Just busy

No other excuses for not posting, except from the general busyness of life. DH is on holidays over Easter, which is FANTASTIC, and the weather has been fabulous. I have updated the slide show for your viewing pleasure!! BTW - no more trips to the ER this week!!!

A Weekend Trip To the ER

Of course, major injuries to small boys MUST happen on a weekend when their Dad is away - it's Murphy's Law, right??!!! DH and DD left on Friday night for a Youth Group camp an hour and a half's drive away, and I decided to spend the weekend earning some 'Mum' points by doing cool stuff with DS whilst they were gone. Pizza 'for tea, making triple choc muffins, watching countless episodes of 'Top Gear' etc etc, topped off by a lovely trip to his favourite playground. Well, the first half hour was lovely, but it all came to a rather rapid end when DS fell backwards off the monkey bars and landed very heavily on his back. He started doing that 'I've REALLY hurt myself' scream. Poor Alice was quite freaked out, as was I. I took a look at his back and all I could see was a nasty graze, so we headed home. He whimpered all the way home, and was seriously unhappy. By the time we got home he couldn't move his arm, and I had another look at his back - ARGHHH!!!! It was like someone had inserted a small basketball under the skin. There was so much swelling I knew it had to be bad, so I called an ambulance. You may think I was overreacting, but unless you want to sit in the waiting room in the ER for five hours, you call an ambulance as they take you into triage straight away. Luckily my Dad was home so he came and got Alice, and DS and I trundled off to casualty. We were whisked right in, x-rays were ordered, and thankfully nothing was broken. The Doctor said that he had most likely burst some blood vessels when he fell which had caused the disgustingly huge swelling. So we were home by 7.30pm, and after some panadol DS slept pretty well. I took my own form of stress relief in the form of a glass of wine, and also had a pretty good night. Whew - the things that happen when DH is nowhere to be seen!

A Gorgeous Smile!!

Not saying that the Divine Miss A never smiles - she does, and frequently. It's just that the smile tends to be replaced by a rather vacant, stunned-mullet look as soon as I produce the camera. Anyway, this morning I decided to get Alice dressed up in her beautiful hand-made ladybug dress (thanks Leah!!) and take some photos. Surprisingly she co-operated and I got a few beautiful smiles!! So where were we going, all dressed up, you may ask?? Well, we were off to Daddy's work to watch Daddy get his LEGS WAXED!!!!!! Yes Loyal Readers, you read that correctly - DH got his legs waxed today at work, with an audience of about 20 or so giggling secretaries watching. Why?? Well, he had foolishly agreed to do this stunt if $500 was raised for a local kid's cancer charity fund (good cause, foolish decision). He could have had his head shaved, but being the vain individual that he is, he decided that he would much rather have his legs waxed. Ha, ha, ha... I had warned him of the pain involved, but I don't think he believed me - until 11.30 this morning that is!! Now he is sporting a lovely pair of lily-white to the knee, hair free legs. Mmmm, very sexy...

Sleepover Hangover

DD went to a friend's house last night for a sleep over. I still think this term is somewhat of a misnomer, as not much sleep was had by any of the girls. DD said she finally went to sleep at 3.30 am, and was awake by 5am. When she arrived home I asked if she was tired. "No, no, no, I feel fine' was the testy response. By lunchtime she was starting to flag noticeably (although would never admit to it) so I suggested she go and have a bit of a rest on the couch and read a book. Ten minutes later, the above photo shows the result. It has now been over an hour and she is still out cold - she hasn't napped during the day since (funnily enough) this time last year when she attended the same friend's party!

Speaking of naps, today is a momentous day in our household. The divine Miss Alice is having her first day of only one nap. She has been pretty consistent with her need for a morning and afternoon nap since we arrived home, but the past fortnight or so has seen some frightening developments. Not wanting to go to bed, playing and singing in her cot for well over an hour and a half before going to sleep for a paltry thirty minutes, etc. So today I bit the bullet and kept her up until 12.30pm. She fell asleep during her bottle, went to bed without a peep and has been there for over an hour. I am REALLY hoping that I get at least two hours out of her, or even more, but we shall just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, the boys are at golf, my girls are asleep and I have a little peace and quiet. Ahhh, bliss.....
UPDATE: The not-so-divine Miss A has just awoken after a measly hour and twenty minutes. Bugger.....

Going Cold Turkey

No Loyal Readers - it's not what you think! I gave up the filthy cancer sticks years ago by going cold turkey and am now a rabid anti-smoker. No, this addiction has been far more insidious. I have been, for the past 20 odd years, addicted to nasal decongestant spray. Ever since a nasty sinus cauterisation back in high school I have had issues with my nose, and became heavily reliant upon nasal spray to keep the passages open, so to speak. At various times over the years I have stopped, but have always managed to fall back into the habit. Well, the past few months I have noticed that my habit has become increasingly pronounced. The 12-hour spray was only lasting about four hours, and I would feel panicky if I left the house and forgot to take my 'snort' with me. Did I mention that I cannot ABIDE having a blocked nose???? Anyway, the last couple of weeks I have been waking during the night to 'snort', and I woke up yesterday morning, snotty and congested, knowing that I had to stop. That's the thing about these sprays - once you use them for more than a few days, you get what is called 'rebound congestion' and basically you become dependent on the spray. So I did a bit of research on the Net and found out that my problem has a rather big name - rhinitis medicamentosa - and that there was a safe way to wean myself off the evil spray. I took my info, managed to get a doctors appointment at lunchtime (a miracle in itself) and snottily explained my situation to the doc. By this stage I hadn't had any 'snort' for 13 hours and was feeling incredibly crappy. He agreed with the research I had done and prescribed a cortisone based spray to reduce nasal inflammation during the 'cold turkey' phase. He did mention that the spray would take 24-48 hours to work, so I gritted my teeth and saw the day out. To cut a long and very snotty story short, it was a pretty crappy day. Thankfully the cortisone spray kicked in at about midnight and I managed to have a reasonable night's sleep (did I mention that I cannot ABIDE trying to sleep with a blocked nose???) and I am feeling quite chipper today. Nose is a little snuffly but nothing compared to what it was this time yesterday. Apparently it takes the nose about 5-7 days to recover from perpetual nasal decongestant abuse, so I have my other, non-habit forming spray to help me through this period. I am VERY proud of the fact that I didn't succumb to the temptations of the 'snort' yesterday 'cos boy did I consider it long and hard!! Anyway, here I am, almost 36 hours cold turkey and doing well. Let's hope I continue to do so - next job is to go and chuck out all the bottles of spray I have secreted around the house and in handbags, lest I am tempted again!!

My new favourite pic.

Miss Alice on the receiving end of a little Labrador Lovin'. VERY funny!!!

Six Months Ago Tomorrow..

Yeah, I know - weird title, but I have some spare time today and not much tomorrow and I wanted to write this post, so here 'tis. I can hardly believe that tomorrow marks six months since we received THE CALL. I was up a ladder at the kids' school, painting a window sill when my phone rang. It was one of my batch buddies in near hysterics, screaming that she had just had THE CALL and had a daughter! Well, as you can imagine no more painting got done after that. I only had to wait another ten minutes before the phone rang again and this time it was our social worker. I actually started to cry when I heard her voice, I could hardly believe that all the years of waiting were just about to be over. Mind you, she wasn't going to tell me anything over the phone - she wanted me to make an appointment to drive to her office (about 30 minutes away) and then I would find out about our newest family member. I politely told her she had to be freaking kidding and made her open the envelope. She told me the basics - sex, birth date, province etc - and also said that she was VERY pretty!!! I made an appointment with her for later on that afternoon, then rang DH. He was completely blown away as he answered the phone and I started sobbing that we had a daughter. Later on that afternoon, all four of us trooped down to Burnie (longest thirty minutes of my life) to see Alice's photos and to sign the acceptance forms. I distinctly remember looking at the first of the three photos and thinking 'I guess she's sort of cute', but by the time I had reached photo number three I was head over heels. I have included that photo at the top if this post. She seemed so little, so lost and so very much in need of a cuddle. I carried that photo everywhere with me for the next six weeks, and frequently spent long periods of time just staring at this little face who would soon become my daughter. Such a blessing, such a beautiful little girl....