babyblog

Tabitha - 13 months

Dear Lovely Girl

13 months - and a good month it has been!

After your birthday we took off for California for 2 weeks in the new Caravan. You had a blast, you really adapt well to being in that new environment and love being out and about. You coped brilliantly with the long drive to get there which we spread out over 3 days, and I think your favourite part of the trip was spending time in the swimming pool! We got a little inflatable thing that enabled you to float around and you thought this was the bees knees, giggling and splashing!

While we were in California we got to meet a couple of other July 2007 babies and their mums - I've been speaking to them daily since I was pregnant with you so it was really special to be able to meet them and your little peers!

This month you've become extremely clingy with me. The boys never did this so while there is a little of 'I wish you'd be happy with Daddy' involved in how I feel about this, there is also a sense of pride and joy that you feel so close to me and that I can provide you with something nobody else can. This picture pretty much captures the essence of your relationships right now - you love your brothers and they can and will entertain you brilliantly - here you 3 are clowning around & Dylan is reading to you - but if you spot mummy the arms come up to be picked up!

You are crawling everywhere now & since we were away your speed has got faster & faster. You will crawl after Harry all over the house! And a few days ago you pulled yourself up to standing against a toy for the first time and since then have continued to do that against everything! I'm glad to see you meet this milestone and look forward to you toddling around!

Anyway precious girl - this month has been a great one & let's hope the next one is too!!

Love you to bits

Mummy xxx

Dylan has gone to Boston

Yesterday I waved goodbye to Dylan as he set off for a week in Boston with his Grandad! I felt absolutely sick as I said goodbye to him, it felt so wrong that he had left to go so far away by himself, for so long! This will be the longest I've ever been without him by far.

Bless him, he was very good about the whole situation. It was his choice to go and I had predicted he'd wobble beforehand and freak out, but he didn't. He was 'nervecited' about going. He knew he was going to have a great time & he loves to fly on planes so he was pretty brave. He had a few tears as he went to get on to the plane but Dad reports that he's arrived safely & is happy and relaxed!

The airline were great - they supplied me with a boarding pass to take him as far as the door of the plane. They looked after him on the flight well and they handed him safely to Dad the other end. Flying as an 'unaccompanied minor' is clearly pretty cool.

Harry is extremely annoyed that he's not gone too and also that he doesn't have Dylan here to play with.

I am finding looking after Tabitha & Harry a lot more hard work without Dylan here, he enables me to do the tiniest of taken-for-granted tasks like load the laundry or go to the loo which I otherwise can't get to with Tab being demanding!

Harry - 4 yrs old!

My lovely little man - today you turned 4 years old! And what a lovely day you had - opening your presents this morning with total joy and abandon, enjoying your birthday party with all your little friends this afternoon, and playing hard with all your new loot.

We have just returned from a 2 week vacation during which you had the time of your life and charmed every single person that you met. People were directing others according to how far from Harry they were staying, everyone knew you and your wonderful sunny personality, the rest of us were definitely basking in your limelight!

You've had an interesting year - going from being the baby of the family to being a big brother AND a little brother. You've adjusted amazingly well, nothing seems to put a dent into your happy disposition. You love your sister very much and you're incredibly sweet to her. With Dylan you are starting to fight more, as to be expected with brothers, but you really do crave his approval and attention.

This year you also started school. According to your teachers, all the kids adore you & want to be with you at all times. One even went as far as to say that you remind her why she ever became a teacher in the first place! You are loving being at school & you have made a lot of new friends.

I think what strikes me the most about you is that you are such an easy going little boy who doesn't get stressed about things, things come easily to you & people want to be around you. You're fiercely independent, you want to do things your way at times, but you are also eager to please people. You get a great deal out of things and situations. You are thrilled with any gift, no matter how big or small. You are imaginative and can amuse yourself with two toy cars for hours, making up stories and chattering away. You do have a temper at times and you're not easily disciplined but I think this is part of your independence, you're not harbouring any insecurites & as a result don't get easily upset.

If I kiss you, you rub your face. If you kiss me, you then rub your mouth 'clean'. Sometimes when you think I'm not looking!. You will at least give me lots of hugs and cuddles but there is often a sense that you are not 100% invested in it and would rather not. I think your extremely secure manner brings out the insecure in me sometimes, I feel like the needy one! But you are a very loving young man :-) We have a little phrase we say at bed time right now. It goes like this:

Who loves you?
You
Who loves me?
Me
Who loves Daddy?
We do
Who loves Dylan?
We do
Who loves Tabitha?
We do
Who loves us?
EVERYBODY DO!

Harry we all love you so much and we feel so proud and blessed to be your family. Here's to the next year!

Love
Mummy xxxx

Santa Cruz

We're in Santa Cruz.... having a great time! The drive here was LONG..... 3 days of solid driving. Stayed at 1 nice site and 1 scary site on the way down. Rearranging return plans to avoid scary one! Tab coping brilliantly, Harry being amusing - new insult is to call everyone a BUTTER STICKER. Everyone on the camp site knows him. Dylan having the time of his life riding his bike around the site making friends with all the kids and we barely see him.

We have spent a day at the beach, a day on the rides on the boardwalk, been to Monterey and Carmel, and tomorrow we're off to San Francisco!

A sign that the pills are working...

Instead of being on hot coals jumping up to tidy every last thing which out of place as I have been for the last few months, I am sitting surrounded by mess and I don't give a fuck.

Happy Independence Day!

One member of our household is celebrating.

Wow, a drama free day!

Stayed in. Only ventured out to the DR & Costco briefly. Almost got struck by lightning when Harry had Tennis but otherwise managed to get through the day unscathed. Yay!

Can't go out without DRAMA

I have enough drama in my life at the moment. It's really grinding me down. I can't do a thing without something going wrong at the moment.

Yesterdays drama. We were at a restaurant with friends for lunch. There was this sign in the entry way

Harry ran into it on the way in ..... you see the perspex box holding the menu's on the bottom right with the VERY SHARP CORNER? He gouged a huge hole in his head which began pouring with blood

The restaurant were fucking useless. I asked for napkins and water and was told to 'go to the toilet'. I said I am not taking him to a toilet to clean him - so they all left me alone. I asked to speak to the manager and this 12 yr old looking girl came over. I told her this sign was very dangerously placed and look what happened to my son. She told me the manager wasn't there but she would tell him. We left. I decided to go back and take photos. The sign hadn't been moved.

They then came over & told us the managers phone number telling us that he was in another restaurant and that we should call him. I called .... apparently he wouldn't be at the other restaurant until Thursday? And the woman on the phone called me SWEETHEART in a patronizing tone.

Hung up & called their corporate offices and by fluke got their CEO. Explained that I was very upset, that nothing had been done to remove the sign, that there was nobody to complain to, that I was very upset that this had happened to my child. I told him I am on my way to the DR with Harry's head which is gushing blood. He asks what can he do. I say I don't know, I'm too upset, I need to talk to my husband but in the short term GET RID OF THE SIGN before it happens to someone else. He says he will. He says he hopes I will call again. I say don't worry you can be that I will be in touch in the future.

Go to DR. Harry has to be held down to have the wound irrigated and cleaned out.... he's very distressed and upset, blood everywhere. DR comes & it seems that although it is deep and about a quarter inch, it's holding together fairly well so he doesn't need a stitch. It began swelling and looking nasty. Later at Tennis it started to bleed again.

ARGH.

Injection Antibiotics are GOOD.

These injections that Tab is having are some good shit.

In 24 hours her ears were 50% better, from angry red and puss filled to pink and not much puss at all. She's got the green shits from it & the injections themselves are pretty painful for her, but it definitely beats 10 days of trying to force feed her with droppers full of foul tasting stuff and having her spit most of it out, not to mention it actually working!

At the DR's yesterday the nurse rolled in with 2 syringes full of the stuff. I queried because yesterday she'd only had 1. She told me she was splitting it over 2 syringes because it was such nasty thick stuff which is hard to absorb. I queried again because it seemed like a lot compared to the day before and asked if she would maybe double check. She did, then came back and thanked me for asking her to as she was going to give Tab 900 somethings instead of 500 (she'd misheard the DR!).