Trusting

This was what the Easter Bunny brought Levi last night.  He was very happy with some of it but was a bit disappointed that the Easter bunny hadn't hidden any eggs outside for him to find.  I didn't remember our Easter bunny ever hiding eggs outside for him to find but he insisted.  I think that he was confusing the hunt with the bunny but you know six year olds are always right and their mothers are consistently wrong. 

Today we spent the first part of the day doing nothing.  Actually that is not correct.  We spent most of the day doing very little.  Until three in the afternoon, I was unable to get Levi to do anything really.  He watched TV and played on the floor.  He adamantly refused to do anything.  I went out to the dump and to get a newspaper and he didn't even want to come for the ride.  Pete called to say that the water slide was back up and that we should come and play.  Levi wasn't keen until about three in the afternoon and then suddenly as a light switch he wanted to go.

When we got to Pete and Cheryl's place we went for a walk up the back of their place to check out a snakeskin and try to decide if it was a regular carpet snake or a brown.  We decided that we didn't know.  Then with one kid on a motorbike and two on regular bikes with walked around the perimeter. 

The kids all wanted the slide on!  They are all very relaxed and independent kids, so we turned on the slide and let them go, watching from the top.  They had so much fun and went down on the inflatables, on their tummies, on their backs and any other way that they could think of.  I am sure tomorrow, they will all have bruises along their spines where they bumped across the hard ground.  They slide down with an almost identical look on their faces.  They pretty much close their eyes and just let loose.  I don't remember the last time that I did that.  I haven't just closed my eyes and let things go, trusting that there will be a soft landing.  I wonder if we lose that ability somewhat as we get older; the ability to just let go.  The ability to trust that someone or something will catch you at the end there.  It is very much a child's ability.  I envy how easy it is for them.  I am going to try to find it!

Then the boys started to swim.  Well they used the pool anyway.  It was about jumping.  They hammed it up for the camera and it was just a blast to watch them.

And still they would land, eyes closed and trusting.  Ah kids!  They are fantastic!  I need to go play another fantasy creature tonight.  Levi lost another tooth today.

Bowling

 Today was a busy one again.  The rain last night pushed the creek up and then back down again but it sits hovering at a level that quickly becomes impassable.  This morning it was passable.  We went to a kid's 6th birthday at the bowling alley.  It was the same kid whose mother has been harassing Levi, but I decided that I would be the adult and allow Levi to go.  I was not going to just drop him off and leave him though.  I didn't trust anyone that much.

It was a Star Wars party, which was a little difficult.  It meant that the kids were hyped up and then given light sabers to beat each other up with.  I was mostly just watching the kids and making sure that they were all playing OK together.  At one point I was out of the room but when I came back in Levi was distraught.  The story is that he and another kid were whacking each other with swords.  Levi clipped the other kid's ear and he cried.  Levi then said he was sorry "like 100 times!!" but got corrected by the birthday child's mother.  Levi was sobbing on my knee for about 15 minutes, while it seems the one who got hurt was fine.  At one point Levi said to me;

"I am never going to play with anyone except you ever again, it is too hard!"

I think he is a little jaded about the friend thing at the moment.  He settled down after a few cuddles and happy thoughts but it will take a little longer before he isn't gun shy.

After bowling we went and played with Luke and Nate at the big playplace just around the corner.  It was a pretty good day all around.

Both wearing ourselves out

 Levi had a good day today.  We started at swimming practice.  He is doing better with swimming but there are still times when he drives me nuts.  When he gets tired, or stressed, or unhappy, he just gives up.  I don't know how to get him to just keep going.  It is not a thing that I ever really did.  Certainly not when I was old enough to remember.  I was happy as the underdog and made getting up after being knocked down an art form.  I don't know how to teach him though!

 We went to a friends house, mostly to decide if we were going skating but there was too much inertia and we all just stayed and drank coffee while the kids swam in the pool and generally ran around.  It is great to watch them.  The kids had a wooden pallet that they were cutting up with a saw and hammering nails into.  They loved it and it is so good for them!

I then spent the rest of the afternoon cutting weeds with a Whipper Snipper.  I love to use the Weed Whacker when I am kind of cranky, esp if I am cranky at God.  At the moment I am really mad at God. 

I am mad because of DMD

I am mad because of Neuroblastoma

I am mad because of SMA

I am mad because of Pulmonary Haemosiderosis

I am mad because of all those kids missing from families because of a random disease that no one deserves.

I'll never understand the necessity for sacrifice, God's hands are bloody with them.  How does having a 5 year old die of brain cancer help anything?   

Levi tired out after the pool

A day in paradise

 Today was one of those beautiful days that reminds me of why I really am in Australia.  It was one of the rare days that Levi actually slept in for starters and I think that actually having enough sleep is a start.  We missed his swimming lesson at 7.30am because I refuse to wake a sleeping child, really .... ever.  We skipped swimming but then went to the skatepark.  I think every child on the Northside got a scooter for Christmas.  There were a lot of kids there but they were all quite young, so Luke, Nate and Levi did OK, but we didn't last as long as normal, just because there were a few too many others scooters competing for space.  Our kids are all really tired and so it wasn't a big stretch for them to be done early. 

 Next we went to Luke and Nate's house for a play and a swim.  All of them are now competent enough that they don't have to have someone in the water all the time.  We can sit and chat from the side and occasionally saying "Don't jump on the boogie board like that!" or "Be careful".  Then the kids got on the motorbikes.  It was Levi's first lesson, so there was lots of 'Safety stops' and other first lesson type things.  His head was too big for the helmet that came with the adult dirt bike that Pete recently bought.  No one was overly surprised.  Luke has a huge head as well so they are good company.  It seems I'll be up for a helmet soon because he quite likes the motor bike.  Pete is a great teacher too.  Think 'safety' before 'funniest home videos'.  It works for me.  The best thing is Cheryl and I sit back and play on the bikes or drink coffee. 

 Tonight Levi went to bed on time.  Now that doesn't sound like much, but it is a big thing as for the last few weeks his sleep has been; well, disrupted is too mild a term for it.  The poor kid has switched too many time zones and had too many late nights, it is just a relief to get him in bed at a reasonable time, clean and with hair and teeth washed.  It is little wonder that he has been so tired.  It is little wonder that I have been tired.  In case anyone wanted to know, No I still haven't unpacked fully from either Townsville or USA, but at least I have made a start.

Today the one part of Queensland not flooded in the last month, has a cyclone bearing down on it with another following hot on it's heels.  I am thinking of my families in Townsville.  They have a hard week coming up.  I hope that they stay above water, a luxury that most of the rest of Australia has missed.