Dancing

Grace has been wanting to start dance lessons for a while now, but I've been a bit reluctant considering how expensive they can become when you factor in lessons/clothes/shoes etc. So, when I heard that the local PCYC had lessons for $6 each, and only having to pay when you turn up - I gave it the go ahead!

Thing is, once Xav got wind of what was happening, he wanted to come too. I really didn't think he'd concentrate or pay attention though, but he was adamant that he was not missing out. I figured he'd have a go, get sick of it and then drop out. He completely surprised me though, and not only loved it - but did really well! He did look so adorable, being the only boy in a sea of pink and had all the other parents commenting and praising him! He was keeping up with all the moves and followed orders and directions beautifully! I could barely keep my eyes of him, I loved watching him concentrate and try so hard to follow the routine.

~~Doing "butterflies" across the room"

Grace loved it as well and was so beautifully behaved. Two of her best friends are coming along as well, so the 3 girls all had a blast together. She can't wait for next weeks lesson, but she has been begging for tap shoes since all the other girls have them. I'll see how dedicated she is before I start handing over the $$.

It was 100% cuteness and so sweet to watch.

Camping June 2010

**There are PLENTY of photos that I want to add to this post, but Blogger is not being kind. I'll hopefully remember and add them later!

We have just come back from THE best camping trip. Well, we slept in a tent. That is about the only real "camping" thing that we did, it was all a bit luxury to be called roughing it.

~~Our tent~~

~~The luxurious ensuite~~

We stayed here and although it was more expensive than we'd normally like to pay for camping, it was fantastic. There was so much for the kids to do and the facilities where amesome. We were a bit apprehensive about our first winter camping trip, but it was fine and I may even prefer it to summer camping. Maybe. We paid extra and had our own ensuite right beside the tent, and it was so convenient having it so close. The kids could go off to the toilet by them self and it certainly made the night trips quicker in the cold. It also had the added bonus of a heater inside to make getting out of the shower more appealing.

Jen and the kids crammed their tent onto our site for the first 2 nights. The kids all had a great time exploring the park: jumping on the giant pillow, playing mini golf, playing on the playground and scootering around the park. Just as we arrived to set up, there was an excavator clearing the bush on the park boundary, which fascinated the kids and allowed us to quickly set up in peace. I was tossing up whether to cheer the clearing on, or chain myself to a tree though, but having quite contained kids whilst Duane and I fought over the tent set up won in the end.

There was also a heated pool, which only Duane and Grace were brave enough to try. Xav and I spent that afternoon cuddled up in the tent having a sleep together. Bliss.

We were there for 5 nights, and spent most days out and about. The first day we visited Australia zoo, which was a highlight. Jen and her 2 kids were there for that too, and as no-one but me had been there before, it was an exciting adventure. The weather was a bit drizzly, but didn't create too much of a problem. There is so much to see there, and we could have quite easily spent another day and still not seen it all. Definitely somewhere that we will visit many times.

We visited the famous Eumundi markets, although they close quite early (1.30pm) so we only had a few hours to wander around. We then visited Noosa and Coloundra, taking the back roads home to get the scenic tour. Duane also managed to find 2 prize homes to visit, which I pretended to be excited about.

Next day we headed off to the sunshine coast hinterland, with a few stops on the way. First one was the big pineapple, which was slightly disappointing. Lucky we didn't pay anything, as it's really not very exciting. We got to go inside the big pineapple, which was extremely boring and stunk like a Grandmothers house. Next we headed to the Ginger factory, which was only a slight improvement on the previous stop. We had a wander around, took some pics, bought everyone a honey lollipop and headed off for the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. Now, this was way more up my alley and so much more beautiful!

We drove to Mapleton first, then through to Montville. Both little towns were stunning, with gorgeous sweeping views back to the coast. We only did a few stops though, with Duane and I alternating who got out as the kids had fallen asleep in the car. They woke by the time we got to the picturesque town of Maleny, so we all headed out to wander the streets. I stole some time for myself, loving shop hopping in all the cool, funky stores. I even found a few op-shops to peruse, but didn't score anything. After meeting up with Duane and the kids, we headed to the Maleny Markets where Grace was in awe of all the crystals for sale. She has a real attraction for them, so picked out a few special ones to buy.

For lunch we bought fish n chips and heads to Gardeners Falls for a picnic. It was drizzling, so we started off eating in the Torago but soon enough it fined up and we layed out the picnic rug to finish off. After lunch we headed for a bushwalk in to see the falls. It's a lovely, easy walk only taking about 30 mins there and back. The kids loved it, pretending they were "going on a bear hunt" and jumping in lots of puddles.

The kids enjoyed the walk so much that we headed off for another one the next day. This one was a 40minute rainforest walk, filled with lots of beautiful moss all under a canopy of tall trees. Grace asked about half way through for a photo shoot, although it didn't look right her pulling out her modelling moves in the middle of such a tranquil place. She was fascinated with the moss trailing along the rocks though, and spent ages poking and prodding it. Xav was just happy to be running free and stopped every now and then to twirl and declare how much he loved "bushwalking". I'm so thrilled that they love it, and I've got great plans in my head of family bushwalks and picnics in the Gold Coast hinterland.

This camping trip would have to be one of my favourites so far. It wasn't hot, just perfect for cuddling up in the tent with a hot water bottle. It also lent itself for lovely day rests in the tent, minus the suffocating heat. During the day, the weather was mostly perfect and didn't stop us from doing anything. Our other camping trips have been all about swimming and watersports, but this one wasn't - which was a nice change! And although we were probably our busiest this time, it was still lovely and relaxing.

Change of plans....

The last few days my whole study plans have been turned all upside down. I was all planned to take 2 or 3 of the nursing subjects, and looking forward to another 3 leisurely weeks of break until I e-mailed the Midwifery Convener to ask her opinion on which of the Nursing subjects would be best to enrol in. She replied on Thursday with a response that I'd never expect in my wildest dreams. She's offered for me to take 1 or 2 of the Midwifery subjects at Logan with the Midwifery students!! I'm stunned, but flattered and after freaking out a bit, I"m taking her up on the offer. I've decided to just do the 1 subject of Mid and the other Anatomy nursing subject, so just the 2 for this semester. But instead of my break, this course starts on MONDAY!!! It's really flexible though, I only have to go to uni on the 12th July and the 22nd July, and everything else in on-line and self-deirected.

It doesn't meant that I'm in to Midwifery yet, I still have to do really well and maintain at least a 6 GPA, which is roughly a distinction level. It just means that I'm doing a subject that I'll get credit for and FINALLY I get to do something pregnancy/birth related. I've just had a quick look at the course outline, and we will be doing a placenta dissection - way, way cooler than the rat!

I'm so nervous about it though. It's going to be a tough subject, covering the anatomy and physiology of reproduction, pregnancy, birth and the newborn. The mid students have done a condensed Anatomy which covered the whole 12 systems briefly in 6 months, whereas the one I'm doing covers them over 1 year. So, I haven't even touched on reproduction systems. I am reading the chapter over the weekend and hoping that I can at least have a basic knowledge and bluff my way through. It will work out great for end of semester though, as I'll be studying reproduction in both courses and hopefully it'll help in exams.

I'm also really nervous about being the new one in the group. There are 50 people already started Midwifery, and no doubt all formed friendships and may be hard to break into. I do know 1 girl though, so I'll just super glue myself to her and hopefully it'll be fine and they'll be nice. The other thing that worries me is that in nursing there is a lower entrance rank, which means lots of students that don't do as well. However, in the midwifery the rank was ridiculously high and mostly the people that got in have previous degrees and therefore a higher standard. I'm just hoping that I can still do well in such a high standard group.

Anyway, all that aside I'm still stoked that on Monday I'll be starting my first Midwifery subject!

Semester 1 results

Woohoo results are up and I'm pleasantly surprised.

After feeling like I flunked one exam after a very blase attempt at study, I actually did alright. I ended up with a Distinction for Anatomy and Physiology, and High Distinctions for the 3 other subjects. So, a GPA of 6.75 - with 7 being the top, I'm really happy with that!

I'm finding it a bit hard to comprehend that I've completed a full time semester at Uni and done ok. Out of the 11 assessment items this semester, I managed to pull off 8 High distinctions and 3 Distinctions - not bad for a "mature age" student!! After the first few results, I figured I just got lucky. Maybe I fluked it, but now, I'm thinking I might be able to do this - successfully!

It's been tough, but doable. My whole family has had a big adjustment to make, but it seems we have come to the other side relatively unscathed. Now, this could just be a semester break fantasy here, far away from the many stressful moments over the last 5 months!

I've actually decided to only do 2 subjects next semester. With the subjects I have already done, I've got a selection rank of 88, and I need a 90 to get into Midwifery. If I do 4 more subjects, I'd get in easily. But I don't want to just do subjects to do that, if I can get away with less subjects. It means less time, less money and less stress. I figure if I do 2 subjects, and do really well It'll give me 94. It also gives me a little room for movement, just in case I don't do as well. I could get 2 credits and still have a rank of 92, which should be good enough. I'm also happy with the alternative if I don't get into Midwifery. I'll just keep plodding along with Nursing (which I actually quite enjoy!), and I'll just swap between full time and part time as the need arises. I'll then look into dong Midwifery post grad.

Either way is going to suit be fine! And it means that Grace's last year at home, will be relatively easy and stress free. Also, her first year at school (sob, sob!!) depending on what course I'm doing, I'll be only doing 1 or 2 subjects. Perfect.

It might take me a while, but I'm on the way!

Sleep time

For about the last 6 months both kids have been asking for extra special treatment at bedtime. Xav, at about 7.30pm, always comes and asks me to take him to bed. He spends the whole day idolising his father, but come nighttime, it's his Mummy that he wants.

He then heads to the toilet, then bathroom to brush his teeth and we meet back in his room. He's usually picked out a few books, so we snuggle into his bed and start reading. After 5 or so books, I'm usually over reading and by then he's asking for me to tell him a story. I have 2 stories that I've made up and they have evolved over time, just for Xav. Ones about a little boy that wants to fly and one day grows wings, the other is about a little boy (see a theme?) who finds a magic fairy door in the garden. He loves both of them, and never tires of hearing either story every night.

~~Grubby hands and blankies~~

After I've finished the story, he rolls over and grabs his blankie for a cuddle. Then I get a request to either pat his back, run my fingers through his hair or lightly touch his back with my finger tips. Ok, I may be setting him up here for future fetishes here! But he loves all of them, and asks that I keep going until his asleep - I oblige. The lightly touching his back thing is a bit odd though. I just can't believe that it doesn't tickle him, instead sending him into a relaxed, docile trance. He often wanders up to Duane or I during the day asking for the back strokes too.

I love doing any of the above and watching him drift off to sleep. It's one of my all time favourite things - watching a child nodding off to dreamland. It's the beautiful moment as their body relaxes and they drift off - Bliss.....

Whilst all the above is happening, Grace has her Daddy performing much the same. They read some books and then Duane lays on her bed and they cuddle until she's asleep too.

We do sometimes mix it up, but for mostly I stick to Xav and Duane goes with Grace. It's become our quiet one-on-one with each child, and it's precious. Duane and I both do it eagerly and there is never any resentment for bedtime taking so long, sometimes we can be in there up to an hour. Mostly if it's taken this long though, it means the adult has fallen asleep too!

Now with all these lovely, relaxing night time rituals you'd think that they'd stay in their own beds all night? Nope, usually around the early hours of the morning (3-5am) we have 2 little bed buddies creep in. We barely even wake when they come in now, either they have improved their stealth qualities or we are learning to sleep through the disruption!

Xav cuddles into me and Grace snuggles in with her Daddy. Xav holds my hand as we sleep, which I just adore. Also, every day he picks a moment to tell me that we had lovely cuddles last night. Just today he thanked me for our last night snuggles as I buckled him into his seat - Just Adorable.

Duane and I both know it's not something we'll be doing forever, so we take the moments when we can.

**I probably should note here that the above photos weren't quite the tranquil picture they paint. Xav had a wonderful meltdown the other day, as he was tired and wanted to just lay on the couch watching a Dvd. I said no, which resulted in said meltdown. He was going crazy and throwing himself around, so I bear hugged him and reminded him to take deep breaths until his body softened. He then stomped off to his bedroom (still yelling about the injustice of it all) and layed down on his floor and went to sleep. It's just what Xav does when he has a rare meltdown, takes himself off for a rest.

Hospital visit # 2

Grace had another stint in the emergency department of the Robina Hospital yesterday. Fortunately, she wasn't as sick this time, but was well on the way to it.

It all started on the way home from our camping trip on Tuesday. She was fine in the morning as we packed up to leave, and fine in the first part of the car ride. We stopped in Brisbane and headed into a shopping centre for lunch. The kids were getting ratty from hunger, so I headed to the closest place with food which happened to be McDonald's. Now, the kids have had dribs and drabs from there, mainly chips and ice cream, but this was the first time that I'd bought them a full crap meal. Xav's not that keen on chips, so he opted for nuggets, apple pieces and apple juice. Grace had the nuggets, chips and apple juice. All was good until we got back into the car to head to the Museum in the city. Grace started complaining of a sore stomach and looked a bit white, we put it down to car sickness as she had been reading and writing the whole trip.

Soon after though, she was looking paler and said she was going to vomit. Lucky I had a spew bag in the front of the car, and just after I passed it to her she filled it up. She perked up after the spew, so once again thinking it was just car sickness, we headed to the museum. Grace was quite happy wandering around checking out the dinosaurs and all the other exhibits, however after an hour or so she just wanted Duane to carry her. Her and Duane went and found a comfy chair to hang out on, and I took Xav through the rest of the museum as he was absolutely loving it! She fell asleep, but we still figured it was a combination of a busy week and car sickness.

She slept all the way home, and transferred straight to the couch - where she spent the rest of the afternoon/night. She vomited once more, and although she didn't want anything to eat she was still drinking small amounts of water and sucking on ice chips.

We put her in our bed for the night, with towels under her head and a bucket close by. She slept well, 12 hours with no stirring or vomiting. However, as soon as she opened her eyes in the morning, the spewing started and didn't stop. Poor little thing was bringing up bile, as there was nothing else left. By about 8am she started vomiting specs of blood, which was a very worrying thing to see. I got her straight into the Dr, who after examining her told us to head straight to emergency as she was on her way to becoming severely dehydrated again.

So once again, we hurried and dumped Xav and headed to the hospital. The triage nurse took one look at her limp and listless, and sent us straight through - Thank goodness. She was a lot more alert than last time, but her mouth was dry and her capillary refill was taking a bit longer than it should. Her pulse was also really high, and the way she looked was worrisome.

The Dr was keen to get either a gastric tube or iv in straight away, but I was a bit apprehensive as she was still alert enough to put up a fight. She wasn't to happy about the bsl test, so I could just imagine how she would react to something being shoved down her throat. The Dr and nurse suggested we try a drug called "Ondansetron", which is mostly used for cancer patients to stop the nausea from chemo. It worked amazingly. Grace went from vomiting every 5-10 minutes to stopping within 10 minutes of sucking on the wafer. It's apparently not commonly used, and there are certain criteria that have to be met before it can be prescribed. I'm normally all for letting an infection or whatever works it own way out, but yesterday I was thankful for the relief this tiny pill offered my little girl. It also meant that she could now hold down fluids and have a better chance at avoiding an Iv.

Once the vomiting ceased, she was put on a strict time frame of 20 mls of fluid every 10 mins. My over achieving little girl gulped back 40 ml in the same time frame, so was well on the way to rehydration within the hour. We got to hospital at 10am and were on our way home with a perked up little girl by 4pm. Once again, I am so thankful for access to such a fantastic public health service.

The Dr's are still not really sure what keeps happening to Grace. This is the 4th time in 12 months that she has been vomiting (no diarrhoea) and no one else gets sick. The Dr once again said that although it doesn't seem right, he could only put it down to a viral infection. I've got my own suspicions that it's food related, so I'm going to be keeping a close eye on her eating over the next few months. I'm also dosing her up on probiotics and booking her in to see a naturopath to hopefully build her gut flora up again. It just doesn't feel right that she gets so dehydrated after being sick for less than 24 hours. Maybe she is just one of these people that has trouble stopping vomiting once they start?

By this morning she was back to her happy, cheerful self. The only remnant left of yesterdays ordeal was the tired meltdown we had early today. However, after a little rest it has rectified.

There is one silver lining to all this. She has blamed the vomiting on McDonald's, in particular the chips and has vowed never to eat them again. She must associate the taste of them with the vomiting, something I also do. After vomiting after eating saveloy's as a child, I still can't bring myself to even try them now.

Goodbye Dulcie...

~~Silkie with her eggs, Dulcie is in one of them~~

We've had to deal with death this week. Our sweet little Dulcie chook passed away, leaving one very sad little girl. Only the day before Grace and I had been talking and she was getting quite teary when I mentioned that Daisy and Lily were getting older. She said she didn't want them to get old, cause that would mean that they would die and she didn't want that to happen. The sweet little girl was so sad thinking about her dogs not being around anymore. I assured her that although they were getting older, they still could live for many more years.

It was the next day that we came home to find our little Dulcie belly-up in her favourite position beside the swing. We are not really sure what happened to her, she had no marks on her and had been laying for the previous few days. I'm just hoping that it's not something that can be passed on to the other chooks.

Xav was very nonchalant about it all, suggesting that we bring her inside and he'd "fix" her. Not a good idea considering it would most likely involve prodding with the thermometer, and he doesn't appear to have a very gentle bedside manner. Grace immediately burst into tears and sobbed her little heart out. In between gasping sadness, she gave Dulcie a pat and asked to go inside to make some pictures for her.
She drew the following:

~~Dulcie's house~~

~~Dulcie~~

And then this one which nearly had her Father weeping:

~~The egg that Dulcie came out of~~

We were all there watching as the 3 chooks broke out of their eggs. It was an amazing experience and a beautiful act of nature for the kids to see.

Grace was upset for the rest of the day and night, she was particularly sad that Silkie wouldn't have her baby anymore and that she would really miss her. We had the heaven talk, which confused Grace a little as she figured if Dulcie could fly up there she may as well come back to us! She put her pictures in the box and Duane buried her up at his work.

~~Baby Dulcie

Goodbye sweet Dulcie xx