Goop and Grossness

This has been an interesting week, to say the least.  It has pretty much been one thing after another and we are just crawling out from under it.  One illness after another meant that I worked little this week.  I think it was Monday, half of Tuesday and a few hours on Friday.  Levi was having problems with his asthma and we stayed home Tuesday morning but I took him into work to do some things that afternoon.  I went to bed early and was feeling 'fuzzy' but it wasn't tiredness.  I woke early and pretty much kept half a glass of Sprite down between then and the next day.  It took a while to shake that off and I went to work Friday but didn't see kids because I felt it was too risky.  As I was driving home, my vision kept blurring, which was a bit odd but I figured that the contacts were getting old.

 

The next morning, I couldn't open my right eye at all, it was completely gummed shut.  The left eye was better but still pretty goopy.  So Saturday was a write off as well.  I could see again once I started to use the antibiotic eye treatment but I was still pretty light sensitive.  We had a bunch of things that we had to do that day though.

 

Levi had his soccer breakup and I would love to show the photos but in the last week, haven't had time to even to start to look at why Blogger is being such a butt about the photos.  I haven't had the strength or the eyesight!  Levi's breakup was really fun.  I stayed mostly in the shade chatting to one of the Dads.  They had a fun park, and Levi is now at an age and Samford is such a place that he could run off and play on the jumping castle and mini golf without my watching him.  They had a Laser Skirmish and lots of kids playing soccer all over the place.   Levi just found his friends, got $10 for a stamp on his arm to allow him access and then was gone until lunch time.

 

This morning I am finally on the computer, interspersed with Levi needing it for homework and all the things that I have had to do last week and for obvious reasons didn't.  I can only hope that next week we crawl out of this hole that we have inadvertently crawled into.  Because, you know what?  This isn't much fun!

Back Online

We are back online.  Our Internet has been shut off for the last two days.  I am not completely cut off because my phone is still 3G and I can get my emails when I am not at the house (we have no coverage under this house).  I finally got a hold of the provider today and they had cut us off because we had reached a new arbitrary limit above our plan!  So let me see.  You put the limit there, not me.  We have gone hundreds and once a thousand dollars over when my brother Jack comes out, but we have always paid on time.  So randomly we are getting a limit and then held to it, all without letting us know!  Yes I was a little annoyed but I am guessing it isn't the girl on the phone's fault!

It has been a busy and a quiet weekend.  Friday night we had Ty over for a sleepover and the boys played until about 9.30 at night and then got up early.  They played all day.  Needless to say by Saturday night Levi was dragging.  Ty had gone home in the late afternoon and Levi was barely able to make it through dinner.  It was Sizzler which was worth staying awake for. 

Soccer this week was 'Cancer Week'.  We all buy special yellow soccer socks for the kids where all the money is donated back to the Cancer Council.  The kids then all wear the socks together on a designated day.  It made me feel proud of the club for such a good idea and to involve all the kids in something a little bigger than themselves.  It is especially poignant for me with Bill's birthday in August.  I still miss him heaps at times even though it has been a long time, nearly sixteen years.

Today was a slow one.  It started slow.  We were slow to get dressed and lounged in front of the TV for a while before we did anything at all.  We didn't have to go out at all.  We didn't have anything that we had to do and so we didn't do anything!  Levi was pleased about the Internet being down because some of his homework had to be done on the Internet and he thought he would get out of it!

Swimming Mid Winter

We are getting back in the groove again.  Levi is getting slowly better with his asthma but it has been an uphill battle this time.  It may just be that we are having a cold spell and with the humidity and mold around, it is playing with his pipes!  We had soccer again this morning and I took my camera again because we were having team shots and I thought that I might save some money by taking my own while the professional shots were being taken.  I ended up being busy at the time anyway, so I am going to have to cough up the money.  I don't mind but generally the shots are pretty ordinary and not really worth the money.  Levi was having an 'old' day.  One of those days where he could as easily be seventeen years old as seven. 

 

Then after doing homework, Ty came over for a play and a sleepover.  The kids had a blast and are now sound asleep in bed.  They had to have a fire by the creek again and I was happy to help them.  They played in the creek until they were blue and shaking and then warmed up by the fire and then got straight back in the creek!  Then we toasted marshmallows, poked at the fire a bit more and then I put them straight in the shower to get them warmed back up fully!

This is the other thing we did.  Any hints?  Yes, he spent all of the soccer game scratching his head, so I checked and he had some head lice.  We washed, conditioned and combed out his hair with a fine tooth comb!

Night Soccer

Sorry about the blurriness of this shot, it was the best a hand held iPhone could do at night.   Actually it isn't that bad given the fact that it was dark!  Tonight, Levi decided that he wanted to start singing again at night which I am really happy about.  He says that his music teacher 'sings like birds singing'! Maybe he has a bit of a crush on her!  Regardless, it was a beautiful thing to say and we got to sing a fairly eclectic musical array before bed; Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Amazing Grace and Jingle Bells. 

It has been really cold and his asthma (for something completely different) is completely out of control for him.  He needs to use the Ventolin about every two to three hours.  I was talking with friends tonight and all those with asthmatic kids are out of control too.  It must have something to do with the wind coupled with the cold.

Still Struggling!

As you can see by the lack of blog posts, nights are still really hard at the moment!  I get to about nine at night and feel like I am really dragging.  It means that I drag myself to bed and catch up a bit further on sleep.  Levi is doing a bit better than I am, for which I am extremely grateful.  I think that in the next few nights I will try to stay up longer and see if I can switch it before IO have to go on Outreach next week.

Outreach to Cairns is not ideal the week after I got back for lots of reasons.  The biggest is that it doesn't give me much time to help with the organization or planning of it all.  The smallest reason is that I am still 'off' in my timing and sleep/wake cycle.  This time it was moved because the OT that I am going with is pregnant and we had to move it so she could still fly. 

Today we went back into normal weekends.  Levi has soccer and then we are catching up with friends.

 

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!

Drenched and Flooding

Today it rained all day.  It had rained all night too.  I thought that soccer would be cancelled because they are playing on the new fields now and the senior players are fairly precious about them.  I was wrong.  The new fields have better drainage and they were able to play.  They got completely soaked.  They had so much fun!  I remember those games as a kid too.  The games where we got to get wet and dirty and play in the mud, all with encouragement rather than derision.  Those games were the most memorable.  Levi and his mates ran around and were cheered on by parents from random teams as they lost a hard fought 6:5.  All the teams are playing so much better and are really fun to watch now.  OK, it wasn't that much fun to stand in the pouring rain and watch but it was still fun!It was hard to take any photos that reflect the pounding rain, especially as the best I had for the conditions was my underwater camera!

You can see how hard Levi is laughing in this photo.  It is such a blessing to watch these kids have fun and run around like mad things. 

Soccer Starts

Today was the first day back at soccer games.  Levi plays for the Rangers U7 United.  The coach sent the schedule around with the significantly more apt name of the U7 Untied.  I am thinking that it was a Freudian slip!  The team is regularly needing their laces tied and frankly their play is regularly becoming untied.  That said; today they played like legends.  They are spreading out and passing to each other.  They are calling for the ball and actually kicking it well.  They won 10:1.  Today we played the U7 Hearts and many of the team were friends, so it made the watching infinitely more fun as well.  The kids all know each other and are just as happy to celebrate the other team's goals as they are to celebrate their own.  It really is a fun morning, watching Levi and his friends have fun and sipping coffee!

We got there early enough to watch the lower ages as well and it was a good reminder as we arrived, because all you really hear from the sidelines for those games is;

"Wrong way!  Go the other way!"

They are beautiful but I find it a joy to watch the kids kicking with much more intent, understanding much more about what they are doing when they kick and why. 

This afternoon, we went to a house warming about twenty minutes across town and Levi was pretty much bored until a kid arrived with his parents.  Levi and he recognized each other instantly (Of course, I didn't recognise either Mum or Dad).  It was a boy from his class at school.  It is amazing how small a town Brisbane, or North Brisbane really is!  Then it was incredibly hard to get him to come home at all. 

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

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!

Budget Blues

This morning, Levi came in and said;

"Mum, my underwear are getting tight. I know that it might not be in the budget, and I can hold out for a few more weeks, but can we put new ones on the list?"

OK I know they don't cost that much and I did go out and buy him some, but I am proud of him for paying attention to things like budget.  I am happy that he knows that sometimes you have to suck it up and wait for something.  Wait until it is time.  There are adults who have yet to learn that lesson.  The lesson that says, sometimes you have to wait for things you want, sometimes even things you need. 

Levi was very happy when he heard that I had bought him underwear but this was his comment after looking at them;

"Mum, the next time, can I help you pick them out?"

OK, there are sometimes that he has a little bit more of his father than he has of me.  The clothes gene is definitely one of them; that, and the eyebrow gene.  Levi cares if things match.  He loves colors and will spend much more time than I ever would making his outfit right.  I am a different story.  I remember coming out of my room one morning and Robert raised an eyebrow and said;

"How did you pick that shirt to go with those shorts?"

I looked myself up and down, laughed and replied truthfully;

"They were both on top."

Yep that is about the extent of my fashion gene.  The only gene that I have that is worse (I think), is the flirting gene.  Just to clear it up...the eyebrow gene is the ability to raise each eyebrow separately from each other.  When I raise an eyebrow, the other side follows, both Levi and Robert can raise either eyebrow completely in isolation.  I just have eyebrow envy.  Totally!

Other than that, soccer started again today.  We went to practice after school and Levi was very happy and excited for soccer to start.  He has been really looking forward to it!

Soccer

This Post is called Soccer but could also be titled 'What are we doing with our kids?'  So let's go back a bit.  I took Friday and half of Thursday off sick and have been pretty under the weather.  I have been slow to move.  Last night (Friday) we went over to a friend's house for (significantly more upmarket) nachos, which we would have been having at home anyway.  The lower school had a Disco on that night and after being on again, off again several times in the night, the boys just didn't really want to go.  I too was grateful, because it started pretty late even for a Friday and frankly last time I took him he sat on the side and asked to go home all the time.

Then we woke up and went to soccer.  We played Dayboro (a little town up the way) and it was an interesting game.  Before the game I played with our team in a 5 against 1.  I tried to show them how a team can beat a single player every time.  They played against me and they called and passed well.  After a season of practice, they are getting really good!  I was almost in trouble!  Now there was a reason for doing it.  We were playing Dayboro. 

Dayboro has a kid who has some pretty good skills in it but the team and their parents have allowed the team to go from the Dayboro Under 6's to Ed's team and his Minions.  It is so sad to watch.  He is pretty good and with my Physio brain, it is fun to watch kids well put together and enjoying it.  With my parent brain, the whole thing just saddens me.

He never passes.  He tackles his own team and he is never substituted.  The first time we played his team we lost about 10 000 to zip.  Actually it was 14 to 0, I think.  Today it was 4 to 2 and 2 of their goals were scored in a mismatched game.  It is great to watch what we all know is true; A team will beat an individual every time!  I think that this poor kid, unless a parent gets a clue, or someone brings him in line, will likely peak in his soccer career somewhere between Under 7's and Under 8's, because after this, the team becomes the focus.  It would be such a pity.  He has such potential with his skills, it would be sad to see ego destroy it.

Today we had 5 players and so did they.  We play 4 a side on the field at a time, so both sides had a substitution.  Our kids played well.  They were locking Ed down and tackling him.  They went to him and tackled him and often as not got the ball.  So Ed starts to get frustrated, and cranky!  Now remember, we are talking about Under 6's.  First off, he runs over Levi's hand wearing soccer tags, so Levi comes off crying with three tag marks in his swollen hand.  Now we are down to 4 players.  Next Ed whacks another boy's head, who comes off with his nose bleeding.  We are down to 3.  If we had been playing another Samford team, actually any team, they would have pulled a player.  In fact it has happened several times during the season, but not this team.  We played 4 against 3 for about 5 minutes.  Now Levi is a bit of an Italian Soccer player so I was not concerned he was actually hurt, but still at this age it is a bit unfair.  Anyway our coach and our parents start to yell encouragement to our team;

"You can tackle him!  He won't pass it!"

And once they took that to heart our team did well!  Take out Ed and there was nothing left.  At halftime, our team all huddled together with the coach chatting and getting encouragement.  Their team did too.  Oh except for Ed who sat with his parents.

I wanted to go to them afterward and ask them;

"What are you trying to teach him from soccer?"

"What are you thinking!?"

But they would think that it was sour grapes from me.  Not so.  I am so proud of our kids and the fact that when H went back on with blood on his face, every one of our team went up and patted him on the shoulder and checked out how he was and it was true too when Levi went back on.  Because if that parent asked me those same questions, the answers are easy;

"I want him to learn to work with a team"

"I want to watch him grow into a strong compassionate adult and childhood soccer, is one of the ways"

And you know what? It's working!

Cleaning

Today started with the sleepiest boy on earth.  I was actually unable to wake him at 7.30 when we had to start to get ready.  I opened all the windows, moved him around, and even made loads of noise and yet he slept on.  I think he was a little tired after the rock climbing last night.

He had a fun day at soccer.  The score was 8 - 1 and the 1 was a very lucky 1.  Of those goals, Levi got 6 of them, but the best part was that the team has really started to get the idea of being a team.  Then we went home and cleaned.

And Cleaned

And Cleaned!

I had some friends bring over their power washers and we all cleaned the mould off the tiles.  It sounds simple but the pavers hadn't been cleaned for many years so there were layers of mould and grime.  It was getting to the point that the kids slipped over every time they walked the path.  Pete said that he thought at one point there was a whole ecosystem as yet undiscovered by science.  I hope we didn't kill the new mould that would cure cancer! 

Soccer

 We had soccer again today.  It finally stopped raining enough to actually play some soccer!  We haven't had training for weeks with all the holidays and rain so it was fun to be out there again.  I actually don't know the score as it should be and the kids had a blast!  Pretty much it still looks like a melee but it is a bunch of kids burning up energy and a bunch of parents randomly chatting on the sidelines.  Ah! Saturday sport! It is a lovely thing.

The rest of the day we had Ruby over to play.  I love having Ruby over!  It is so fun to have a girl over.  They are really different in the way that they approach things.  Maybe it's just Ruby, but she is so different from the four boys that I have had and they were all different from each other.  They were different but not as diametrically different as Ruby's approach!

As you can see in this photo, there was more tackling of each other than anything too 'team' oriented today.  Here is a photo in the middle of the game that has all the red players and no blue ones.  I love it!  The concentration on all of the little faces you can see, but none of them really are seeing each other. 



First Soccer Game

 Levi had his first soccer game today.  The score (We are not keeping score at this age but try to tell the kids that!) was 12 - 1 and our team won.  Actually of that score, Levi got a half the goals, but I was very proud of him because he actually did pass the ball a few times.  He looked a year older than everyone else out there today.  i am not really sure why.  He was a head taller than some of the kids but was not the tallest.  Some of it was that he did actually control the ball, tackle and dribble, without the swarm of bumblebee look that most soccer games have at this age.  Who knows, I was proud of him and it was a lovely feeling.  He was proud of himself as well and that was very cute, esp when he realised that the one goal in opposition to them was when Levi was sitting on the sidelines.

The referee was about 12 and she was beautiful as well.  It was her first time refereeing and every now and then she would blow the whistle and then think about it, laugh and then apologize to all the kids.  She was cheered by the parents as well. 



Soccer Breakup

Levi with his medal

Levi had an odd weekend, mostly because he was still pretty sick from asthma most of the weekend. We had a fairly busy weekend regardless. It was the last day of soccer, so all the kids got to walk on a dais and get a medal, which they were all quite pleased about, but not quite as happy as last year when they got a trophy with their own name on it.

They are an opinionated bunch these kids, all discussing the pros and cons of medals verses trophies. By Sunday afternoon, it was also obvious that I had caught Levi's cold. Now I am coughing and have a heavy chest as well.

Samford Show and Soccer

Levi and Ty with Shannon about to be flipped around
Levi getting a goal

This waking was much better. He got up early still but he got up and played all by himself. It is a great thing about Levi, he's a fast learner. We had swimming and soccer today and he was very into both of them. It's funny, some weeks he is completely dedicated to both and other times he doesn't want to do either. It must a fatigue thing but it seems random to me.

Last weekend we went to the Samford show but it's taken me this long to get the photos up. It seems we have so much to do and planned on the weekend, that I am actually worse about getting photos up on the weekend than on the week days.

Levi Day

Today we just did Levi things. It was great! First we went to swimming training where Levi is now feeling almost too comfortable and is starting to listen less and muck around more. His swimming is pretty good though now. He is able to swim freestyle and breathe fairly well. He can do backstroke well. Of course as we had to get up early, he slept in. I swear he only does that on days that we have to leave early but it is nice every now and then.

After swimming we went to soccer. This week Levi was back in the swing. After last week when he barely played at all, he was very much involved and played well. He did all the stretches and warm up. He followed instruction and had fun. All in all, he was a different child from last week. I never know when the switch will happen or what will trigger it. If there is a trigger. Maybe he was just tired last week or something else. Who knows, just thoughts.

Then we went to the Skate Park. He loves the park and he took the 2 wheel scooter over a few (very small) jumps. He flew down slopes and made friends with some of the locals. Mostly they are teenagers or just pre teen. It is amazing to watch him interact with these kids. He just needs reminding every now and then that the teenagers don't want to spend all their time with him!

Soccer Photos

Happy Mother's Day

This morning I was woken up really early by Levi excited that it was Mother's day and wanted to give me his present. He had made a little wooden hand mirror, that he had painted blue and stuck hearts and stars on it. It was perfect, made more perfect by his statement;

"Mum, You can look into it and see how beautiful you are"

What a charmer!

Then we started the day. Swimming at 7.30am. Soccer at 9am. Levi is getting much more out of soccer this year. Being a year older has made all the difference. He doesn't cry at all and loves the running after the ball. He is still with all of his friends and today got 2 goals. When his friend Natey who is 3 was sad because he hadn't been able to get a goal, Levi took him aside and explained that on a team if one person gets a goal, everyone on the team gets it as well. It made Nate happy again. I love his nature so much, competitive but never at the cost of a friend's feelings.

This afternoon, we had a working bee to help Jo get on top of things at the farm. Most of the kids came over to help and Di and Brian as well. It was great. There was plenty of work and good spirits from all. The trees all got trimmed. The edges of all the paths were all cleaned. I weed whacked with a whipper snipper for about 3 hours and now I can barely open my hands but it was great to have baby sitting and be able to just work hard, without having to think too hard. Levi got drinks for everyone and handed them around. He had his mates Zac and Alex to play with, so he had a really busy day as well. He dropped into bed and was asleep almost instantly. He is in there talking as I type. He always seems to talk in his sleep when he is really really tired.