Grace's 4 Y/o check

Grace had her 4 year old check on Thursday at the health clinic, it's the one they have before starting school.

I don't really have any concerns with Grace, she seems to be plodding along averagely and within the normal range for most things. The health nurse got her to write her name and draw some shapes, which she did fine. She then had an eye test, and after stuffing around and loosing concentration a bit, Grace finally finished it and passed perfectly. She was then asked a few questions and asked to point out a few things on a picture. Things like, "Can you tell me which of the kittens is not black" and "Which person is the skater". She got them all right and moved on to the last test, hearing. The nurse explained how it all worked, and made sure Grace was comfortable with the headphones and understood that she had to press the button when she heard the noise. Her left ear was fine, only she couldn't pick up the high frequencies. However, her right ear she couldn't consistently pick up any of the frequencies. She eventually could hear them, but not until they were really loud and way above the "normal" limits, especially the highest and lowest frequencies. The nurse double checked it all, but the same thing happened every single time.

Next she did the tympanomentery test, which is a puff of air into the ear to check the bounce of the ear drum. Grace's right ear once again failed dismally, with a result of 'significant middle ear pressure, consistent with Eustachian tube dysfunction", the left ear was only slightly better. The nurse reassured me that it could just be that she was coming down with something, and there may be excess mucous distorting the result. She made an appointment for 8 weeks time, to see if the loss was still there and then we'd have a plan of what to do.

I left that appointment a bit shocked and rattled that my little girl could have a moderate hearing loss and I've never even suspected it. Looking back now though, there has been so many times both Duane and I have been frustrated with her for not listening. Maybe she just couldn't hear us? She obviously can hear most things, but it would get harder for her when she starts school. Anyway, I'm fully aware of the anatomy and physiology of the ear now, after learning about it all this week at Uni. I even had a chat to my lecturer about Grace, and she just said to not hold my breath that it is from excess mucous and to keep on top of it if there are problems. She also made me feel better for not noticing anything, saying that it's rare for this to happen with no history of ear problems before. It did make me think back to Grace's 6 week check as a baby and the midwife commenting on her chunk of ear lobe missing. She told me to keep an eye out for hearing loss as sometimes deformities on the outside are indicative of internal problems. It's on her right ear too, so would make sense.

So now we just wait until the next check in 8 weeks time. I'm hoping that it is just a temporary problem, but if it's not, we will deal with it and be thankful that it's nothing worse.

Catch up

Gosh, it's been a long time between posts! I miss having the luxury of time to sit and write, it's not only my time to mark memories but my outlet. My brain feels so jam packed lately and I worry that if all the special things don't get written down, they'll be forgotten.

Anyway, onto the past week.

I've gotten some exam and essay results back, which still have me shocked. For my anatomy exam I got a distinction in the exam, for Sociology exam I got a high distinction and the biggest shock came from my very first essay! We had the lecture for the subject on Friday, then the lecturer was going to hand out the essays. She gave us a quick breakdown, saying how about 50 failed, mostly there were passes and credits with a few distinctions and 7 high distinctions out of the 280+ essays. I wasn't feeling that confidant with my essay, and would have been happy with a credit but expected a high pass. Imagine my shock when I got it back and I actually got 47/50 possible marks, which is 94% and a whopping big high distinction!!! I was shocked and flabbergasted and was still unsure so double checked with the lecturer that the right mark had been written on. She confirmed it was right, and congratulated me on such a great essay!

I walked out of the room stunned and actually run into my other lecturer, and she asked how I went. She had a quick look over and said that the few things I had been marked down for were so minimal, and she suspected that they only picked up on them for something to mark me down for. Apparently they don't like giving full marks, especially in first year. I did then have to admit to her that the essay I have submitted for her subject had about a 10th of the effort put in, so not to expect anything too fantastic. That's the truth too, I really didn't put the work into my second essay. I've already passed the subject though as I went so well in the exam.

So, all those good results were great for the confidence but I am still finding it hard to be motivated to study for the end of semester exams. I only have 2 written and then a practical health assessment to do. I'm only really worried about the anatomy one, I've really slacked off studying that and I'm finding a lot of the new information hard to retain. I've got a week study break before the exams, so I'll be frantically studying and hoping that It'll all click then and come together.

Duane's sister has just been up for 10 days as a surprise for Wendy. I've spent the week at school, so Duane took the week off to be with the kids. They've had a great time with Auntie Debbie, who they both haven't seen for 2 years. She has been spoiling them though, and they have been decked out in new clothes and toys. The latest barbie addition is a nurses uniform, a very provocative one though.

I've been busy this week swapping between writing my latest essay and felting a crystal cave for Miss Lucie's first birthday present. I'm also making one for my kids, but that might have to be put aside until after exams. I forgot to take some pics of it finished though, so I'll get some next time I visit. I also had the impressions done for my fake front tooth, so in a few weeks I'll have a $500 smile. Also the prep work was done on the 2 teeth beside it that the bridge will be attached too. I'm still a bit sad about loosing my black, wonky capped tooth but kinda getting excited now about having the new one too. It does mean I'm on the slippery slope to old age though, false teeth are a sure sign of that. I'm happy as long as I can brush it inside my mouth, it's when you take them out to clean that the real worries start!

Now, my next object of excitement is slightly pathetic. My old dyson gave up after a 8 year continuous work out, and after getting a $250 quote to fix it I decided to treat myself to a brand spanking new one. So now I'm the proud and slightly infactuated owner of this little baby:

http://www.dyson.com.au/store/product.asp?product=DC23-TURBINE

We got it for an awesome price too, $650 - including a bonus hard floor tool and 6 years warranty! It wasn't because of my fabulous bargaining skills though, it helps to have someone on the inside. It's an absolute pleasure to use and I seriously had housework envy when I knew that Duane was home vacuuming, and I was stuck at school. My old purple faithful has been sent to Dyson to be recycled, and although it was sad to see her go, one go on the new one and I was over the sentimental feelings.

Unwelcome house guest

We have a new house guest, and it's one that I was hoping we'd avoid, FOREVER.

Barbie has moved in, and with it she's bought all her tarty clothes, painfully high heels and unattainable figure. I've been trying to hold out the introduction between Grace and the big-breasted blonde for as long as possible, but generous Aunty Debbie excitedly handed over a stash of barbies and all her accessories today. It was totally done out of love, but I'm finding it really hard to accept her (the doll, not the Sil!) into our house.

It just feels so wrong to me to hand my 4 y/o impressionable daughter a blonde, tall, perfectly proportioned doll whilst also trying to support her in developing healthy self esteem. I know Barbie has been around for decades, and the old favourite line can be trotted out about her "But, I had a barbie and I turned out fine" The thing is, back when I was a little girl, barbie wore beautiful ball gowns, wedding dresses and simple high heels. Nowadays, she is in low-cut skimpy clothing with sky-high heels and a face plastered in make up. You can still get the long ball gowns, just with the added bonus of ample cleavage spililng over the top. Why do little girls need their dolls to look like this?

Grace, up until today, was quite happy playing with her baby dolls and dressing them up in her old baby clothes, now she's all about the black heels and the 'barely there' bikini that she can put on her extremely narrow waisted plastic friend. I guess it's partly the over sexualisation of girls now that doesn't sit right with me either. I know I can't blame it all on a plastic doll, but I think she's partly to blame. Grace is just so innocent now, and I don't some crappy doll to break that.

The mass marketing also grates on me. The aisles and aisles of pink crap dedicated to her, not to mention the masses of barbie plastered clothing and accessories seen around. So far we have avoided the hype of any mass marketing, but I'm realistic to know that it's bound to happen sooner or later. I've actually avoided telling Grace that they are called 'Barbies', instead I've asked her to pick a name. She's still trying out a few different names, but the latest one has been Lily.

I've only glimpsed at the pile of clothes, but already I've seen some that will be put away until Grace is older and replaced with something more suitable. Wendy has some patterns put away somewhere of a barbie wedding dress and some other appropriate clothing, so I might even relent and make some of them up.

Things are not so bad though, I was secretly pleased when Grace chose to take her favourite purple baby doll to bed and left barbie strewn on the floor naked and cold.

Maybe I'm over emphasising how much influence a stupid scantily clad doll has on my daughter?

***Oh, and if any of those horrid Bratz dolls ever enter my house, they'll head straight for the bin!! Even I can admit that Barbie looks like an angel compared to them!!

Root canal = Epic fail

Today started off ok, filled with promises of a lovely relaxing day at home. I had the day off school, as they classed it as a public holiday for those of us that go on a Tuesday and made all the Monday people go instead.

Grace was over the moon that I got to stay for an hour at her school this morning AND stay for morning circle. I used to be stay all the time, but lately it's been more like dump and run or send Grandma along in my place. It was so lovely to catch up with all the other parents between playing dress-ups, cooking and drawing with Grace. It's so sweet and heart warming to watch your child interact with all their friends and see that she is so well liked by all the children - especially with 1 little boy who has a special spot for her. He made her a special bracelet a few weeks ago, something that he had been working on for weeks and was so proud to present it to Grace. She's not too impressed with wearing it, but it hangs proudly on her door knob!

After waving a smiling Grace goodbye, Xav and I headed back home. It was the first day in about 3 months where it has just been Xav and I. It was wonderful to spend some time playing just with him, and of course he insisted that we zoom the cars all around the lounge room floor. Then we got to have a lovely cuddle on the couch reading stories. Bliss.

Duane got to come home early because of the torrential rain we have been having. I headed out to the Dr to pick up blood test results to tell what Immunisation I'd need. I'm already immune to measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, so it's just Hep b that I have to do now. Too bad that's the one that takes 3-4 injections over 4-5 months and I'm supposed to have had it all completed by end of July. Oops!

After the Dr, I drove over to the Dentist for my root canal appointment. Now, I hate needles - especially mouth ones, so I was trying to psych myself up for the big event but in doing this totally lost track of keeping my foot on the brake. Bad move. I shunted (lightly!) the lovely blue ford fiesta in front of me. She pulled over after we left the intersection, so I followed. I was hesitant to get out of the car, in case the occupant was already full of road rage, but she stepped out and didn't look too scary! I apologised, we both looked to see if there was any damage (there wasn't), I apologised again, she said "it's fine, thanks for pulling over" and we parted ways. Then I headed to the next crappy part of my day.

My lovely dentist was ready and waiting for me as I arrived. The top dentist was there too, it had been arranged that she be there as previously getting into my tooth had been difficult. Firstly, Kym had a look around the tooth and asked if I'd had any pain or swelling since my last visit in February. Nope, nothing at all. She said this was a good sign, then went and talked about it with her supervisor. She came back quite happy and said that as it doesn't happen often, due to the absence of symptoms there was a good chance that the abscess had healed itself and root canal would be off the agenda. She just wanted to do a quick x-ray, just to double check and then I could be on my way and only had to come back if there was any signs of pain. Yay! As she headed off to get the x-ray result, I was mentally planning a quick shopping trip to the Robina Mall. I was child-free, with 2 hours to spare! Yippee.

However, it was not meant to be. I would instead be spending my "me" time reclined in the dentist chair. The x-ray showed a pea size abscess nice and clearly at the top of the tooth, so she would have to go in and try to clean it out. This is the hard part. Since I've had a root canal before, there is already a path plowed out and the new path has to follow the old one exactly. And when the path you are trying to follow is only millimetres wide, precision and patience is needed.

It took 1 1/2 hours of chipping away with a sharp file. Every single time she scraped the tooth, it sounded like fingernails down a black board - Horrid! Oh, and very sophisticated products where used, things like bleach and eucalyptus! I was wearing a lovely 'dental dam' covering my mouth, however a few bits slipped through and nearly had me choking on the gross taste. Every few mm, she'd do another x-ray just to double check that she was heading in the right direction. The head lady was there too, watching over and having a turn every now and then. I was an 'interesting' case, apparently. Finally they hit blood, which I was assured was a good sign. It meant that they were through the original canal and through to the abscess, and just needed to be confirmed with another x-ray. After having it flushed out with anti-biotics and re-filled with a metal pole so the x-ray machine would pick it up, it was time for the big reveal. One glance at the dentists dropped face made me instantly realise that the news was not good. Both her and the supervisor shook there heads and said "It's not good news" Seems my lovely front tooth not only is the bearer of an abscess, but a whopping fracture running down the canal. Not good.

So, the deal is now it can't be repaired, so no root canal. Only option is to have it removed and either a bridge or post and implant put in. I can get the bridge done through public fairly cheaply ($400) but I'd have to go private for the post and implant, which could be $5000 +. Not cool. I'm booked in next week to get my first impression for the false tooth, and then extraction and implant happen on the same day. Thank goodness, I was scared that I'd have to spend a week with out my front tooth!

I'm just so annoyed that the root canal didn't work and all that time and effort has been for nothing. I'm also kinda sad that I'm going to be parting with a piece of me that I have become so attached to over the years. I'd also love to give that little brat who slammed me face first into the big rock many moons ago a big kick up the bum. Since being chipped all that time ago, this tooth has given me so much grief. It's re-chipped so many times,including on a surf trip and exposing the nerve (very painful), I missed my class visit to Melbourne Zoo as a 10 y/o as I was getting my first root canal plus all the other dentist visits because of it. So on one hand I'll be glad for it to be gone, but on the other sad to loose my crooked, partially black front tooth.

Anyway, after all that crappy news, the day finally ended on something good. The results are up for the psychology exam I had a few weeks ago, and I surprised myself with 113.5/120 which is a High Distinction! Yay!! They also put up the results for the whole nursing class, not with names, and I got 7th out of nearly 300!! I'm so pleased and surprised, and it's a good confidence boost just when I needed it. Now I'm just waiting for the Anatomy one to come back, I'll just be happy to pass that one!

I'm brushing study to the side, once again, and instead laying on the couch for my regular Tuesday night viewing. The only thing that I watch on Tv is Greys anatomy and Private practice, and I figure it's all medical based so I'm kinda still learning! My tooth is starting to ache too, after all the invasion today, so I'm hoping that's kind to me overnight.

A weekend of food!

It's been a long weekend here, and I've spent it in denial that I'm a student who needs to study. I've thoroughly enjoyed not thinking about school though, but I know it's going to come back and haunt me. Probably when I'm sitting in my sociology exam next Saturday and wishing that I'd been concentrating more on my lecture notes than the kitchen!

Actually, I might just get brownie points from that lecturer. We have her lecture on Friday afternoon from 4pm-6pm. It'd be an easy one to miss, and many people do. I've never skipped it though and a few times have felt a little lonely in the vast lecture theatre, with there sometimes only being 6-10 students of the 300 that should be there. I love the lecturer though, she's a midwife and often lets it slip that she is a big water birth and home birth fan. Anyway, last Friday was a guest speaker, we didn't find out until the last minute who it was or what they were talking about. Turns out it was a nutritionist who was doing a 2 hour lecture on the merits of a preservative and organic diet. We already have minimal preservatives in the house, and limit what the kids consume in the way of numbers. I've dabbled with organic, but always get shunted back to regular because of the cost. I do try to buy as much organic fruit and veg from the market, but even then I'm tempted by the cheaper alternatives.

I loved the lecture and after hearing all the scientific reasons that organically grown food is better, I vowed that I'd try even harder to buy it. I was all motivated after the lecture, and ready to spend this weeks grocery money on as much certified organically grown produce as I could. Duane was spending the weekend playing golf, so the kids and I ventured out on Sunday to the organic market in Miami. It's only a small market, but we managed to fill a few green bags with what we wanted. The kids picked out some organic and preservative free apricots to consume in the car. They weren't even phased that they were a black colour, not the preserved orange colour they normally are.

Next we headed to the organic supermarket that our lecturer had talked up. The kids have been enjoying chia seeds on their breakfasts for a few months, so I was pleased to see a big bag of that on sale. I also got some cheap Miessence deodorant and lots of yummy organic fruit and veg. Just as I was filling up a brown paper bag with Tassie sebago potatoes, I looked up and realised my lecturer was walking in the door! She recognised me and was so excited that I had obviously taken enough interest in the lecture and was buying some organic products. We chatted for a bit and she talked to the kids, commenting on how well behaved they were.

After our purchases, the kids and I headed out to the mall playground. Grace and Xav had a blast running around, whilst I sat huddled in the corner eating a piece of yoghurt covered almond slice that I had smuggled into the shopping!

Next we headed over for a turn on the merry go round, which both kids were very excited about.

Monday was also spent revolved around food. Both kids and I have spent the majority of the day in the kitchen. First we made chicken stock from a left over roast chicken, which we later turned into vegie and noodle soup for dinner. We also made soy and linseed bread to go with it, which was just delicious freshly out of the oven in time for dinner. We also made a wholemeal date loaf for the Autumn festival up at Grace's pre-school tomorrow afternoon and a big batch of Anzac biscuits to last the week. I used a new recipe for the Anzac's, one that substituted the butter for olive oil and they are just beautiful! There were so many, so I've put some away in the freezer for lunch boxes when the others run out. I nearly almost forgot we also made a batch of mini choc chip muffins, which were yummy! Little mouth fulls of chocolate goodness, with a gooey centre!

We also had a go at making paper, which surprisingly is not that hard! Grace made some pink love heart paper and Xav made some white squares, all out of rough copies of my communication essay!

I also wanted to put some photos of my gorgeous daughter. She has been hassling me for some sticker earrings, so Thursday night I took her shopping and after 3 solid hours we finally found some she was happy with. She LOVES them and is constantly feeling and checking that they are still there. She wanted me to take some photos of her with them in, and of course I obliged. She is such a little poser and most of the time loves the camera.

Over this weekend, I'm sure she's matured again. I was told that the year from 4-5 was time for huge growth - both physically and emotionally. I just never thought I'd see it happen right before my eyes.

Now, I really should get back to study. I've got another essay to start, an exam next Saturday to study for, group presentation to finish and I really need to go back over all the notes for muscles. Gosh, I though bones were tough - Nothing on muscles!