Life with Us...

Another Snow Day

2010-01-07T00:13:00.000Z

We had another snow day today, the novelty is definitely wearing off, at least for me!

Told Kieran that tomorrow (Thursday) will also be a snow day and he says "yesssss" with a big grin, where as Callum wants to go to school, strange boy. I have a feeling that they wont be back at school till Monday, then they're predicting more snow for next week, aaarggh.

I had so many plans for getting into a good routine of work, gym, house stuff, got off to a great start on Monday and now it's all gone to pot. Hopefully I'll get back to it one day.

Just ordered Wii Fit Plus, you know the thing that tipped me into actually ordering it... there's a bit on it which lets you track your pets weight! Both our cats are on a diet and it would be nice to know if it's actually having an effect without carting them down to the vets. Plus it was only £15 with free delivery and it's supposed to have some cool new features.

Way Past My Bedtime

2010-01-06T01:36:00.000Z

Been messing around with this blog for way too long, now it's 1:30am and I really should be fast asleep. Only another 4 1/2 or 5 hours before Callum wakes up! Another snow day tomorrow, maybe we'll actually be able to persuade Kieran to go out and play in it, he's such a softy southern Californian boy that he doesn't want to get cold outside!

Callum Update

2010-01-05T10:46:00.005Z

Callum, what can I say about my oldest son, who will be 7 in just a few months. 7, still can't get my head around that!

He's going to our local primary school and has a fantastic 1:1 teaching assistant. He's reading and writing and helps out others in his reading group when they don't know a word. He takes part in all the lessons, sometimes at the same level sometimes adjusted but he's there fully included, fully accepted and loved by his friends.

He still loves to dress up, hence the pirate coat over his PJ's in the picture. Loves to be the centre of attention and make people laugh. He went up on stage at the pantomime in Blackpool last month and was a star, no fear, just loving the claps. He was a shepherd in his school Christmas play and I had several parents come up to me and say how well he'd done and again he was loving the applause.

He's also a stubborn little b***** and tries my patience severley at times. He's now too big for me to carry up the stairs so putting him in his room for a time out is getting harder and harder. He will just cross his arms, turns his back on you and that's it. Sometimes distraction will work but usually we just have to wait for him to snap out of it, then we can actually talk to him and know he's listening. He's also pretty typical though, last time I did manage to put him in time out he slammed the door and shouted "it's not fair!". Made me smile.

Kieran Update

2010-01-05T10:33:00.004Z

Kieran is now 5, not sure where the times gone. He's loving school, doing great with his reading and is so inquisitive. Last week he asked me what a "tantrum" was, I explained then with a big grin on his face he exclaimed "I do that when you send me to my room!"

What he likes best is playing on the computer - he's already discovered google and will search for his favourite TV programs and games. We've added all the parental controls so hopefully it'll keep him out of mischief for the time being.

This photo is him this morning, chocolate round his face from eating a chocolate pancake, still in his PJ's as it's a snow day and at the computer with his big fake grin.

He's a gorgeous boy who still loves to snuggle, but is getting concious of peer presure so wouldn't admit it to his friends. He got a really cute puppy temporary tattoo on his arm earlier this month, but asked us to remove it before school as he was afraid his friends would think it was girly and laugh at him, sad isn't it.

New Year, New Start

2010-01-05T10:28:00.002Z

2010, going to be 38 this year, funny how I don't really feel much different than I did at 20.

I gave up blogging for a while, mostly because I'd moved back to England and originally had set up this blog to keep in touch with family. Just because I'm back in the UK though doesn't mean that I get to actually see a lot of my family as they're dispersed all over the place.

So back to blogging for anyone who wants to read...

Busy, Busy

2008-04-25T10:09:00.002+01:00

I've been busy destroying my house (well the sitting room anyway). When we moved in it had lovely pink vinyl wallpaper, a very tasteful 1970's brick fireplace/display thing and a patio door that doesn't open and that has been expertly fitted (hopefully you've been reading this in a very sarcastic voice!). So it was time for it to be completley stripped down and made into a room that we'll actually use as an adult sitting room & dining room (has been the kids playroom).

The wallpaper is now gone

The carpet is gone, including the spiky stuff the goes around the room to hold it down and the million and one staples that they used to hold the underlay in place.

The brick monstrosity is gone

and the patio door will be replaced on Monday

We had a gorgeous new fireplace installed this week and I've got undercoat on most of the walls.

We're going to sand and varnish the floor boards, paint one wall a bluey green and the rest a neutral off white/cream with white woodwork.

I wish I'd taken some before photos but here's some work in progress.

Woke up to this

2008-04-06T14:25:00.001+01:00

, originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

The garden looked beautiful, I love it when the sky is blue and clear and it's cold and snowy.

Breakthrough!

2008-04-04T16:30:00.002+01:00

Okay, I know I've blogged about potty training several times lately, but when it consumes your life for 2 solid weeks there isn't much else to blog about!

Guess how many wet pairs of pants we've had today.....NONE!

Ok we've got another 2 hours to go before bedtime but usually I'm onto my 2nd lot of washing by now and Callum has been through every pair of trousers that he ones.

The best thing was that this morning Callum woke up dry and after being up for about half an hour TOLD me that he needed a wee before he actually started it, woo hoo! He got huge claps for that. The rest of the day I've taken him at regular intervals and after a little bit of persuasion he's gone in the toilet.

We also went and got the boys hair cut today, it was long overdue. Here's the result...

Kieran didn't want me to take his picture

Potty Update

2008-04-03T08:02:00.003+01:00

Mima asked how the potty training was going, so here you go. It's still very hit and miss, but we are making progress!

Callum had swimming again yesterday and actually sat on the toilet before the lesson and had a wee in the toilet and I managed to get most of his post-swim wee in the toilet as well! The good thing about the wee before the lesson was that it was a 'wee on command', which is what we're really aiming for.

Little Animals

2008-04-01T12:02:00.005+01:00

Click on the pictures if you want to see them in a bigger size

Good News

2008-03-29T22:11:00.002Z

We got a letter today from the education department to say that Kieran has a place at Callum's school for next year, yippeee!

We now live outside the catchment area for the school so even though Callum is at the school Kieran wasn't guaranteed a place. One less thing to stress over.

Toilet Training

2008-03-27T11:31:00.003Z

Toilet training is the one area that I feel that Callum is really behind, not just compared with typical kids but also with kids with Down syndrome.

We've tried multiple times and sometimes have had a little success.

As the kids are off school for a little over 2 weeks for Easter holidays we decided that it was time for another concerted effort. We're on day 4 now and I can feel myself about to start bashing my head against a brick wall again! He's worn underpants and trousers each day and only had nappies for bedtime. Here's our statistics

* Approximately 6 pairs underpants (and trousers) each day
* mopping up the floor too many times to count
* Wees in the toilet - 1 and a couple of dribbles, aaarrgggghhhh

I know it's not his fault, he just really doesn't seem aware of when he's about to wee or even sometimes when he has wee dripping down his leg. When we do get him on the toilet he doesn't seem to know how to release. We've tried running the tap, reading books, singing the wee wee song (don't ask!), sticker charts, cheering, clapping, bribing

Yesterday after swimming he started to wee as soon as I took his trunks off, so we ran into the toilet. Get willy over the toilet and everything stops, take 2 steps away and he wees all over the floor, back to the toilet and it stops, back out to the changing room and he turns back into a fountain!!!

Ten days 'till school starts again, hopefully we'll have some progress before then.

Quack Quack Song

2008-03-18T10:35:00.001Z

I was feeling in a crappy mood this morning, Mark isn't feeling great, finances are a bit tight and I didn't sleep well. Not the best mood for a school event but I have a huge grin on my face now. Just take a look...

Swimming

2008-03-17T12:01:00.002Z

Callum absolutely adores swimming and used to go once a week as part of his therapy when we were in California. Since we've been back we've been to the pool a few times but not had formal lessons. A few months ago we had a visit from a PT and she mentioned swimming lessons for kids with disabilities, we got his name on the list straight away but were expecting a very long wait.

Well yesterday we got a call to say that his name is now at the top of the list and can we start on Wednesday! Officially he can't start until he's 5, but as his birthday is on Saturday they're not going to quibble over 3 days. He's going to get a 30 minute one on one lesson once a week for the next 10 weeks and we'll review after that. Callum was almost swimming by himself when we were in California so it'll be exciting to see him back in the water.

I think Mark may want to accompany us to one or more of the sessions as the lessons are held at Manchester United's training ground, which are not open to the public.

The only bad thing about it is that Wednesday is also donkey riding day, so it looks like we'll only be able to go to the once a month Saturday sessions for the time being.

Family Portrait

2008-03-04T14:52:00.001Z

Family Portrait, originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

I love this photo, I think it's my new favourite.

This is my Grandad, the boys great Grandad, and the boys on a recent visit.

Long break again

2008-03-04T14:44:00.002Z

Where did the last three and a half months go! My apologies, I keep meaning to post an update an then life takes over and it never quite gets done.

Can you belive it Callum will be 5 in 18 days time!!! Five, how did my little 6lbs 13oz baby boy turn into this big boy, I have no idea where the time goes.

Quick update, first the great news...I got the all clear, woohoo - no change to my MRI, nothing that can be identified as an MS leison, do not make another apointment, just get on with life. You have no idea how great it was to hear after having this hanging over me for all these months.

Good news, I might have some work to do! I've been looking for a while but nothing seems to really fit with school hours and school holidays and I really don't want to put the kids in an after school/holiday club. But a friend of a friend has a web development company and might need some help, hopefully it works out.

We're all doing well and I will post more soon, promise...probably....maybe

Quick Trip to Urgent Care

2007-11-18T19:14:00.000Z

Callum's been sounding a bit junky for the last couple of days so we made him an appointment with his doctor for first thing Monday morning. This obviously wasn't soon enough for Callum so he decided to get a fever of 39.2 centigrade (about 102.something Fahrenheit), not that huge but as he still has neutropenia and neutropenia and fevers can mean trouble we decided to get him checked out sooner rather than later.

It looks like it probably is just viral, ear and throat membranes are both a bit swollen, chest is clear, but because of the neutropenia the nurse practitioner gave him a course of antibiotics as a precaution. Only trouble is she either didn't tell me (or it went in one ear and out the other) what dosage to give him or how long to take it for AND she didn't write it on the bottle. Plus it's an antibiotic that hasn't worked particularly well in the past, so I think we'll keep the appointment with the GP tomorrow just to get a bit more info.

Poor boy is tired and sleepy but still happy and smiling.

Let Us Pray

2007-11-16T09:44:00.000Z

Before I start this let me say that I'm not a religious person, an atheist with occasional leanings towards agnostic.

I took Callum into school one day last week and his teaching assistant was late, usually when that happens I stay in the classroom with him while all the other kids go to assembly. Well on this day Callum was in top form, hung his coat up, sat on the carpet without being asked and when they all lined up for assembly he did to. So the teacher and I decided to run with it and I said I'd wait outside the hall to intervene if he got antsy.

It's been many many years since I watched a primary (elementary) school assembly and I was surprised to hear them sing a hymn and then all bow their heads in prayer. There are all the kids with their eyes closed and heads bowed and what does Callum do....

He snores

Loudly

That's my boy!

Health update for me

2007-11-15T14:31:00.000Z

I finally pulled my finger out and get a referal to see a neurologist here in England. I haven't had any eye issues since last summer and I've been putting off seeing a neurologist here because I don't even want to think about the possibility of MS, you know the stick your head in the sand approach!

Well the doctor seemed nice, did the usual neurological exam, spent a long time looking at my eyes which got me a bit worried but he said it all looks ok. Took lots of history and I of course can't remember all the details but at least I'd dug out my records from UCLA.

So at the end he says that everything looks fine, my previous MRI looks ok to him - lesions are small and not in places typically associated with MS. He asked me if I really wanted another MRI done, now I know that these things are expensive but for my own peace of mind I said yes. So at some point soon I'll be sent an appointment for an MRI of head and spine (they never did the spine before) and hopefully that will be the end of it.

Of course they can't say that I will never develop MS, he said there's about a 10-20% chance of developing it in the next 5 years, rising to about 30% in 10 years. So the odds are in my favour for the next 10 years at least...

Dentist

2007-10-30T13:23:00.000Z

I'm not dentist-a-phobic but prior to moving back to the UK I hadn't been to the dentist since before Callum was born. I'm not afraid of them, not particularly bothered about drills and injections but hated the fact that after every appointment I was told that I needed a load more work done and needed to come back for several more appointments. By the time that work was finished it would be nearly time for the next check up and it would start all over again.

Well after a little bit of prodding I decided that it was time to find a new dentist, couldn't find an NHS one for me and Mark but found a private one that will treat the kids on the NHS. I went in, sat on the chair, let him poke and prod at my teeth a bit and then waited for the news about how dreadful my teeth are, and...it never came. He said they were in good condition, keep on eye on a couple of things and see you in 6 months, yipeee, I can't remember that last time that a dentist has said that to me.

That was 6 months ago, since then Mark has been and so have both the kids. He's courteous to everyone, treats the kids very gently but not patronisingly, informative but not pushy and best of all I just went for my checkup today and again got the "everything is fine, come back in 6 months" speech. I think I actually found a good one this time.

Tinkle, Tinkle

2007-10-29T11:43:00.000Z

We've begun potty training Callum, again!

It has been attempted many times before but Callum has never gotten the concept, he showed no interest in the toilet or potty (even though he knows what they're for). He doesn't care if his wet, cold trousers are clinging to his legs or his nappy is round his ankles. He quite happily clapped and cheered when Kieran was potty training, has watched Mark & I on the toilet, has put his doll on the potty, has had a wee in the bath and told us that he's doing it - so knows where the wee comes from but just wasn't ready.

Well we had a visit from the continence nurse on the 19th who gave me a couple more ideas and as it was the half term holiday we decided to give it a go. The continence nurse wanted us to put him on the potty 3 times a day for 2 or 3 minutes, give him something to blow while on the toilet (like a balloon or bubbles) as it activates the same muscles that you need for going to the toilet, and to give lots of praise and resort to bribery if necessary.

So armed with our tools and the Tinkle Toonz potty we set to work....

Saturday - Wednesday

We did just what the nurse told us, Callum happily sat on the potty - no bribery needed, blew his bubbles, slobbered all over a balloon and got lots of claps but nothing in the potty.

Thursday

As he'd been so great at sitting on the potty and we didn't have any appointments I just decided to turn the heating up and take his nappy and trousers off and see what happens. Success!! it happened, a little bit of wee on the floor, a quick rush to sit on the potty and then the tinkle tinkle of the potty merrily letting the whole world know that my big boy had managed to wee in the potty. Loud cheers errupted, we showed it to daddy, we phoned up nanny to announce this momentous occassion and Callum had the biggest grin on his face that I've seen in a long time. The rest of the day was about 50/50 with accidents and getting to the potty.

Friday - Saturday

Continued much like Thursday, but as soon as we put any kind of clothes on him he went back to not caring in the slightest and not telling us that he was wet or that he needed the potty. He also got a bad tummy, so I spent rather a lot of the time scrubbing the carpet.

Sunday

Another breakthrough, after a day of cleaning up pooh and wee from various parts of the house, I felt defeated and put a nappy on his for a couple of hours. Then before bed I asked him to sit on the potty again and try and do a wee to make the music, he's NEVER EVER done a wee on demand, but this time YEAH he did it - not a huge amount but he did it!!! This is huge this means that we should be able to get him on a timed schedule and keep him dry during the day, we just need to work out the interval and take him regulary to the toilet. We'll still have the pooh to deal with as he doesn't have a set time but this is a major major breakthough.

Today

Again this morning I sat him on the potty and asked him to wee and he did. I was going to take him again as soon as he got to school (he had speech therapy this morning) but about 5 minutes from school he suddenly said wee wee, so there was nothing left when we did arrive at school. That was about 90 minutes after his last wee so I think we'll try every hour and see what happens.

Smart

2007-10-10T10:41:00.001+01:00

Smart, originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

Getting back into Blogging

2007-10-01T12:02:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I was a regular at writing, but I'm going to try and get back into regular updates. Callum & Kieran are now both at full time school and I'm getting used to having a few hours to myself each day.

Kieran started school without a backwards glance and is absolutely loving it. I picked him up after his first day and he gave me a big hug and said "you came back!" , now he just says "it's SO nice to see you" and gives his brother a huge hug while all the other parents in the line go "aahhhh".

Kieran is going through a couple of annoying phases at the moment, the first is the joke phase - it goes like this...

Kieran: knock, knock
us: Who's there?
Kieran: orange
us: Orange who?
Kieran (laughing his head off as if we're about to hear the funniest thing EVER): oranges and bananas!!!!

He'll tell the same joke over and over and over and over again.

The other phases is the "what is it" phase. We were driving along and chatting after school and I happened to mention that we were going to go round the roundabout and then pick up Daddy...

Kieran: What's a roundabout?
Me: a big circle that you drive around
Kieran: What's a circle?
Me: it's a shape
Kieran: what's a shape?
Me: uhh, umm, uhh

think I'll have to start carrying a dictionary with me wherever we go

curiouser and curiouser

2007-04-19T08:34:00.000+01:00

Callum used to eat toast, and yogurt.

He stopped eating toast about 6 months ago and yogurt hasn't been touched since we moved.

Yesterday, out of the blue, he asked me for toast and ate two slices. A little later he saw Mark eating yogurt and asked for a taste, he ate two pots!

I wonder what suddenly triggered in his head to make him ask for both of these things on one day.

The Importance of Sleep

2007-04-18T16:53:00.000+01:00

We were initially lucky, as a baby Callum slept through the night from about 6 weeks old, this lack of sleep that we'd read about wasn't really as bad as everyone had said. Then when Callum was 9 months old we had Kieran and now we understood the dazed looks on other parents faces. Believe me if we'd have had Kieran first then there's no way that our boys would be so close in age! Kieran didn't regularly sleep through the night until he was a little over 2 years old.

We then had a few blissful months of both kids going to sleep by themselves and then more importantly staying asleep.

Move forward to about October of last year and Callum learns a new skill.

He learns to climb out of his cot.

Yes we're pleased that his climbing skills have improved and his ability to land pretty safely is also a plus, but with this new found skill comes the realisation that being put into bed at night does not mean the end of the days fun. He stops putting himself to sleep and instead we have to sit in his room and sneak out veeeerrrry veerrrryyy quietly once he's dropped off. The pitter patter of tiny feet is now the thump of a 3 year old hitting the floor.

We moved back to England at the end of November and left the cot behind. Callum took full advantage of being in a big boys bed and we'd hear those little feet several times a night closely followed by a little Callum climbing into our bed. Much as we love him when he showed his autie Eleanor our bed and pointed at mummy's space, daddy's space and in the middle Callum's space we knew things had to change.

Our salvation has been a new bed, which looks very much like this (except his has a blue tent at the bottom rather than a football theme)

He can get in and out, but isn't completely comfortable getting out without help so he stays put! He's even back to putting himself to sleep!!!

So Mark and I have now had about 10 days of unbroken sleep and it's pure bliss.

Still here, but new location

2007-04-01T22:30:00.000+01:00

It's been a long time. Thank you for all the comments and sorry if I worried anyone.

Last year was very crappy, but it's now a new year and we've moved back to England and things are looking better.

I'll get back to writing, reading and commenting on everyones blogs in a short while.

In the mean time here's a couple of pictures of the boys.

p.s. we did find the crayon before any major damage was done!

The Case of the Missing Crayon

2006-08-15T18:22:00.000+01:00

Kieran has become an artist.

All day long he asks for 'rayon, 'rayon, if he sees a writing implement he wants it, if he sees a blank piece of paper he wants to decorate it. The only trouble is that his artistic tendencies also extend to sofas, carpets, tables, TVs, clothes and body art.

While he has his crayons he is under strict surveillance, if he wanders away from the paper we have to redirect and not paying attention can be costly to our furniture. Yesterday we didn't pay attention and I know we're going to pay for it. We counted the crayons back into the box last night and ALERT ALERT we have a missing crayon.

We searched high and low but I think Kieran must have hidden it in a secret compartment in a hollowed out book, or maybe he fashioned a secret pocket in his diaper. Wherever he's stashed it I know he's just waiting for us to leave him alone for a few minutes so that he can surprise us with his latest masterpiece.

Frustrated

2006-08-15T18:08:00.000+01:00

I went to see the opthamologist yesterday and got no where. On previous visits he's told me to go and see him at the first sign of vision problems, so that's what I did this time. My vision tested slightly off yesterday 20/25 instead of 20/20 that it was a month ago, and his answer is to wait and see because it isn't bad enough!!

I actually saw his colleague first, who is an optometrist, who barely listened to what I was saying, got very frustrated when I couldn't say whether lens 1 or 2 was clearer and put it all down to my prescription changing slightly. If it's my prescription then how come the letters weren't clear and crisp when she corrected my vision! I got the impression that she thought I was deliberately not reading the letters.

I'd actually be happy if it was just a prescription change and was quite willing to try some new contact lenses to see if it improved, but they even decided against that in the end.

It was an exceedingly frustrating morning. I'm now in the process of finding a new doctor...

Bugger

2006-08-10T21:21:00.000+01:00

I think my vision is going again :(

sigh, I'm seeing double when I cover my left eye and reading the computer screen is taking more effort than it really should. I've been wondering if it was going for the last couple of days but didn't have anything concrete. Well today I tried to read the lunch specials menu and couldn't, Mark could read it with no problems...

I HATE this.
I HATE not knowing what is causing it.
I HATE that it keeps coming back.

All Change

2006-08-09T18:11:00.000+01:00

Yesterday, I gave a months notice to Callum and Kieran's day care. They've both been at the school since they were 3 months old. We know the teachers, the classrooms, the routine and all the kids. But in 1 months time it will all change.

Callum will be starting a public pre-school program at one of our local elementary schools. He'll be in a mixed ability class, for 4 hours each day. We haven't seen his classroom or met the teacher, have no idea who his classmates will be. He'll be getting on a bus at 12:30 each day to go home to a nanny who we still haven't hired.

Kieran will be going to the day care at our work. We've visited a couple of times over the years (Callum had his name down when I was just a few months pregnant) but we never managed to get a placement, so we swapped Callum's name for Kieran's on the waiting list a few months ago and yesterday they confirmed that he has a place.

They've both enjoyed their current school. The director is, how shall I put this, "Interesting" or maybe "a character". She rubs a lot of people up the wrong way and sometimes has some bizarre ideas, but for the most part she's been very supportive of Callum.

It's going to be very odd, not going there twice a day.

On a side note...

Callum has ASKED to be taken to the potty at school (and actually gone) for the last couple of days. We've half heartedly tried potty training a few times but Callum really wasn't interested. The fact that he's recognising that his bladder is full and letting a teacher know before he goes is just amazing. I thought we'd have to get him on a schedule for quite some time before he would initiate it himself. SO we're listening out for him asking for the potty, but not pushing it, maybe the end of diapers is in sight.

A little math

2006-08-03T17:55:00.000+01:00

5 pairs of pajamas
+ 5 crib sheets
+ 2 mattress protectors
+ 3 towels
+ 2 quilts
+ 4 blankets
+ 2 pillows
+ 2 loads of washing
+ 1 load of drying

so, what does all this add up to...

= 1 sick Callum :(

Callum decided that it was high time for him to get a stomach bug and threw up every 30 minutes or so from about 8:00pm 'till 10:30pm. He seems fine this morning but everything smells sicky (yuck).

Yesterday was already "interesting" as Mark and I spent 3 hours in the ER because he was having chest pains. His blood pressure was up to 168/103. Luckily the EKG and blood tests showed no heart damage so he goes back to his doctor today and will probably be put back on his blood pressure medication.

My Favourite Time of Day

2006-07-28T17:34:00.000+01:00

My favourite time of the day is after dinner when we all go upstairs for playtime, baths and bed. No matter how cranky the boys have been they always brighten up when we go upstairs. Kieran practically runs up the stairs, every few steps proclaiming "blankie" or "sassie", when he reaches the top he runs straight into his room and claims his blanket and pacifier from his bed. Callum meanwhile follows his brother up the stairs and with his little naughty giggle announces that it's time for "steal the blankie". What follows is just a wealth of giggles and chasing and shouts of "brother, where are you?" while they tear all over the upstairs of the house and Mark and I sit and smile.

So here's a little taste (about 5 minutes worth) of my favourite time of day (the first few seconds are a little dark, but then I remember to switch the lights on!).

Create your own video for free at www.onetruemedia.com

Today is the Day (Hopefully)

2006-07-26T18:53:00.000+01:00

I had my follow up MRI on Monday morning and today I go to see the neurologist and get the results. At this moment in time I really don't think I have MS, one of the biggest symptoms of MS is heat sensitivity and I don't have that.

Talking of heat, it's been HOT here recently. We had family photos taken last weekend and we managed to choose the hottest day EVER at our location. Now we get a lot of hot days but these last few days have just been unbearable because of the humidity. I hate humidity, you walk out the door and are dripping with sweat within 5 minutes, not the greatest conditions for family photos so we'll see how they come out.

At the end of the photo session we were walking back to the car and the photographer said "we have one of those in our group of friends as well" (talking about Callum) and then continued to say how alert he was and how he must be high functioning. I was a bit floored by the comment and didn't know what to say, I don't think she meant it in a bad way and English isn't her mother tongue but I still think I should have educated her. What should I have said?

UPDATE: Well the answer is... still unknown!!! I still have some little spots (leisons) on the MRI but they're tiny and not in the usual places for MS. I maybe have 1 more than I did last time but they're so small that it's hard to tell. For a leison to count towards the MS diagnostic criteria then it needs to be at least 6mm, the largest of mine was 4mm. I have to go back for another MRI in a year and go back sooner if I notice any symptoms. For now everything looks good and I don't have any symptoms so there's no point in stressing over future "what ifs".

Callum Gym Clip

2006-07-21T05:30:00.000+01:00

Create your own video at One True Media

Gym Class

2006-07-20T19:13:00.000+01:00

Callum had his 4th gym class yesterday and boy can I see a difference in his confidence!

The class is 1 hour long and there's a nice group of about 12 kids ranging in age from 2 to 3. The start with a few minutes free play, Callum usually spends this bouncing on the trampoline (at PT we were lucky to keep him on the trampoline for 2 minutes) his balance is improving and he manages to stay upright even when the other kids are boinging about. He's actually managing to jump by himself as well (2 feet off the floor). He'll climb the stairs to the slide, climb up ramps and run and play.

Free time is followed by circle time, a greeting song is sung, then stretching, a tumbling skill, a interactive song (like head, shoulders, knees and toes) and then an action song (like the Hokey Kokey). The first week Callum was pretty oblivious to the whole thing and really didn't want to join in. Now he's one of the first to take his place in the circle and takes part in every thing. He points to himself when they call his name during the greeting song, does all his stretches with great enthusiasm and is the 1st to volunteer for tumbling skills.

The pace never stops and while two teachers set up the obstacle course the third teacher (Tina) takes all the kids to the far end of the room where they have to traverse the "hot dog". This is a soft foam roll that is reached by squishy stairs and has a nice soft ramp at the other end, perfect for rolling down. The first week the only way Callum would go across it was by crawling verrrrry sloowly, by week 2 he took teeny tiny steps while clinging tightly to my hand, yesterday he flew across it and didn't need any cajoling to take his turn.

The obstacle courses vary week by week (they do 2 different ones each session) but at least one usually involves balance beams. These are flat pieces of wood about 10 inches across that are laid across foam mats to make a little path, usually followed by something fun at the end like a tunnel to climb through. Weeks one and two required lots of motivation from me to get him to cross the beams and it was teeny tiny steps with him clinging very hard to my hand. Last week he let go for a short while and yesterday even though the beams were quite far off the ground he did most of it by himself and did it multiple times! We'd tried to get him to walk on a beam at PT but he wasn't having anything to do with it, it's amazing the difference that fun and other kids can make.

Hanging skills are next which Callum is very enthusiastic about, each teacher mans a couple of ropes hanging from the ceiling which have handles, or rings attached and the kids can twirl or swing. Callum lasts a grand total of 1 second as he just can not hold his body weight, but the teachers give him another go with more support and he just beams. I get a momentary flicker of sadness when I see the other kids holding on for so much longer but it's a fleeting thought and doesn't linger. Callum's favourite teacher is Polo - a young black ex-American football player, the kids look so tiny next to him but they all seem to gravitate towards him. Polo does these great little karate moves with the kids when they've had their turn on the hanging skill, complete with great sound effects - the kids love it.

Another activity, then bubbles and circle time again for the goodbye song. By the end of it Callum is exhausted but happy, he asks for Polo every couple of days and yesterday when we got in the car to come home I'm sure he told me that he'd been flying.

I'm exceptionally proud of how far Callum has come in just a few weeks. It's encouraging him on so many levels and the best bit is that he's doing all these great exercises but to him it's just fun.

More Good News

2006-07-13T18:38:00.000+01:00

Mark has been on medication for high blood pressure for about 6 years. It was only discovered because he had to go for a medical to get his green card and the doctor was shocked by how high it was. Over the years the dosage has slowly decreased and he's been on the lowest possible dose for at least a year.

Well today he had his usual 6 monthly checkup and the doctor has taken him off the meds completely!!

Maybe all that running around after the boys and trying to eat a little bit healthier has finally paid off.

Trains

2006-07-11T19:38:00.000+01:00

I think this train driver
Originally uploaded by 7-how-7.

We took the boys on a mad dash to Griffith Park on Sunday afternoon. Traffic was bad and we almost didn't make it in time, but after finding a lucky parking spot and doing a sprint to the ticket counter we managed to get on the little train that does a 1 mile round trip in Griffith Park.

Callum's face was a wonder to behold as he realised that we were going through a tunnel, I'll make sure to have my camera at the ready next time. Kieran was more somber, just taking in the new experience.

Callum has twice come up to me and started a conversation about trains, he says "mama choo-choo" and does the sign for train. This is unusual because usually all conversations are initiated by us or are about things he can see in his immediate vicinity.

On the subject of speech, Callum has started to say goodbye to everything! So this morning it was:

"Bye, 'errio" (cheerios)
"Bye TT" (TV)
"Bye Milk"
"Bye lulu" (Blue's Clue's - The TV program they were watching)

When I pick him up from day care he has to go round saying bye to all his friends and teachers, it takes a while but it's very cute ;-)

20/20

2006-07-11T19:11:00.000+01:00

I had my follow up with the opthamologist today and suprised everyone by having 20/20 visison (with my contact lenses of course)!! The opthamologist had been warning me that I might have some permanent damage after this many episodes.

This is very good news and has given me a real buzz :-)

Kieran

2006-07-03T22:35:00.000+01:00

Quick bit of good news before I get to the real post, my eyesight is almost back to normal!!! yippeee :-) So it's been about 4 weeks this time rather than the 6 or 7 weeks each for my last 2 episodes, so maybe those steroids really did work.

Kieran has become such a poser whenever he sees the camera so I thought I'd share a few photos of him

Caught Purple Handed

Future Rock Star?

Mum made Cake!

Just Swinging

Don't you just hate it...

2006-06-19T22:42:00.000+01:00

When you write a nice long blog all about how you're brains are scrambled and you lost your car keys and house keys by leaving them on the top of the car and went to a birthday party a week early and then Blogger manages to eat it before it actually posts!

I can't write it all out again, but that's the gist of it.

Steroids are over, I didn't have a fever just lots of flushing as a side effect. Brain is still a bit scrambled and very sleepy, eyesight no better - actually a bit worse.

Kids are great and it's nearly time to go home, yippee!

Steroids - day 2

2006-06-16T17:54:00.000+01:00

The nurse was right on time yesterday and I was hooked up to bag #2 by 5:15. She also taught me how to flush the line and how to hook the meds up myself (although she's still planning on coming everyday). 90 minutes later she came back and there's still a fair amount of meds left, it finally finishes after 2 hours! It's hurting a little, so she checks the line and my vein isn't particulary happy so I get to pull it out (yippee). They'll put in a new line tonight which will hopefully stay in for the final 3 days.

No noticable increase in vision yet, but I wasn't expecting it to resolve that quickly.

I've been sleeping great the last couple of nights, which is odd considering that one of the most common side effects is insomnia. As I came into work today I noticed that my cheeks feel really hot, so I'm wondering if I have a fever - if it hasn't gone away by lunchtime then I may just go home (the meds suppress your immune system).

I'll keep you posted.

Steroids - day 1

2006-06-15T22:46:00.000+01:00

Well after many phone calls and misunderstandings yesterday I arrived home at just after 4pm to a phone call saying the man from the pharmacy was outside my house with the medical supplies, closely followed by a call from the home health nurse to say that she would be there by 5pm to administer my first dose. An hour earlier when I left work it was all still being worked on!

So I've got 2 bags of medical supplies sitting in my kitchen, filled with syringes, gloves, tape, needles, tape, heparin, saline and other assorted medical stuff. Then I have these very strange looking brown balls of medicine sitting in my fridge.

The nurse came right on time and after about 10 minutes of looking finally found a vein that looked good (my veins are deep and hard to find). It's in the back of my left hand, stung a little when it went in but just for a second. Tape goes over the IV to hold it in place and the tubing is taped up my arm. The meds get hooked up and away we go! Those balls of medicine are actually pretty clever little things, rather than being hooked up to an IV pole they have their own little pump so you can walk around with it in your pocket (or stuffed down your shirt it you're like me and didn't have any pockets). It slowly deflates as the medicine is pumped in and 90 minutes later can all be disconnected. Then it's time to flush the line (see already getting the medical terms) with saline and then with heparin to stop it clotting.

The actual treatment was non eventful apart from a disgusting metallic taste in my mouth that lasted up until I went to bed. I couldn't even eat my very favourite strawberry ice lolly because it just tasted yuck. I've read up on the Internet and the advice seems to be to suck sour sweets to take the taste away so I'll try that this evening.

The boys came and asked what the medicine was and what the stuff hanging out of my hand is but they're being very good, didn't even try and pull on the wires, which I'm most surprised about.

This IV will stay in for 3 days and then they'll insert a new one for the last 2 treatments. I am allowed to remove it if I really want to or if it looks irritated but that just means I'll end up with even more needle sticks so I'm trying to keep it in. I've already made 2 people at work queasy when they asked why I had a bandage on my hand and I told them I had an IV in - hee hee they shouldn't ask if they don't really want to know.

Urghh

2006-06-14T16:49:00.000+01:00

So my next update was going to be all about Kieran, and I do have it half written, but then my vision started going again and I HATE it.

It seems like I get 2 weeks of good vision and then it all starts to blur again, I worked out that this year I've probably had a grand total of 6 weeks of good vision and it's starting to get me down.

I went back to the opthamologist yesterday and sure enough my right eye is back down to 20/50 (20/40 or better is what you need for driving). It just feels like this is never going to go away [insert sound of violins here which are playing for my pity party]

The good news is that they're going to try a treatment this time. I'm going to be hooked up to a bag of high dose IV steroids for an hour a day for 5 days. Hopefully they will battle the inflammation that is causing the blurred vision and I'll get better sooner. The downside is that steroids have side effects - fluid retention, rounding of the face, acne, increased appetite, sleep problems and anxiety. So I'll be swapping blurred vision for looking like the Michelin man, but right now that sounds good to me.

I'll let you know how things go and I will get that Kieran update out.

Kids update part I - Callum

2006-06-01T18:33:00.000+01:00

What can I say about my gorgeous, mischievous, happy, TV addicted, music loving, noodle eating little boy.

He's grown up so much in the last few months, it's hard to believe that he's been walking for less than a year, the days of him crawling at super high speeds seem like such a long time ago. He moved to the 3 year old class at school about a month ago and is doing great, he's back with all his friends. When he's the oldest in his class he doesn't have the role models that he needs so he was getting a little bored and when he's bored he gets that wicked glint in his eye that you just know means trouble is not far away. We had a big meeting with the day care director and all have decided that it's better for Callum that he be picked up earlier in the day from day care as he tends to go a little wild after nap and doesn't always want to cooperate with what the class is doing. We've decided that for the next 3 months I'll cut down my hours at work (hope HR agrees! I have a meeting with them tomorrow) so that I can pick him up by 3:30. I'm really looking forward to having a couple of hours of Callum time each day and am already making plans for swimming and maybe a music or gym class.

In September everything is going to change again because Callum will be starting proper school! Officially he was supposed to start as soon as he turned 3 but we just didn't like the class that he was offered, so we decided to wait until September when he'll have a place in a collaborative class with a mix of kids with special needs and typical peers. I'm not sure exactly which school yet as there are 2 that offer this kind of class but I'm feeling pretty positive about it.

I really hate the way they do the transition from the birth-3 program to the school district in this area. As soon as your child turns 3 all responsibility for therapies etc. is turned over to the school district. The school district by law needs to offer your child the least restrictive environment, however unless your kids birthday happens to be the beginning of September then you are likely to find that all the classes that involve inclusion are full and that the only spaces available are purely special education classes with little or no inclusion. Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200 go straight to the most restrictive environment because that's all we have available, grrrrrr. After several meetings and phone calls with various people from the school district we decided to keep Callum in his current private school until September and the school district are going to compensate us financially. I don't see why they can't just leave kids in the birth-3 program until the start of the next school year after they turn 3 - would that really be so difficult!

Rant over, back to Callum.

Health wise he's doing pretty good, he had a cough/chest infection that just wouldn't go away so just finished a course of antibiotics for that. Usually we have to pin him down to give him medicine and then he spits most of it back out again and everyone ends up frustrated and sticky, but he was great this time. The pharmacist gave us a new medicine spoon to try that Callum can actually do himself and it worked great. He'd grab the spoon (it's got a hollow handle where the medicine goes and then a shovel like spoon bit) go off to his little corner so we wouldn't interfere and then drained the spoon of every last drop and came back and asked for more! We also had a check up with a cardiologist as his regular doctor thought she heard a murmur, good news everything is normal so that really should be the end of any more cardio visits. We saw 2 doctors, the first was a resident I think and he was great - he shook Callum's hand which Callum thought was wonderful and he couldn't stop grinning. The "real" doctor did high-5's with Callum and said he was his best patient ever because he sat so still and didn't complain at all during the exam.

Callum is doing well overall, he'll walk up and down small kid sized stairs holding the rail. Adult sized stairs he'll walk down holding the rail with one hand and one of our hands with the other. He's getting stronger and stronger and hardly needs our hand support especially going up the stairs, but I think it'll be a while before he has the confidence to do it on his own. He actually climbed a ladder at a local playground which is something his PT has been trying to get him to do for months. We did help with his foot positioning but he pulled himself up and was getting the hang of the coordination. Speech is coming along slowly but surely, he'll attempt the vast majority of words but his articulation still needs a lot of work. We're really trying to encourage him to put words together and he will do "more please" with only a little prompting. He's really trying to have conversations and will go to great lengths to describe what he wants. Example he's recently decided that he likes the movie "Ice Age" - so this is how he asks - makes sound and sign for Elephant, makes sign for Squirrel, says baby, says lion and does a roooar and them mimes some of the movements that he remembers [The movie is about a mammoth, sabre tooth tiger & sloth who rescue a human baby and have adventures while returning it to it's father. There's a little squirrel like create that shows up at various points in the movie].

Wow, sorry for such a long post - reminder to myself post less, more often. Last but not least he's almost given up his pacifier (dummy) he's done without it at night time for over a week now and has never even asked for it. He is still using it for nap at day care because it's become a real part of his nap time routine. We're confident then when he moves from day care to school in September that the paci will be gone for good. I was dreading taking it away but it's been really really easy and another step towards being a big boy (next step potty training, eeek)

Getting back to normal

2006-05-25T21:28:00.000+01:00

Things are finally starting to get back to normal and I'll hopefully be able to go back to giving updates about the kids as that's really what this blog was supposed to be about!

First another little update on me. I had my appointment with the MS specialist yesterday. I really liked him and I was there for about an hour and a half going over medical history, neurological exam and reviewing the MRI, and the answer is....MAYBE. I do have a number of "spots" on the MRI but they're all small, so the MRI isn't normal but it isn't completely abnormal either, so I'm still in MS limbo which from what I've read is pretty common. I go back for another MRI in 3 months and we'll see if there's been any changes. On a good note, my eyes are almost healed and I'm now at 20/25 in one eye and 20/30 in the other eye which is a great improvement.

Next update will be soon and will be about the kids, I promise!

Doing the Happy Dance

2006-05-12T21:48:00.000+01:00

Just got the results of my lumbar puncture and the results are NORMAL!!

So it's looking less and less likely that it's MS. I'm not completely in the clear but it's looking good. I go back and see the neurologist and the opthamologist early next week and hopefully they'll tell me what the next steps are.

I did have a follow up with the opthamologist this week and my eyes are healing, hopefully they'll be completley better within the next 4 weeks.

That's it for now.

Where Have I Been

2006-05-09T23:40:00.000+01:00

It seems like 2006 is our year for medical stuff. First Callum's tonsils and adenoids surgery then his funky blood work, then Kieran's MRI and neurosurgeon consult and now it's my turn.

I had some blurry vision earlier this year which the optometrist thought was damage to my cornea. I religiously applied the cream she gave me and went back every couple of week for a recheck, eventually it cleared up and my corrected vision was back to 20/20 with my contact lenses. Two weeks later and I noticed that when I was standing about 6 feet away from the mirror in the ladies bathroom at work my features were very blurry and I really really had to concentrate on the computer screen to make everything out. I thought I must have over worn my new contact lenses and managed to damage my cornea again, so back to the optometrist I go. She's not sure what's going on but keeps asking if I have a history of cornea disease (I don't) and she refers me to an opthamologist, I'm slightly worried at this point - say 2 out of 10.

A couple of days later and I find myself sitting in the very posh waiting room of the opthamologist - I like this office, they even have big bowls of chocolate just sitting there all around the waiting area - this is my kind of doctor. I go through various eye tests with flashing lights, photographs of the nerves and the standard lets read the letters on the eye chart. I don't manage to read any of them with my bad eye - yes the vision is that bad. The doctor has made a few comments about "underlying causes" and has made references to MRI's and neurologists but when he brings Mark in from the waiting room I know this is going to be bad. It turns out that I have something called retrobular neuritis which is inflammation of the optic nerve, then the scary words come - the probable cause is multiple sclerosis. Worry level 10/10. I hold it together till we get out of the office and then burst into tears and just can't stop. This isn't supposed to happen to me, I'm supposed to be the healthy one. I get a cold about once a year and that's it, I can't be sick, I have 2 small kids who I want to be able to run around after, I can't be sick, I don't want to be sick.

I get home and call my mum, it's after 11pm in England but she's still up. I cry and sob again and can hardly get the words out. Less than an hour later she calls back to tell us what time her plane arrives.

I do some reading up online, but not too much because I know that information overload can be just as bad as having no information at all. It's not all doom ad gloom and I realise that if I do have MS then there's not a whole lot that I can do about it and I should just be glad that it was caught early.

MRI is my next step, I'm a little more educated after Kieran had his earlier this year and this time I know it's going to take a while. However I had no idea how noisy they were. The images are taken in bursts of between 2 and 5 minutes and with each sequence the noises change - first an annoying person who keeps on ringing and ringing your door bell, then a bad electric guitar player who plays the same note over and over again. I close my eyes and listen to all these noises and try to pretend that I'm somewhere else - I even fall back on my focus object from my Lamaze classes.

Neurologist appointment is next, no chocolates this time just a boring waiting room. I have to stand on one leg, walk in a straight line and do various other little exercises. Everything seems fine to me apart from my blurry vision. We go over my medical history and suddenly I start wondering about the few weeks after Callum's birth when I continuously walked into things and broke my toe - twice. Maybe that was an episode and I just didn't realise. I start thinking of any little aches and pains or peculiarities and wonder if I was ignoring symptoms. Then some good news, the MRI looks good - a couple of little patches that could possibly be something but it looks pretty good and apart from my eyes I pass the exam with no problems. The neurologist refers me to an MS specialist who should hopefully be able to give me some more answers. I'm also scheduled for a lumbar puncture - having someone stick a needle in my back and collect my spinal fluid doesn't sound like a fun way to spend a Tuesday morning but I suppose it has to be done.

The lumbar puncture actually goes OK, I feel a funny electric sensation when the needle is inserted and when it's removed but it doesn't hurt. Four vials of my spinal fluid are collected and a couple of vials of blood from my arm. It's all being analysed now and hopefully I'll have the results by the end of the week. The worst part was still to come, a "lucky' 10% of people get a spinal headache after a lumbar puncture, I got to be one of the lucky ones. I spent 5 days lying flat on my back because sitting or standing gave me an excruciating headache. The time I did spend with the kids all I could do was lie on the floor and let them jump all over me. Pain medicine did almost nothing and the only relief was lying down. I now have lots and lots of sympathy for people with migraines - I never knew headaches could get that bad.

Today is the first day that I've felt normal again, I've only had 1 lot of pain medicine and have managed to type this whole message without getting a headache. I had a follow up with the opthamologist and can actually read some of the letters on the eye chart now! He says I'm healing nicely and hopefully my vision will be back within the next 2 to 4 weeks. I'm signed off work for the next few days so I'm going to relax and potter about the house, I think I'll be happy enough being a lady of leisure for a little while. Worry level 2/10.

How about a picture while I think of something to write

2006-04-20T00:38:00.000+01:00

Birthday Balloon
Originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

This is from Callum's birthday. This is him being his typical self with dirty trousers and an almost equally dirty face.

MIA

2006-04-19T23:10:00.000+01:00

Yes I know I've been missing for a few days.

I have a lot of thoughts going round in my head and keep starting posts but never seem to finish.

I'll write more very soon.

Differences

2006-04-13T22:48:00.000+01:00

We took Callum to one of his classmates 3rd birthday party on Sunday morning. About 15 3, or close to 3, year olds plus parents and a few younger siblings all hanging out at a local park, eating pizza, drinking juice and chatting. Sounds great doesn't it? but for us it was our first reality check for what most 3 year olds are doing.

Did you know that they talk? they have real conversations! they talk about stuff that happened at school last week, who their boyfriend or girlfriend is and give instructions for how to play the game properly. Of course we knew that that was what most typical kids did, but it hasn't really been up close and personal before. Callum can communicate, but I long for the day when I can ask him what he did at school today and he actually answers me. Now I see why most parent's aren't too bothered by the fact that the teachers don't write down what went on at school that day. They don't need the note, they can get a blow by blow account straight from the horses mouth.

Did you know how social they are? they hold hands, they run and hug each other in greeting, they seem to feel best in a big group. Callum accepted a hug from one of his friends, he briefly waved hello and bye but there wasn't that deep pleasure at being around friends. I know he does play with other kids at school, but in this new environment with lots of things to explore he was happy as long as Mark or I were close. He did happily chase Kieran and they played a game of trying to catch and tickle each other, but he didn't really interact with the other kids. A band were shooting a music video in the kids playground and Callum was in his element - whenever the music started, he would dance and dance and his whole face would light up. The other kids hardly took any notice, is there a social "herd" instinct that keeps you oblivious to what is going on outside your group?

Callum explored the whole area, he crawled through tunnels, he examined bushes, he discovered the pay phone just outside the park and went to talk to Granny, he found an abandoned baby doll and spent a happy 5 minutes putting her to bed, waking her up and soothing her tears with lots of hugs.

He's different, I admit it.

Do I want him to be like all the other kids, sometimes.

I've been tagged

2006-04-12T16:53:00.000+01:00

So Michelle at Big Blueberry Eyes decided to tag me. I don't often do these things but I'll try!

I've been tasked to think of 6 weird things/facts/habits about myself, lets see what I can come up with.

1. In my dreams I'm very rarely me. I usually have a different body, but sometimes it's me inside. More often I'm on the outside just looking in - kind of like a narrator in a story.

2. I like to eat Marmite on toast with baked beans on top.

3. I procrastinate, a lot.

4. I'm addicted to the Downsyn forum and spend waaaaay to much time there

5. I'm not very good at making or keeping friends. I've never really had a group of girlfriends that do girly things together, I wish I did.

6. I like to think that my Grandma (who died when I was 16) is watching over me and I still talk to her sometimes, but I don't believe in God or heaven.

I'm supposed to tage 6 other people, but I've got to run to a meeting. So if you want to take on this task please do and come back and leave a comment with the link to your 6 things.

Look at those Eyes

2006-04-07T23:01:00.000+01:00

Look at those Eyes
Originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

Callum Dancing

2006-04-05T04:19:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd share a little bit of Callum and two of his favourite things: Shrek & Dancing.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

2006-04-04T23:13:00.001+01:00

This isn't supposed to happen in Southern California! What happened to my year round sunshine? Oh well, at least we don't live in San Francisco where they've had a record 25 days of rain in March.

We did get a break in the weather on Sunday and had a really nice stroll along the Boardwalk at Venice Beach with the kids. Along the Boardwalk you can find people selling art, jewelry, tourist tat, food and drink. Tarot readers, psychics, musicians, tattoo artists and massage therapists. It's a big eclectic mix of people and culture and the boys (and us) love to people watch. Callum likes to stop by the musicians, he'll stand for a few seconds soaking in the music and then slowly start to dance along before giving a wave and moving on to the next thing that catches his eye. Both boys were very well behaved and didn't wander off too much. Callum got so tired in the end that he started crawling along the path but still didn't want to get into his stroller, Mr Independent was finally persuaded by tempting him with a snack of goldfish crackers.

Both boys took really good naps afterwards, which got them right into the swing of things with the whole spring forward time difference. I'm actually liking the time difference the kids are going to bed at their usual time of 7:30pm (which was 6:30pm last week) but they're waking up an hour later. The hour of sleep that we lost on Sunday was a small price to pay for not having to get up at 5:45 in the morning.

Photo courtesy of SameerKhan

This is going to sound really petty

2006-03-30T20:37:00.000+01:00

We went to visit the class that the school district would like Callum to attend after the Easter break. We were already 99% sure that we were going to disagree with the placement (a special education class with very limited contact with typical peers) but decided that we'd go and have a look anyway just so we could make an informed choice.

We got there for circle time: 6 special needs kids (4 of whom have 1 on 1 aides) and 2 typical peers who come in just for circle and snack time. I liked the teacher and what she was trying to do but half the kids were just not engaged and one spent at least half the time crying. I know some kids have behavioural issues and they have just as much need for an appropriate education but from a selfish standpoint I just can't see Callum in that class. If someone is crying in that way then Callum would not be able to concentrate on the class at all, he has huge amounts of empathy and would be wanting to comfort the other child rather than learn. I just don't see that as being his least restrictive environment.

Now here's the petty part, after circle time is snack time. The kids all wash their hands and then sit at a little table where they can choose 3 things from a snack box. I was astounded at the choices they had - m&m's, chocolate cookies, pringles, Cheetos (for UK people these are cheesy corn crisps that turn your fingers yellow because they have so much colouring), jellybeans, fruit loops (multi coloured kids cereal), some kind of boiled sweet type lollipop thing and other equally unhealthy foods. The one healthy food was popcorn which should be avoided by kids Callum's age because it's a choking hazard. Callum will be occasionally eat chocolate and cookies but they're giving this to the kids every single day! I get that they want to motivate the kids to speak and make choices but for crying out loud you can still offer healthy stuff that tastes good. How can you expect kids to develop healthy eating habits when this is what you offer them.

Needless to say we officially said no to the placement so now we have to wait and see what the next option will be.

Disneyland

2006-03-30T17:35:00.000+01:00

We took the kids to Disneyland last Sunday and we had so much fun.

I'd asked a few other parents for advice and a couple of people told me about the guest assist pass which is for visitors who need extra assistance. At first I balked at getting one as I didn't think Callum's needs were particularly different than any other 3 year olds needs. I'm always wary because I want Callum to be treated like typical children and it felt a bit like I would be taking advantage.

In the end we decided to get the pass, it only took a couple of minutes and then we had a pass that said it classed Callum's stroller as his wheelchair. I was still a little dubious but decided to just go with it and see what happened.

This was our first time and Disneyland and I had no idea that the lines (even for the little kid rides) could get so long, and you can not take strollers into the line! Callum can walk but he gets tired quite easily and he would not have been able to stand still in a line for 15+ minutes - he has a tendency to wander and does not really get the concept of waiting. So once I realised how everything was laid out we decided that we'd make full use of the pass as without it we would not have had a particularly enjoyable time. We still waited for rides but Callum could wait in his stroller and we waited a maximum of 10 minutes.

The best bit for Callum was meeting Minnie Mouse. he'd never even heard of the character before we went to Disney but by the end of the visit was besotted. The cast member at Minnie's house caught sight of the guest assist pass and asked Callum if he wanted to say hello to Minnie, Callum immediately said yes and got a big grin on his face. We were taken into Minnie's house (Minnie was doing quick meet and greets with a photo opportunity outside her front door) and Callum got a little private audience. Minnie came and sat next to him on her sofa and he just threw his arms around her and gave her a huge hug. They interacted a little, then photo time and another huge hug. Callum couldn't stop talking about Ninnie for the rest of the day and when he saw her in the parade he blew her a big kiss.

Click on a picture to see it in a larger size

Confirmed Diagnosis

2006-03-29T04:33:00.000+01:00

We had Callum's follow up with the hematologist today and it's confirmed that Callum does have Autoimmune neutropenia. The good news is that he should just grow out of it in the next couple of years. He will need blood work every 6 months just to keep an eye on it but we don't need to go back to the hematologist unless there's a problem. We do have to keep an eye out for fevers and get blood work done as soon as his temperature goes above 101.5. If he has a fever and his ANC is 500 or less then he'll need to be admitted to the hospital for antibiotics, his last ANC was 1100 and is slowly going up so hopefully he'll grow out of it soon and wont have any problems.

On a sad note today is my mum's last day with us here in California, she's off back to England tomorrow. We've really enjoyed having her staying with us and the boys are going to miss her tremendously. She's been a great help over the last couple of months and we're looking forward to her next visit.

Swimming

2006-03-27T20:39:00.000+01:00

Callum has been taking swimming lessons since he was a little over a year old. It's one of his favourite things to do and he works really hard at it. At the beginning he had a floatie (arm band's in UK speak) on each arm and fins (flippers) on his feet. Over the last 2 years they first slowly deflated the floaties, then removed the floaties and now he's swimming with just 1 fin and a floatie on his leg.

His first diaper after swimming lesson is always huge, because he's so busy smiling, laughing and talking that he forgets to close his mouth and swallows huge amounts!

Here's my little water baby (click on a picture for a bigger version)

3 years ago today

2006-03-22T17:21:00.000Z

Three years ago today Callum was 3 hours old. We'd been the happiest that we'd ever been and the saddest that we'd ever been. We were still trying to digest the news that he probably had Down syndrome and were frantically looking at all the markers that had been pointed out and trying to explain them away.

fast forward to today.

Callum woke up at 6am shouting "da da daddy". He went down stairs and discovered presents, presents and more presents. He loved the Shrek and Sesame Street wrapping paper (probably more than some of the presents). He's been singing Happy Birthday to you all morning and got to eat chocolate brownies for breakfast. At school he'll play with his friends, take a nap and then time for his favourite music class. Once class is over it'll be time for cake and more singing of Happy Birthday. Tonight he has his favourite dinner of fries and chick nuggets followed by a Shrek cake. Three year ago I never thought that life would be so normal :-)

Happy 3rd birthday my dear sweet Callum, I wouldn't change you for the world.

Evaluations

2006-03-17T18:02:00.000Z

Callum has gone through 6 different evaluations over the last 3 weeks and has been co-operative, engaging and happy through the majority of them. He's been watched by about 8 different adults, all strangers to him, who write their notes and ask him to perform and then write some more notes. He's climbed stairs, ridden a tricycle, drawn circles, done puzzles and stacked blocks.

He's been asked to do things that he doesn't know how to do - sort into colours, cut a piece of paper with scissors, imitate drawing a line and catching a ball. With all of these things he's tried his hardest, he's looked at the therapists for approval, he's done what he thinks is right and we've said "good trying Callum" but all the while my heart is hurting.

I've watched his pudgy little fingers try and do puzzle that I know is too difficult for him, when he puts the piece in the wrong place and smiles and claps I just want to pick him up and smother him with love because I know all those who are watching are making their notes and adding to the list of things that he can not do. I want to tell them about all the things he can do, how he goes to comfort kids who are crying, how he gives the sweetest hugs right before he falls asleep, how he gets so much pleasure out of dancing and singing to his favourite videos and how he makes us smile. Unfortunately there aren't any check boxes for these things.

MRI Results

2006-03-14T20:06:00.000Z

We finally had the neurosurgeon consult today and we all got to give a big sigh of relief because everything was normal, he's just got a big old head.

The doctor was great, Kieran was great, everything was great (apart from the dead fish floating in the fish tank).

Whewww...

Friday

2006-03-13T17:27:00.000Z

Kieran was great on Friday, we had to be at the hospital at 9:30 to register and then his MRI was scheduled at 11am. He didn't complain at all about the waiting around, just ran up and down kicking his ball, playing with his car and making everyone smile. His MRI got delayed until almost 12:30 so that was 18 hours without food and 4 hours since his apple juice. The nurse was great and found us a little quiet waiting area so that Kieran could watch his Sesame Street DVD and run around safely. We took him into the MRI room and he looked so tiny next to all that equipment. They tried to put an IV in his arm for the anaesthetic and he didn't cry at all, unfortunately it wouldn't stay in and the only place they could find a vein was in his foot. He really cried when they put the needle in his foot, I wanted to make it all better but all I could do was hold his hand, stroke his head and tell him it would all be OK. They pushed the medicine and he was asleep in seconds, I wiped the tears from his face, gave him a kiss and left him with his blankie. Mark & I went back to the waiting room and I couldn't hold the tears in any longer, I knew he was going to be fine but I hated seeing him in pain.

A little over an hour later (I had no idea an MRI took that long) we were taken back and there was Kieran fast asleep on a big adult sized gurney. They whisked us down corridors and up elevators and after completely losing track of where we were we emerged back in the main hospital building in the recovery room. Kieran started to come round almost immediately but was in a real grump, which isn't very surprising. I asked the nurse if they had crackers and juice and she came back with Oreo cookies and apple juice. Kieran was in heaven. Oreo cookie in each hand, chocolate all over his face and apple juice just a sip of the straw away. He still wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry so he did a little bit of both. All the nurses thought he was the cutest thing ever and they all wanted a photo of his chocolate face but none of us had a camera.

We made a quick stop at the neurosurgeons office to check when his appointment was (it was supposed to be the same day as the MRI but things got a little mixed up), more ooing and aahhing over Kieran's little chocolatly face and then home time. We go back tomorrow to get the results.

Practice what you Preach

2006-03-09T18:44:00.000Z

We've really been stressing sharing with the boys recently and they're getting pretty good at it. Callum will carry snacks in for both of them and give one to Kieran and Kieran will sometime even share his pacifier, which is a huge deal for Kieran.

We were at a fast food restaurant recently (a treat for the kids a couple of times a month and a night off from cooking and cleaning up for me) and the kids were happily eating fish & chips and chicken nuggets when I decided that I'd have a chocolate milkshake, of course they both asked for a taste. Callum took a sip, pulled a face and didn't ask for any more. Kieran took a sip, got a big grin on his face and immediately asked for more, a couple more sips and then I wanted my milkshake back! Kieran look disgruntled and very clearly said "share". I didn't expect him to turn the sharing lesson back on me.

Kieran has his sedated MRI and neurosurgeon consult tomorrow. It'll be a long day but I'll be glad to have another thing knocked of our list. His pediatrician said that she'd be very very surprised if anything was wrong so I'm not stressing about it too much.

Meet the Fockers

2006-03-08T18:55:00.000Z

Kieran has lots of kids in his class and he's really into saying their names, it's the cutest thing hearing him trying to say Caroline (lalaline), Ryan (ryry) and Anna but the absolute best is Axel....

For those of you who've seen the movie Meet The Fockers you'll know exactly what this sounds like. For those that haven't seen the movie, what he says in his 'best butter wouldn't melt in his mouth' little boy voice is ..... "Asshole"

I know we shouldn't laugh but it's absolutely hilarious, I hope his teachers don't think that we've been teaching him naughty words.

Bits & Pieces

2006-03-06T18:04:00.000Z

Kieran has learnt how to give kisses and hugs. He's always been a snuggly baby but now he'll purposefully wrap his arms around your neck and goes "aaahhhh" which is what I say when I'm giving him big cuddles. He gave his first ever proper kiss to Callum and then followed it up with one each for me and Mark. I love this age :-)

Callum is still Shrek obsessed but now we're turning it to our advantage. Callum struggling while we're trying to get him in his car seat is stopped immediately by saying that Princess Fiona sits in her car seat. Callum doesn't want to brush his teeth - well that all changes when we tell him that Shrek likes to brush his teeth. Thank goodness for Shrek & Fiona !

My mum is still shadowing Callum at school so she brings home lots of little stories which is great. One little boy who is very quiet and shy has recently started playing with Callum a lot and according to his mum talks about Callum at home. She was most surprised when last week he said he "wanted Callum's head", we think this means that he wanted to be like Callum - very happy and smiley and full of fun.

Latest Pictures

2006-03-06T18:00:00.000Z

Appointment updates

2006-02-27T17:07:00.000Z

Callum & Kieran both had doctors appointments on Friday, Callum with the hematologist and Kieran had his 18 month check up.

Callum
They think he has autoimmune neutropenia, he need a couple more blood tests to confirm but because he's so healthy that's what they think it is. What that means is that his immune system isn't quite developed and he's producing antibodies to his own neutrophil (which are a type of white blood cell that fight infection), he should outgrow it within the next couple of years and until then they'll just monitor his blood and if he gets sick and the numbers drop really low then they'll treat him with something called Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor (G-CSF)which stimulates the body into producing more neutrophil.

The doctors were both really nice and we go back in a month for a follow up. We haven't done his blood test yet because the wait for the lab was nearly and hour and we'd already been at the hospital for 90 minutes. We also need to do a follow up weight check - at Callum's pre-op physical and the beginning of the month he was 31lbs, at his appointment on Friday he was only a little over 28lbs. I know scales can be a little off but 3lbs (10% of his body weight) sounds like a pretty big drop to me in less than a month.

Kieran
Kieran has been healthy for at least 6 weeks but on the morning of his appointment, when he's supposed to be getting his vaccinations he wakes up with a streaming nose! I'm sure he must be trying to avoid those needles. He weighed in at 28 lbs and grew a couple of inches, he's at about 80th percentile for weight and about 40th for height - his doctor did assure me that he wouldn't always be square!! Couple of little eczema patches and his cold but apart from that he's doing great. He's getting 4 teeth at the moment - 3 incisors and 1 molar which would explain why he's been a little cranky lately. A quick dose of Vitamin M (Mortin) and he's happy.

Our TV Star

2006-02-23T21:53:00.000Z

The TV show that Callum taped back in November was finally aired this week. We were so excited to see our little star. He was in two episodes the first was about the 2-3 year old age and the activity he did was Texture Boxes (basically take a cardboard box, make it look pretty, cut a hand sized hole in it and put 2 or 3 things inside for the kids to feel). Callum had so much fun and they had some great shots of him putting some bright pink kids sunglasses on and wearing a rubber glove. The other episode was to do with science and the activity was playing with water (see photo). Callum was on camera for more of this episode as it was only him and one other child. Callum again had lots of fun and was very intent on what he was doing. He did try and drink the water several times (LOL) but was quickly stopped by one of the presenters.

I do have the episodes recorded on my computer so I'll try and come up with some little clips to post so that you can all take a look.

Callum was a complete natural on both the shows, wasn't bothered by the cameras, new people or the other kids. He got engrossed in both activities and picked up what he was supposed to be doing really quickly.

Hematology appointment is tomorrow, wish us luck!

Shrek, Shrek & More Shrek!

2006-02-21T18:18:00.000Z

Callum is slowly getting better. Saturday was a great day and we even made it out to the park. Both boys were full of energy and seeing them chase each other round and round and squeal with delight gave both me and my mum face ache. Callum walked up the step from the sandpit to the path all by himself and even climber a rope ladder with only minimal help. Kieran did his funny little Frankenstein walk that all new walkers do while babbling away to himself and having lots of fun.

Sunday and Monday were not so good, Callum woke several times in the night in pain and it's so heartbreaking to see him cry and struggle during the 15 minutes or so that it takes the pain meds to kick in. As he wasn't feeling his best he's been doing lots of snuggling in front of the TV with copious amount of apple juice and rice crackers (his favourite snack). The constant refrain all day was Shrek, Shrek Shrek! He does great signing as well to get his point across, Hands up on his head to represent the donkey, pulling his ears to represent Shrek and add into that asking for Nona (Princess Fiona). With all this cuteness we just had to give in and we must have watched Shrek about 20 times this weekend. Callum's favourite part in the whole movie is actually an added extra - it's a karaoke section at the end and no matter how bad Callum was feeling he'd get up and just dance dance dance, He seems to have a special place in his heart for the "Big butt song" the only part that is in the movie is "I like big butts and I can not lie You other brothers can't deny That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waste And a round thing in your face" and Callum just starts groovin' like there's no tomorrow.

We're home

2006-02-17T17:34:00.000Z

Surgery went wonderfully and Callum was a little star. Staying in the hospital over night was a pain in the bum - checking vitals every 4 hours, alarms bleeping, babies crying, etc. but the nurses were wonderful so it wasn't too bad. I'm so glad we took the portable DVD player with us, Callum woke me up at 5:30am with a big grin on his face and asking for Shrek!

Getting medicine into him has been a nightmare, he's supposed to be taking an antibiotic (Amoxicillin) twice a day, Tylenol with codeine every 4 to 6 hours and ear drops twice a day. Callum detests Tylenol and we managed to get two doses into him at the hospital, we I say we got 2 doses, what I really mean is that I got 1 1/2 doses spat out all over me and Callum got maybe 1/2 a dose into him. We gave up when we got home and have been giving him Tylenol suppositories instead which seem to be working. The Tylenol episodes left Callum refusing any meds by mouth so the antibiotics were also getting spat out everywhere. I called the doctor to ask about other options and she said not to worry - it's only precautionary and it isn't worth the big fight, wheeww. Ear drops are also a bit of a battle but at least that's quick and he can't spit them out ;-)

Callum is doing great, eating and drinking lots and generally in a good mood. He gets a bit cranky when his pain meds wear off but apart from that he's a happy little boy. He sleeps so quietly now, we have to keep checking on him because we can't hear his snoring and heavy breathing over the monitor. His voice also seems to have gotten higher, not sure if that's just because of things still being swollen from the surgery or if it's a permanent change. he sounds so cute and sweet though.

They repeated his CBC during surgery and his ANC is still low but everything else looks fine. His pediatrician has referred us to a hematologist to see if we can get an explanation as to what's going on. I looked up the doctor on the internet and he's chief of the pediatric hematology and oncology department, I hate that oncology word. Ever since we get his lab results backs I've had this little horrid voice running through the back of my mind whispering Leukemia, Leukemia, Leukemia and I want it to stop! 1 in 150 kids with Down syndrome get leukemia and it's my absolute worst nightmare. We've already had one scare with Callum when he was a few months old and he developed petechiae all over his body and had a high fever (both signs of the "L" word), I was absolutley petrified and thinking that Callum had leukemia was a million times worse than being told that he had Down syndrome. Callum continues to get petechiae whenever he gets a virus so we've stopped worrying about it and just put it down as something his body does when he's fighting off a bug. Now before people start worrying a low ANC is not a symptom of leukemia (as far as I can tell) but anything to do with blood counts being off sends me into worry mode.

I'll end with a cute Callum moment. For the longest time Callum thought kisses were the same as blowing raspberries, he's now giving proper kisses (except to his brother who always gets a special raspberry kiss before bed) and when he came home from the hospital he walked up to Jarvis, who was fast asleep on his cat tower, and gave him the gentlest of kisses right in the middle of his forehead, he's glad to be home.

Sorry for the long absence

2006-02-07T19:12:00.000Z

and thank you Kim and Rebbecca for giving me a prod :)

Things are completely chaotic at the moment and I am quite literally drowning in appointments. By the end of this month we will have had 15 appointments between Callum, Kieran and myself and we've already had to delay a couple of other things that came up. Luckily my mum is staying with us and is helping out. I'll start at the beginning.

Callum had a hearing test at the end of last month, just his usual 6 monthly checkup. They discovered that both his ears have large amounts of fluid in again and his hearing is being quite badly affected, so it looks like it's time for tubes (grommets) again, so I make an appointment for the following week with his ENT doctor. It's a 9am appointment so I figure we should back in work by 10:30 at the latest. I was so wrong, it was 1pm by the time we got home. First off we probably waited about 45 minutes before our appointment, how can doctors get 45 minutes behind schedule when they've only had 30 minutes worth of appointment?!?! The ENT said that yes he needs another set of tubes and he probably needs his adenoids removing as well as they're contributing to his blocked Eustachian tubes and while we're at it his tonsils are HUGE and should probably be removed. We talk it over a little and decide that we'll do it all together.

I go back to see the surgery scheduling person and we arrange a date of Feb 14th (that's a week tomorrow). Then she gives me the list of everything that needs to be done pre-surgery and the results need to be with them a week before surgery (that's today). He needs : Neck x-rays to check for AAI (Atlantoaxial Instability) because they need to tilt his head during the operation, 2 different blood tests (PT/PTT, CBC) and a pre-op physical.

We were able to go and get the neck x-rays done that day in the radiology department of the hospital but of course that's another long wait. Callum was very good and a very nice woman gave us a spare diaper because I hadn't brought anything like that with me because it was supposedly just a quick appointment! We were eventually called back and the radiologist took one look at Callum and started muttering under her breath about not being able to do the x-rays (I'm pretty sure it was just because he was a toddler not because of the DS). She wanted him to stand perfectly still with his head tilted just so and kept telling me off because I wasn't holding him correctly but she'd never explain how I was supposed to be doing it, aaarrggghh! I was getting very frustrated and pissed off and I could see her just wanting to send us home which I was not going to do after waiting for 90 minutes. Luckily she came back with the doctor and he was wonderful, he suggested different ways of positioning him, didn't mind that it took a few tries to get the films and gave very good instructions and best of all he actually smiled and talked to Callum. Callum conks out in the car on the way home and I decide that I may as well just take a day's vacation and we'll just go and do the blood tests that afternoon and get it all over and done with.

The prescription for the blood test needs to come from his pediatrician so I call them and leave a message, the on-call doctor finally gets back to me at 7pm by which time the lab has closed so it's a wasted afternoon. Long story short we get the lab work done a couple of days later and Callum is wonderful as ever and just says a quick "ow" when the needle goes in and that's that. His pediatrician fits us in for a quick physical and everything looks great (he's now 31lbs and 36inches). That's everything done for that set of appointments.

Callum's transition to the school district is the cause of the next load of appointments. An intake meeting yesterday for the school psychologist, Mark & I. We went through the forms and the process and filled out one basic questionnaire to get his skill levels (from what I remember it was 24 months for gross and fine motor and 36 months for social). The we needed to schedule his actual assessment where they have a million people all sitting in a room (okay it's not a million but it will be an OT, PT, ST, APE, special ed teacher, nurse and the school psychologist plus us and Callum of course). The time that she comes up with is 1pm, I explain that Callum naps every day from 12pm-2pm and that they will get nothing out of at a 1pm appointment as he'll be exhausted and surely this should be done at the best time for Callum. The only time they do these assessments is between 1pm and 3pm, so we come to a compromise we'll come at 2pm - Callum gets nearly a full nap and we'll also come at 11am on a different day when it'll probably only be the psychologist but at least that way she'll get a good idea of what Callum is like. Isn't lunch time a fairly typical toddler nap time?? Those 2 assessments are schedule for the 27th & 28th of this month. Callum also has a psychological exam scheduled with the regional centre on the 13th. The regional centre have been co-ordinating all his therapy from birth until he turns 3, at 3 his therapy is turned over to the school district but he will stay as a regional centre client for the rest of his life. The regional centre will deal with things that fall outside of the education system such as respite care, job shadowing, housing, benefits, that kind of stuff. A last appointment for Callum is his regular dental check up.

Wow, I'm writing a huge amount here - I must update more regularly rather than letting it all build up and then getting verbal diarrhea

Two of the appointments are mine and are very boring. One of the kids has managed to scratch my cornea and a trip to the eye doctor revealed that the sight in my right eye is pretty buggered at the moment. Luckily eyes heal pretty quickly and I've just got this gunky ointment to put in my eye each night for a week and then go back for a follow up. My other eye also had some damage and it looks like my contact lenses weren't a great fit and may have caused some damage.

Kieran accounts for 3 of the appointments none of which have occurred yet. One is his regular 18 month appointment, it'll be interesting to see what his height and weight are now. His other appointments are slightly scary, one is for an MRI (so he'll probably need to be sedated) and the other is a consultation with a neurosurgeon. Theses last two appointments all came about because we took a trip to the zoo last Sunday. While we were sitting eating lunch a man introduced himself to us and said he was a vascular doctor and had we ever had Kieran checked out. He was concerned about the size of Kieran's head (which we know is large) and the very large highly visible veins that he has on his face. I always presumed that they were so very visible due to him having very fair skin and his big head and his doctor had told us before that they would fade as he got older. The skin on his face almost looks translucent, especially around the temples where all the veins are. The doctor was very apologetic, said he didn't want to scare us but that he'd seen symptoms like that before and that it may be something that needs looking into. His pediatrician said there's no harm in having it looked at and referred us to a pediatric neurosurgeon - all the stuff in his bio looks scary but none of it seems to apply to Kieran so hopefully it's nothing. The only thing we found that might vaguely apply is something called AVM

On a happy note the kids LOVED the zoo. We haven't been for about 4 months but Callum remembered and got all excited as soon as we got out of the car. He was whooping like a money and doing the monkey sign as soon as we walked through the gate and didn't really stop! They both really liked looking at the baby orangutan who was having lots of fun playing with it's mummy.

Time for lunch, I'll stop now.

The wanderer returns

2006-01-24T16:55:00.000Z

Yes, Jarvis is home :-)

A couple who live about 3 buildings down from us found him hiding under their building, reached in, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and brought him into their house for food and cuddles while they called us. He's a little dirty and very slightly skinnier but apart from that seems to be remarkably healthy. He soon settled back in and slept cuddled up on our bed last night. Lara (our other cat) is not so sure though and keeps hissing and growling at him, I suppose he must smell of strange places and animals.

We're very grateful to have him home.

Good news and Bad news again

2006-01-23T18:13:00.000Z

Good news

My mum arrived safetly and Callum is very pleased to see his 'nanny again
We made our first strollerless (pushchairless) trip to the park and both Callum and Kieran did great.
We've had another possible Jarvis sighting and will go and check it out after work. The lady who thinks she saw him said that he's definitely not suffering from malnutrition!

Bad news

Callum had his latest hearing test today and has completley flat typanogram's from both ears, which means he must have a ton of fluid again. We're scheduling more tubes but they're usually pretty booked up so my guess is that it'll take a couple of months.

Shadow update and Missing Cat

2006-01-21T00:24:00.000Z

We had a great response from our ad for a shadow for Callum. Lots of people with experience in special needs. The bad news is that our request for funding got turned down, I know I can fight it but we're talking about a period of 2 1/2 months before everything changes again and he transfers to the school district. It's so frustrating not knowing what kind of a place they will offer Callum, how many hours, will it only be 2 or 3 days a week, will they provide transportation, will we think it's the right setting for Callum. Things are nice and settled at the moment and now it's all going to go topsy turvey again, maybe, probably, who knows.

Mark and I talked it over and decided that we'd ask my mum if she'd like to come for an extended visit and be Callum's shadow until we know what's going on with school. She of course jumped at the chance and Callum is going to be very excited to see his 'nanny again. The flight was booked within a couple of hours of us popping the question and she arrives tomorrow evening. When we told day care about both the funding being turned down and about my mum coming they said that Callum has been much better at following directions since he came back from the Christmas break, aaarrgggh does this mean that they now don't think he needs a shadow. I think they really thought that he would qualify for the funding and it would make THEIR lives easier, oh well. We've decided that it will probably be good for Callum to have the one on one time even if it's not for the entire day. We might try and introduce potty training and it'll probably give the teachers a better idea about what Callum can do.

Now for the bad news, Jarvis (our cat) has gone missing :( He's been gone since Wednesday 11th January when he managed to slip out the front door without us noticing. We've had a couple of possible sightings by a neighbour but nothing since last weekend. We've put up posters, online notices, visitied the local animal shelters and nothing. We're still hoping that he turns up but as the days go by it's becomming less likely. So if anyone just happens to be reading this and you live in Santa Monica and see a huge silver tabby then please let me know...

Kieran is walking!

2006-01-09T20:09:00.000Z

Kieran finally got his confidence, he's been walking holding one finger for a couple of months and would cruise the furniture with no problems but he just wouldn't let go.

Last week he'd take one step then fall down, Friday at day care he took 3 steps (his teacher was cheering so loud that the teacher from the class next door came in to investigate) and yesterday he took 6 or 7 steps quite a few times and even started to let go without coaxing.

My baby is growing up, I'll have to get some video of him crawling before he stops doing it all together.

Other good news
* we finally got our new dishwasher
* Callum is saying Milk (rather than bubu which is his generic word for drink)
* Callum is combining signs and words on a more regular basis and with little prompting. Things like "more please", "cracker please" or even "more cracker please"
* Callum's wake up time is now 6:30am, that's a whole hour and a half of extra sleep!

Shadow for Callum

2006-01-04T16:27:00.000Z

Oops, just realised that I haven't told you all about the latest goings on with Callum and day care.

Just before Christmas the day care director mentioned briefly to us (in the car park while we're trying to strap two grumpy kids into the car) that she thinks Callum needs a shadow at school because he keeps wandering off from where he's supposed to be. It wasn't the best way to approach us, we were left with a million questions and no way of really finding out what was going on.

The next day a letter at school to say that we needed to come in and discuss the situation with Callum. Then Kieran got sick so we couldn't go in and eventually I had the conversation on the phone with them. Well Callum is a wanderer at school, when they're all supposed to be outside Callum will disappear and turn up in the pre-k class reading books or "playing" with the turtle (don't ask). The ratio is 6:1 in his class and they feel that Callum's safety may be compromised because they can't watch him at every minute. They want us to provide a 1 on 1 shadow/teachers aide to be with Callum full time in the classroom. Now I knew Callum wandered sometimes but not one of the teachers had made it sound like a problem and suddenly it was something that needed to be fixed asap. I really wished that they'd talked to us sooner because at least then we could have put the wheels in motion sooner and I wouldn't have had to spend part of Christmas frantically writing job postings, calling regional center before they closed for the holiday and generally feeling under pressure to have someone starting when school started back on the 3rd (yesterday).

We've had some great looking candidates and are hoping to interview this week. Now I've had time to reflect on it I actually think it'll be good for Callum to have more 1 on 1 time, I just hope he doesn't get annoyed at having this person breathing down his neck all day.

Financing is another issue, this will end up costing us about $550 per week. Day care have offered to help us out for the first month and after that we're hoping that at least some of the funding can come from the regional center but I can't see them hurrying the paperwork through as Callum only has 3 months before he'll be transitioned to the school district.

I'll keep you posted.

2006-01-04T05:59:00.000Z

My dear son, my sweet boy,Is this truly how it's going to be? I simply can't believe it. Is your heart truly defective? Are your femurs truly short? Does this truly add up to Down's syndrome? Eight and a half months into your gestation and only now is something gone awry in what was called a "textbook perfect" pregnancy, only now trouble is detected? Perhaps I'm in denial. Perhaps we're being tested. I cannot say. I'm so afraid, and yet I cannot believe my worst fears will come to pass. It just doesn't make sense. How could this be happening? Your mother is so healthy, she's been taking such good care of herself, her blood tests were better than average. My little boy, that this disadvantage should be yours...If I could bear this burden for you, know that I would, gladly. Please surprise us.I love and pray for you,Your father

From a Blog I found courtesy of Rebecca at Always Chaos, to read more go to My Son Nicholas This posting is from February 2005 when Nicholas's mom and dad had just found out the possibility that they're unborn son had Down syndrome.

I've still got lots more to read, but this post really tugged at my heart

Kieran

2006-01-04T05:21:00.000Z

CIMG0156
Originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

This is Kieran having a great time at the park with his Uncle Jack.

Happy New Year

2006-01-03T21:48:00.000Z

Phew, glad to get back to work and have a rest! I love spending time with my boys but when it chucks it down with rain for the 3 day in a row and we're cooped up watching Lion King for the 50 millionth time it gets a little wearing.

Seriously we did have a good week off. I love to watch the boys interact and Kieran is getting to be such a funny little boy. Here's a 5 minute slice of life Kieran style

Cruising along the sofa - spies something he wants "up, up, up, up" with hands held aloft and a beseeching look on his face. Up he gets and then climbs and falls over whomever has helped him up. "down, down, down" as he gets down, then "up, up, up" as he realises that he still wants whatever is on the sofa.

Repeat about 5 times

Then crawl (crawling is the new in thing, walking is so 2005!) to where he can see the playdoh "doh, doh, doh" - hand sheld aloft and beseeching look. One of us grabs the playdoh. "Sit dow, sit dow" says Kieran as he tries to get into his little Ikea chair. Playdoh goes flying all over the floor, "all done, all done", Kieran gets down and we try and clean up. "Sit dow, sit dow, sit dow" says Kieran and playdoh goes everywhere again.

Repeat about 5 times

Catches sight of the TV - "mo, mo" (Elmo), then signs for Wiggles (Callum's made up sign that he's taught Kieran). Are you hungry Kieran? we ask, huge over emphasised nods of the head and big grin - no mistaking that answer. "Nana, Nana" - 30 seconds later the banana is gone, Kieran literally inhales platefuls of food at the moment and has been known to eat his dinner, polish off Callum's and still ask for more.

Back to the sofa "up, up, up"....

Merry Christmas to Everyone

2005-12-23T20:14:00.000Z

I've got about 40 minutes left at work so thought I'd use the time wisely and write an update :)

Things are still hectic here, it really does seem like we get one thing finished and off the "to do" list and then another thing (or usually 2) pops up. We finally got our living room walls and ceiling patched and repainted after having speakers and recessed lights added about 9 months ago, we got our carpets cleaned (I shudder to think what colour the water was), I wrote and posted my Christmas cards, did the majority of my shopping and we even found time to buy the Christmas tree.

Some stuff just wont disappear from the list, no matter how hard we try - like our new dishwasher. Our old one broke at the beginning of November and we decided to replace it as it was pretty crappy anyway. We found one we liked, went to Sears, ordered it and found out that it was back ordered. Not to worry it would only be a couple of weeks. Finally the day arrives for the installation, the technician goes to get the dishwasher and promptly comes back and says some catch on it is broken and he'll have to take it back oh and by the way in his years of experience the make we chose is known for breaking down so maybe we should reconsider. My poor hands by now are complaining loudly that they weren't made for this washing dishes lark. So we call Sears back, explain the situation, cancel the first order and place a new order, sorted! surely it will be here soon. We keep calling to see what's going on, they reassure us that it will be here soon and definitely by Christmas. My phone calls become more and more frequent as the days start counting down and having to listen to pipped Christmas Musik every time I'm put on hold is driving me batty, even though I always get the name of the person I speak to they never seem to be there when I call again and I have to go through the whole story of who said what on what day a million and one times. Sigh, we still haven't got our dishwasher and I'm contemplating paper plates for Christmas dinner.

The other big thing that got dropper on our laps was that day care suddenly announced, in the car park while trying to strap both kids into their car seats, that they thought Callum needed a full time shadow/aide at school because he keeps running off and they are afraid that he'll get hurt. Oh and by the way can we have someone there by January 3rd! I don't mind the request for an aid, but how it was done and giving us a grand total of 10 days over the Christmas holiday without even mentioning before that this might be a possibility had me very pissed off. They had backtracked a little and said as long as they know we're working on it then that's OK. We have had one person contact us about the job, she's doing her masters has a younger sister with Down syndrome, has experience as a nanny and as a day care teacher and really wants to work with a child with special needs, keep your fingers crossed that it works out.

We are just about prepared for Christmas, Mark's mum and her boyfriend arrive tonight and my youngest brother Jack and his mate Jack arrive on Christmas Eve. Jack is like me and loves Christmas so I'll have someone joining me in the wearing of reindeer antlers and singing Christmas carols all day.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

I think things are settling down

2005-12-16T17:59:00.000Z

Kieran is on day number 9 of the yucky antibiotics, it's still a struggle to get them in him but only 3 more doses to go. We've been able to stop his breathing treatments for the moment as his chest has cleared up. The Singulair granules really do seem to be tasteless and Kieran will eat it mixed with apple sauce with no problems. His sleep is still pretty bad (at least 2 wakeups a night) but it's taking less time to calm him down. I think the sudden very loud crying at 2:30 in the morning is having an effect on Callum though. He's been grumpy and whiney the last few mornings which makes me think that Kieran's crying is disturbing his sleep as well. Hopefully things will improve next week and we can all get back to sleeping better.

I am sort of getting organised for Christmas. The cards are done and were only sent out 1 day after the last posting day to the UK. That is pretty good for me, I'll quite often write the cards and then forget to send them completely. We're getting our tree this weekend and I'll decorate while the boys are napping and Mark is watching the football (soccer). Maybe that will finally put me in a Christmas mood.

We have Mark's mum and her boyfriend flying in on the 23rd and then my brother Jack and his friend Jack arriving on Christmas Eve. We'll have 8 of us for Christmas dinner so it should be fun. I need to start planning menus and stuff because they'll all be here for a week and I have no idea what to feed them all.

I think Callum will actually "get" Christmas a little this year. We have a toy Santa at home that Callum keeps asking for and he tries to sing along with Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Day cares Christmas party was yesterday and Callum was pretty excited to see Santa, Kieran just cried :-(

Long time no Post

2005-12-12T22:33:00.000Z

Kieran has been sick, yet again. he's had a double ear infection for about 6 weeks now. His ears looked clear when Mark and I went on vacation and almost as soon as we came back it was back again. We knew that he was allergic to penicillin, but now it looks like he's also allergic to cephalosporin type antibitoics as well. No dramatic visits to the ER this time, just a rash that spread all over his tummy and back the 2nd time he took it. That left us with 2 types of antibiotics - Zithromax (once a day for 5 days and doesn't taste too bad) or Bactrim (twice a day for 10 days and very yucky tasting), of course we went for the Zithromax. Everything seemed to be ok, then 6 days later he had a temperature of 103 and back to the doctors we went. The infection was still there but now it was even worse, so time for the real yucky medicine. It really is yucky, I got a little bit on my finger and it leaves a really bitter aftertaste, it's also really really grainy no matter how long you shake it for. I think the first 2 attempts ended up down his chin, but we've got a technique now where we squirt it into the side of his cheek, hold his mouth close and blow quickly on his face which startles him into swallowing, follwed by a cup of milk to take the taste away. We're half way through now so I just hope it works. We've got an appointment with an ENT to see about getting tubes in his ears but that's not 'till early January.

At his last doctors visit he was also wheezing pretty badly (again) and his doctor said he was actually pretty sick (you couldn't really tell as he was cruising round the room talking away). He's now on an anti infamatory called Singulair for the rest of the winter. It's granuals that are apparently tasteless and just need to be sprinkled on his food, we pick them up today so I'll let you know how that goes. His wheezing meant more nebulizer treatments, twice a day with Pulmicort and Xopenex every 4 hours (even during the night when he's at his worst) . No one's actually diagnosed him with asthma yet, but everything is pointing that way.

He's hardly eaten for days (one of the side affects fo the Bactrim), his sleep is atrocious (possible side affect of the Xopenex/Pulmicort). last night he was awake about every 2 hours, got up for the day at just before 5am and went down for a nap at 8am. I'm so tired that I feel like a zombie.

Caught red handed

2005-12-12T17:17:00.000Z

Caught red handed
Originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

Same birthday party as mentioned bfore. It had an Elmo theme so lots and lots of bright red frosting. Click on the photo for a bigger version and you'll really see the mess Callum made.

Bang the Drum

2005-12-12T17:14:00.000Z

Bang the Drum
Originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

We went to a birthday party yesterday afternoon and they had "Music Bob" as a special guest. All the kids loved it and Callum got a real kick out of playing the drum.

Santa Kieran

2005-12-05T17:36:00.001Z

Santa Kieran
Originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

Shopping at Target on Sunday morning. Kieran found a santa hat that he liked so we took a couple of pictures. It's only with a camera phone so the quality isn't great but at least he kept the hat on for a few seconds!

Santa Callum

2005-12-05T17:36:00.000Z

Santa Callum
Originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

TV Show

2005-11-29T21:44:00.000Z

The taping for the TV show was today, unfortunately I couldn't go as I was in training sessions for my new job but Mark got to go (and my sister went to help as well) and told me all about it.

First thing was that I didn't realize how hard it would be to find 4 sets of clothing that met the requirements of no black, white, red, stripes, logos and were actually stain free! I'd pick up a shirt the I thought was ideal and they'd be a logo on the back or down the seam, those logos get everywhere. Then everything that was plain had old stains on it because Callum loves to get dirty and we don't really keep "Sunday best" type clothes.

The first show (and the only one we knew about before hand) activity was texture boxes. Sounded like big cardboard boxes with holes cut in, the kids put their arms through the holes to feel various toys and can pull the toys out to look at them. By the sound of it Callum was engrossed and was signing and everything. There were 4 kids in total but 2 of them spent most of their time hiding behind the sofa (it's a living room setting). They had a camera on each kid and Mark and Eleanor could watch it on TV or live on the set. No idea how much of Callum we'll see in the actual show but it sounds like he was really into it so hopefully we'll see a fair amount of him. After the first show finished taping they asked who was staying for the second show (they tape 2 a day) and Mark said no, but apparently they'd put Callum down for 2 shows so Mark stayed anyway.

The second show was on the subject of science and it was just Callum and a 4 1/2 year old little boy (the other kids didn't show up). They were playing with water (I can just picture Callum's eyes lighting up when he got to see those big containers of water). They were supposed to be measuring and pouring water from one jug to another, sucking water up into turkey baster type things and pouring it through filters. What Callum did was drink it and splash in it, sounds like he had great fun but I'm not sure how much of it they'll actually use in the show.

Got to go to my next training session, I'll write another update soon.

A little Update

2005-11-15T22:37:00.000Z

Wow, things have been busy so just a little update on everyone

Me: I'm moving jobs. I'm staying with the same company but moving departments. Thursday is my transition day so I've been busy documenting, finishing off, throwing out, training, etc. For the first time in 5 years Mark and I wont be sharing an office, which will be exceedingly strange. Some people look at us like we're completely mad when they hear that we're together 24/7 but it works for us and we rarely get pissed off at each other. I really felt the need for a change though, time to get my brain working again.

Callum: Had great fun at our first ever Buddy Walk. He got to meet John C. McGinley, a congressman, Sylvia Lopez (who reads the news), plus lots and lots of kids and adults who said that he was cute. He's got his first ear infection of the winter, and we've also been told that his tonsils are looking really big so an operation to remove them may be coming up this winter. The large tonsils would possibly explain the disrupted sleep that he's been having recently and the 5am wake ups.

Kieran: Also has his first ear infection of the winter, only he managed to get it in both ears. He's also been on nebulizer treatments as his chest has been really tight and he was having to work really hard to breathe. Being sick hasn't stopped him though and he's been picking up new words all the time - Bye Bye, Uh-Oh, No, Ba-Ba (for drink - I have no idea where this comes from but both boys use it), Weeee, Cat. He's doing good at walking holding one hand but still doesn't quite want to let go, he loves rough & tumble though and using one of us as a human climbing frame is his favourite game. He's also getting 2 new molars at the moment (one on each side at the top), no wonder he screams at 4am and wants to come into our bed.

Visitors: we've got my mum, brother Will & Sister Eleanor staying with us at the moment. They've come to rescue us from interrupted sleep! They'll be looking after Callum & Kieran while Mark and I go off and sun ourselves on a Mexican beach.

Just Playing

2005-11-08T18:09:00.000Z

I post on a 2 year old parenting board now and again and someone was complaining that their child's prospective preschool didn't seem to actually have formal educational time, they're" just playing" she said. It made me remember a poem that I've seen several times at my kids day care. Why are people obsessed with formal education for 2 and 3 year olds? It makes me so glad that the day care we chose is a learn through play type of environment. I guess this just goes back to my Why Does this Bother Me? post.

Just Playing
Author Unknown
When I'm building in the block area,
Please don't say I'm "Just Playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play: about balance and shapes.
Who knows, I may be an architect someday.

When I'm getting all dressed up, setting the table, caring for the babies,
Don't get the idea I'm, "Just Playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play
I may be a mother or a father someday.

When you see me up to my elbows in paint, or standing at an easel, or molding and shaping the clay,
Please don't let me hear you say, "He's Just Playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm expressing myself and being creative.I may be an artist or an inventor someday.

When you see me sitting in a chair "reading" to an imaginary audience,
Please don't laugh and think I'm "Just Playing."
For you see, I'm learning as I play.
I may be a teacher someday.

When you see me combing the bushes for bugs, or packing my pockets with choice things I find,
Don't pass it off as "Just Playing."
For, you see, I 'm learning as I play.
I may be a scientist someday.

When you see me engrossed in a puzzle or some plaything at my school,
Please don't feel the time is wasted in "Play."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning to solve problems and concentrate.I may be in business someday.

When you see me cooking to tasting foods,Please don't think that because I enjoy it, it is "Just Playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning to follow directions and see differences.I may be a cook someday.

When you see me learning to skip, hop, run, and move my body,
Please don't say I'm "Just Playing."
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning how my body works.I may be a doctor, nurse, or an athlete someday.

When you ask me what I've done at school today, and I say, "I Just Played,"
Please don't misunderstand me.
For, you see, I'm learning as I play.
I'm learning to enjoy and be successful in my work, I'm preparing for tomorrow.
Today, I am a child and my work IS play

TV Studio, Here we Come

2005-11-01T16:55:00.000Z

We got the call from KCET yesterday that they want Callum to be on their show. The episode will tape on November 29th but I'm not sure when it will air. The episode is called "Ages & Stages" and will be discussing kids aged 2 to 3, Callum will be taking part in a fun activity but we're not sure what it is yet.

I have all my instructions, bring several changes of clothing in case we need to do a wardrobe change, no solid red, white or black, no pinstripes (damn, he wont be able to wear his suit ;-) ), no logos and no copyrighted character clothes (e.g. Disney stuff). We have to be there at 7:30 in the morning, taping starts at 8:30 and goes for a max of 3 hours. Nap times around noon so hopefully he'll be full of beans and have lots of fun.

I'm hoping that they'll at least have a clip available on the website, but if not then I'm sure I'll find some way of sharing the moment with you all. I'm so excited, I can't stop grinning.

Daylight Savings, so whose clever idea was that?

2005-10-31T17:01:00.000Z

Whoever it was must have been turning in their grave if they were listening in to the cursing in out house at 4:15am on Sunday morning.

Yes, 4:15am - that's what time Callum decided getting up time was. No matter how many times we told him it was still night night time and tried to rub his back, he was having none of it. "Up, up", "mammaaaa", "dadeeeee", "up, up". We managed to get him to stay in his cot until 5, at which point Kieran also decided to join in, sigh Mark was an angel and got up with both of them as I'd been up several times in the night with Kieran who is getting his first molar.

Both boys were pretty messed up for the rest of the day, and napped much earlier than normal. We kept them amused in the afternoon with a trip to the beach (Callum had his first dunk in the sea) and then a visit to an indoor play space where they could run and explore and hopefully use up so much energy that they'd sleep and sleep and sleep.

4am this morning and I hear Kieran squawking, I run in quickly with a dose of kids pain medicine and a dummy (pacifier). He settles down and I listen intently for sounds from Callum, just as I'm breathing a sigh of relief I hear "mamaaaa". I tiptoe in very quietly, find another dummy, rub his back and cover him up with his blanket, while I silently say "please let him go back to sleep" over and over in my head. I tiptoe out, a little cry and then silence.

The famous Mr. Callum

2005-10-27T18:37:00.000+01:00

I post lots of my photos on a photo community called flickr where you can tag your photos with keywords. I always tag pictures of Callum with Down Syndrome and Trisomy 21. Recently someone asked if they could use a picture of Callum for the University of Kansas website and here's the result http://www.soe.ku.edu/depts/sped/masters/early_childhood.php

Yesterday I received an email from Gail Williamson who is the Executive Director of the Down Sydrome Association of Los Angeles asking if she could give Callum's details to the producers of a local PBS TV program called A Place of Our Own as they like to include a wide range of kids on the show and she thought Callum might like to particiate. We'll see what happens and I'll keep you posted.

How could I say No

2005-10-26T19:36:00.000+01:00

Callum : splash, splash in the bath points to the shelf and makes a little grunt

Mummy : What do you want?

Callum : Bee Bee (Big Bird) and points to the bottle of Sesame Street bubble bath

Mummy : You want Big Bird?

Callum : Big nod of the head says "yeah"

Mummy : No no, no bubbles tonight

Callum : looks at me with big puppy dog eyes and signs a big "PLEASE"

Mummy : melts into a little puddle on the floor and hands over requested bottle of bubbles, how could I have said no.

We've been working on the sign for "please" for a while but this is the first time he's used it without prompting in the right kind of context.

Why does this bother me?

2005-10-26T19:16:00.000+01:00

A colleague at work has 2 daughters that are adopted from China. He knows that Callum has Down syndrome because I talk about it and I have a big poster on my office door advertising the Buddy Walk. Recently he asked my advice because his youngest daughter isn't speaking (she's around 2 I think) and his wife had contacted the local early intervention program. So I told him a little about Callum's speech therapy, gave him the contact details of the person who did Callum's speech evaluation and also reassured him that lots of kids are late talkers. I gave an example of my brother who didn't talk until he was 3 and is now doing great, he was reassured and said that he betted my brother was now an engineer or something - I let it slide because I didn't want to get into the fact that he's actually an artist, poet, musician, wood carver, highly intelligent hippie because it really wasn't what he wanted to hear. Why is worth dependant on being an engineer/doctor/lawyer??

I saw the same colleague today and he told me with great glee that the evaluation went fine and that it showed that his daughter is really really smart, I could see such relief in his eyes. I get the impression that anything less than "really really smart" is unacceptable. How will he react if one of his kids flunks out of school or decides to become a mechanic, shop assistant, hair dresser or some other less intellectual job. Why can't he just be glad that he has 2 healthy little girls?

Driving

2005-10-26T16:57:00.000+01:00

You know there's nothing like driving a convertible with the top down, blue sky and palm trees above you. I love driving a manual (stick shift) car with the stereo blaring some great sing along tune and reasonably clear roads - it ups my mood and puts a smile on my face.

I learnt to drive when I was 19, no one in my house drove so we didn't have a car but it was something I wanted to do. I payed for my own lessons by working at The Gap, doing babysitting and asking for money for birthdays and Christmas. I failed my first test because I badly messed up on parallel parking but passed my second time. By the time I passed my step grandad had donated his car to my step dad, who was also taking lessons. The car had about 2 months left on an "anybody can drive it" kind of insurance so I was given free reign, I loved the freedom it gave me. Unfortunately by the time the insurance ran out my step dad had passed his test and decided that he wouldn't include me on the insurance, so I was car less for a couple of years.

I spent a year in Georgia as an exchange student and a car was pretty essential. My then boyfriend and I scoured the papers and eventually bought a Mitsubishi Colt which was nicknamed "The Beast". I rarely drove it though because the freeways with their 5 lanes on each side and everyone undertaking and overtaking all at the same time freaked me out a little. "The Beast" got us to Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland and New Jersey. When it was time to go home it was pretty much knackered but we left it with a friend who assured us that he was going to take good care of it, we later heard that it was eventually towed from the college car park and I presume was taken to the great scrap heap in the sky. I still remember the registration BPE 164 and the night that we ran over a sheep (it was already dead) in the middle of an exceedingly dark country road (glad we didn't run into any cops as the car didn't get kind of bloody)

After I graduated I bought myself a Ford Fiesta, it had a 950 engine and was a kind of burnt orange colour. It cost me 400 quid and I was terrified of driving it at first because I'd hardly driven since I passed my test 4 years previously. My daily trips on the M25 soon cured me of any driving fears and I found that I really liked driving. After about a year it started to die on me and eventually decided to stop all together. I bought a newer car (another Fiesta) and left my poor dead orange thing parked outside on the street because I couldn't be bothered to call a tow truck. It would mysteriously move several feet up or down the road over night, we found out that the local kids were using it as a little meeting spot and would bump it along the road for fun sometimes - I left them to it hoping that one day one of them would just take it away. I nearly got my wish, the police turned up one night at my door saying that someone had tried to steal my car but that luckily an observant neighbour had noticed (at 2am) someone acting suspiciously round the car and rang the police. A short while later I bit the bullet and paid a tow company to come and take it away.

When I came to California I knew I wanted a convertible and bought a 1973 MGB, I thought I was the bees knees and absolutely loved to drive it even though it was a bit temperamental and the battery would short out at very inopportune moments (like on the freeway driving at 65 miles an hour at night). Since then we've had a BMW 3 series convertible, a Mitsubishi Eclipse (current convertible), a VW Golf (when Callum was born) and now a VW Passat wagon (estate car for you Brits) which can comfortably hold 2 strollers, 2 car seats and all the various paraphernalia you find yourself carrying around when you have kids. We still have a convertible (the Eclipse) but it's relegated to a once a week drive when we need 2 cars because Callum has therapy that day.

Driving a wagon with the windows close, air conditioning on and Sesame Street blaring just isn't the same.

Test results

2005-10-17T21:40:00.000+01:00

It's negative!! Mark's first word's after I told him were "pizza & beer tonight then".

The Farm

2005-10-16T21:16:00.000+01:00

I found details recently about a farm/petting zoo in our area and this morning we made a spur of the moment decision to go. Callum loves to make animal noises and one of his favourites at the moment is cock-a-doodledoo (courtesy of the Wiggles I think). We get to The Farm and as soon as we open the door we hear "cock-a-doodledoo" from several roosters that are strutting around. Callum gets all wide eyed with his hand over his mouth like he can't quite believe what he had just heard. The grin on his face when he got out of the car and saw not only chickens but ducks, goats, pigs, geese, donkeys, horses, sheep, a lama and an emu was just amazing.

It was basically a free for all with all the animals (apart from the horses) just wandering around. Callum kept his distance at first but was soon coaxed into stroking a very friendly and heavily pregnant goat, after that he was off. It's like until he touched one of the animals he wasn't sure what to make of them. He quacked at ducks, "sshhhd" when they were asleep and then ran at them giggling to wake them up. He oinked at pigs, neighed at horses and did lots of cock-a-doodle-doos. Kieran seemed fairly blase about the whole thing but he did enjoy stroking a donkey.

Two tired boys are now fast asleep, I think it's a trip we'll be making again.

Celiac again

2005-10-12T23:27:00.000+01:00

Mark decided to get tested for celiac disease as he does have a few symptoms which could be attributed to celiac, plus the fact that he has psoriasis means that he's more susceptible to other auto immune disorders. He had the test on Monday and the results take about a week, it's a loooong week. Mark is an eternal pessimist so he's convinced that he's got it. Every time we go out to eat he's all doom and gloom because he doesn't think he'll be able to eat that particular dish again (he finished lunch on Monday with "I'll never be able to eat Carbonara again!"), the free time he has is spent looking at celiac sites and getting even more depressed over the restrictions that would be placed on his diet. He's already planning one last beer blow out as beer is made with malt which comes from barley which is a no no if you have celiac. I know he's really stressing about it so please send lots of "send the test results quickly" vibes to the lab technicians. At least once we know we can actually do something about it.

Blankie Baby

2005-10-12T22:58:00.000+01:00

Kieran has become a "blankie baby", it's been developing for a while but now he's definitely addicted. The blankie in question is a soft fleecy baby blanket that Kieran likes to squish his face into and snuggle up to when sleeping. It used to only live in his crib but now he likes to reach through the bars and pull it out whenever he gets a chance. Last night when he cried in the night it was because he couldn't find his blankie (usually it's because he's lost his pacifier but that was still firmly ensconced). I wonder how long it'll be before he wants to take it to school with him? I think I must have passed on the comfort object gene, my mum has a well travelled feather pillow that she has to have in order to go to sleep. My brother, Richard, had odd pieces of cotton and my thing was nylon, I'm sure there are pictures of me with thumb firmly stuck in my mouth carrying around a pair of nylon knickers!

Kieran Crawls

2005-10-11T21:56:00.001+01:00

Kieran Crawls
Originally uploaded by * Naomi *.

Don't you just love the cheeky grin?