all wildlife themed and this huge spider's web was creepy enough, but really out there with the huge Orb Web Spider hanging above their heads as they played.  There was tree snakes hanging over branches and frogs hanging off the trees, all fake.  There were water dragons and ibis everywhere, not fake!  Levi was completely wiped out by about two in the afternoon.  We came home (to the hotel) after that and played chess and cards for a couple of hours, before either of us were worth much.