Christmas festivities

We've done a couple of nice pre-Christmas events with Sharon, Carson, Sam and Matty lately. We had a picnic and saw the carols by candlelight at Peppermint Grove on Sunday, and on Tuesday went to the live nativity play at St John's church in the centre of Fremantle. They actually had a petting zoo inside the church, which kept all the kids enthralled. They had a real donkey carrying "Mary" down the aisle, and the finale was allowing the kids to file past a very very young baby swaddled in the "stable" on the alter. Being raised in a religion free zone meant that Harrison had no idea of being quiet in the church, so when the hymns started he was up doing his best dance moves in front of everyone. Then he discovered he could see his shadow on the stable walls which were along the front of the alter, so he danced AND sang Wiggles songs AND did shadow puppets whenever the music started. Outside the church there were free camel rides for the kids, which Harrison also loved. We went to Little Creatures for dinner, then to Cottesloe for icecream on the beach. There was a low wooden platform (kind of a park bench / picnic table thing) which Harrison decided was a stage, so it was back to dancing and singing and watching his shadow on the grass. He is completely besotted by Sam (Sharon and Carson's 5 year old angel). She is just wonderful with him and very protective and big-sisterly.

Post - script - here's a pic of Harrison about to open his "real working" accordian from Marg and Neil on Christmas morning. Wags the Dog lies discarded to the side... 8 months of wishing for Santa to bring him a Wags, and 2 hours into the festivities he finds something better.... tsk tsk.

Esperance

We had a week in Esperance early in December. It was a long drive (about 7 hours each way), but we broke it up at Wave Rock on the way down and Hopetoun on the way back. Esperance is a really lovely place - the beaches and bays are magnificent. Even at the start of school holidays we had beautiful turquoise bays all to ourselves. Harrison loved the sea. We found a gorgeous restaurant - Taylor Street Tearooms which catered for coeliacs, had fabulous water views and great service and food as well. We camped at Cape Le Grand NP and at Hopetoun, and Harrison loved it. It's hard work camping with a 2 year old, he needs to be supervised every minute, and is into everything, wanting to climb trees, wander into the bush, play in the dirt... He made friends with a couple of kids (Darcey,8 and Hannah, 6) who were about 15 months into a trip around Australia with their parents. They arrived at Cape Le Grand the same day as us, and the 3 kids spent hours playing chasey and splashing in the sea and building sand castles. Darcey was particularly good with Harrison. He made up stories for him and held his hand walking around camp. They will be coming through Perth in a few months time, so hopefully we'll catch up again.

First day of holidays

It's the first day of my very long summer break (until 29th January), but I've spent a large part of the morning on the phone sorting out a few small crises at work. Also did some Christmas shopping this morning - sent a series of presents over to Brisbane. I bought them all at Myer and they box them up and post them direct to the recipients.

Harrison had another visit to Santa. Still not keen on sitting on his knee, but happy to chat and wave from the safety of my arms. We had lunch at the shops and sat next to a lovely retired couple - the man had a close cropped white beard. Harrison kept leaning over to tell him conspiratorily "I saw a man with a white beard on his chin, and a Christmas hat on his head with a jingle bell on the end. He was a very nice man and he was very big. Who do you think he was? Santa Claus!".

Speaking of lunch, I asked the Coffee Club to do a plate of ham cheese and tomato for Harrison without any bread, and they were happy to (and what's even better, Harrison was happy to eat the lot). Maybe this gluten free thing won't be too hard after all. I also successfully made mum's ginger nut recipe with gluten free flour and sent some mini gingerbread men to daycare with Harrison, and took the rest to work with some rum balls. Mel gave me a rum ball recipe based on sponge cake, so I can make a cornflour sponge and do gluten free rum balls as well. Same theory for trifle... I'll make my own stuffing for the turkey breast roll instead of buying it pre-done, and we really shouldn't be able to tell much difference with our Christmas fare.

Rudd

We have a new Labor leader as of this morning. Kevin Rudd is the MP for our old seat in Brisbane. I always thought he was pretty impressive, so hopefully it bodes well for a change of government at the next election. A Mandarin speaking PM would be fantastic, and also one who knows how to communicate with the electorate and with the media.

Sam's the Man

Yesterday Simon and Harrison went to the Wiggles concert together. The news all morning was the impending announcement of Greg's departure as the Yellow Wiggle (warning - this links to a large video file). Showing how resiliant (or fickle) kids are, Harrison watched the video announcement before the show and by the end of the concert was perfectly happy with Sam Moran as the new Wiggle. He's starting saying "I'm Sam and you're Anthony" already. He was a bit concerned about Greg's illness. He hoped that the nurses gave Greg jelly beans when he had his blood tests, and that Anthony took him for an icecream afterwards.

This morning Terena and I left the boys at creche while we did aqua-aerobics, and according to the carers Harrison spent the whole time showing them his Wiggles dances and singing Wiggles songs (and also telling every mum that came in that his mum was just having a swim and she'd be back soon).

Mel and Tim are having a daylight saving party on Sunday (when we tick over to DST in Perth). Should be fun. We are shifting another cubic metre of mulch again on Saturday, so by Sunday Simon at least will need some R & R. Let's hope his beer elbow hasn't seized up after a day of shoveling.

Holiday plans

Both being in the tertiary sector now means for the first time we can take holidays at the same time. Previously Simon's down time was when the law students all turned up at the firms for summer clerkships - which meant that it was my busiest time. Now summer is quiet for both of us, and we're both compelled to take our 4 weeks leave each year or risk losing it.

So we've booked a week's holiday at Esperance in December, and a further 3 weeks in January. Add to that the public and University holidays between Christmas and New Year, and we have quite a long break. The January trip will be a bit of a test - we're driving almost 5000 kms to Brisbane, and then Harrison and I are staying for 2 weeks and flying back, while Simon is staying for a week and driving another 5000 km back to Perth. Some would say that isn't a holiday, but Simon is looking forward to it. It will be interesting revisiting places we haven't seen since our trip around Australia in 1994. The occasion is VJ's 40th birthday party, plus a general catch up, since it's 6 months since we were in Brisbane.

Gardening

We had a big weekend of gardening - Simon did an enormous amount of weeding, and shifted a cubic metre of mulch on Saturday. Unfortunately the back garden beds are all raised about a metre, so there was lots of shovelling required as we couldn't just tip the wheelbarrow load of mulch out onto the garden beds. Now the back and side all looks fabulous, and hopefully will survive a hot summer much better. Next weekend we plan to do the front gardens as well. We hope the landlord appreciates the expense and effort we're putting into their gardens!

Sunday was a bit of a rest day (the cricket was on TV and it was at least 35 degrees in Perth, so Simon did a bit of recuperating in the lounge room). We also started our Pilates/pool routine where I do a Pilates class at Inglewood aquatic centre and Simon and Harrison play in the grounds and the pool. Makes for a relaxing start to the weekend. Only issue is that the early class is a fitball/Pilates one and I am terribly unco-ordinated. I just managed to survive the class without falling flat on my face...

Harrison came through the endoscopy with no ill effects. He had the most wonderful anaesthetist (Craig Sims) who used magic tricks to have all the patients laughing and relaxed before their procedures. Harrison went under in my arms, and woke up happy, saying "it smells like bubblegum!". He's been talking for days about the very nice man who chatted to him and showed him stickers as he went to sleep. A lecturer from work had Dr Sims the next day for her son's general anaesthetic, and she also raved about how relaxed he made her son, and how happy he was when he woke up. Apparently the nurses in post-op love Dr Sims' patients because they're not scared when they wake up.

Dr Mews said afterwards that his small intestine was definitely atrophied, so the diagnosis is in no doubt. We go back on Wednesday for the follow up appointment. Our Medicare refunds last week totalled over $900, which gives an indication of how many doctors visits and pathology tests we've had lately.

Endoscopy

Tomorrow is Harrison's endoscopy. He's doing very well on his gluten free diet - loves his new cereal, and his special home made bread. I'm providing muffins and bread to Renee at daycare, and she is doing a great job catering for his needs and making sure he has something similar to the other kids for meals and snacks as much as possible. He seems to have accepted that babycinos no longer come with marshmallows (but I have to check if I need to request no chocolate sprinkles as well), and we carry GF mini muffins and rice crackers with us everywhere now. After a bit of reluctance he now eats "super" rice crackers (rice cakes). And he is making progress with his vegie intake too.

We went to the park at Jackadder Lake yesterday afternoon for the first time in a few weeks. Last time I took him to that park he clung to me, wouldn't go on the swings or slides, didn't want to go for a walk to look at the ducks, or even just sit on the grass with me. He just wanted to go home. It was heartbreaking, and at that stage we didn't have any idea what was wrong with him. Yesterday he was into everything, dribbling the soccer ball, wanting to climb on rocks, trip trapping across bridges, having fun on the slides, he fed us an imaginary picnic, and had to be dragged away from the playground at dinner time. It's such a relief to see him behaving like a healthy little toddler.

Update

We saw the paediatric gastroenterologist on Thursday and she is totally convinced he has coeliac disease. She was quite shocked at the extent of his weight loss and distended tummy, and has slotted him in at the top of her next list for the biopsy. In the meantime we've started on the totally gluten free diet. Dr Mews thinks he looks so severely effected that his villi won't recover in the week before the biopsy, and she thought it was more important that he starts getting well, so the normal advice to continue eating gluten didn't apply to Harrison. We're quite relieved to be getting some action, and are waiting hopefully for Harrison to start putting in weight again.

Virtual Bribery

We're really keen to get Harrison eating a decent amount now that he's a bit more interested in food (even though it seems to go straight through him). So when he loses interest in dinner I now resort to virtual bribery - I get out a food magazine and he picks something he'd like to eat. Then I pretend to feed him one mouthful of the food in the magazine for each mouthful of his real dinner. It's quite hilarious having him muse over which of the pictured dips to have with his virtual breadstick, or whether to have the photo of the raspberry from the top of a cheesecake or a bit of the "cheesecake" itself.

We also have to keep track of which character we're all playing at any time of the day. If he calls me Murray I know he's Jeff - and he says "oh, sorry, I was Jeff" if I get it wrong. We play the whole gamut of Wiggles characters, plus B1 (Harrison) B2 (me) and Morgan (Dad), mummy daddy and baby cats and dogs, and so it goes on. I don't know how he remembers who we're all supposed to be.

Cafe au lait

We had Simon at home all weekend last weekend, so did a fair bit of shopping on Saturday, and went out for breakfast and to the zoo on Sunday. George's at City Beach is becoming a favourite weekend morning destination. They have ridiculously large cafe au lait in big bowls (which I love). Zerbans in the same place is really nice too, and there's a park across the road for Harrison. There is a very steep hill between our house and those City Beach shops. I pushed Harrison in the stroller up there last week and nearly killed myself. My fitness aim is to do it at least once a week.

Terena and I are trying out aqua aerobics at the Bold Park Aquatic Centre on Friday. Again, if I walk there it's up that hill.

And we scored an appointment with the paediatric gastroenterologist next week! Things are looking up.

Here's one of Mel's photos of Harrison with chocolate all over himself.

Camping

We spent the weekend camping near Dwellingup with Mel and Tim. It was very hot - even humid - on Saturday, and a bit overcast on Sunday. Harrison loved his camping experience. When we asked him afterwards what was the best bit about camping, he said "melandtim". Mel made chocolate scones (Harrison-speak for rocky road) for which Harrison has a huge crush on her.

Back home, we're closer to the official coeliac diagnosis (the blood tests were positive), but battling the medical system to get an appointment this year with the sole paediactric gastroenterologist in Perth. You can see his huge swollen belly in the photo of him with Mel on the weekend.

Answers?

We might be closer to finding out why Harrison has been so unwell. The paediatrician is almost certain he has coeliac disease. We go back on Friday for the results of the blood tests they took yesterday, and the next step is a bowel biopsy. Once the diagnosis is made, we'll have to start learning about a gluten free diet and join the coeliac society.

Needles, doctors etc

We've had a torrid time the last week or so. Harrison is still losing weight (he's only 11.5 kgs), he has a huge distended tummy and is just skin and bones. He's still vomiting every day or two. Getting a blood sample was a drama - I took him 4 times to get the sample taken, twice we were turned away because the nurses weren't confident to get a vein, on one visit they spent 2 hours pricking and prodding him tried 8 times in both hands and arms, and still couldn't get any blood to flow. Finally I took him to the lab at the children's hospital and they got the sample first try. Nothing showed up from those tests, and nothing abnormal in his ultrasound, so at least a few things have been eliminated. The search goes on for a reason for this weight loss.

He had a wonderful time with his friend Colin at the zoo on Saturday and seemed keen to eat, so we thought he might be getting better. But he was sick again on Sunday night, so obviously that was wishful thinking on our part. Simon takes him to the paediatrician tomorrow.

Ekka

Well, it's not really the Ekka, because Perth people are way too sophisticated to call it that... It's the Royal Show. We took Harrison along this morning. He thought he was going to the Wiggles concert, so I spent the morning trying to explain why this show wasn't going to be the same as a Wiggles show. I did promise that there might be a ride that was like the Wiggles' big red car, so he rejected tame rides like the merry-go-round in favour of kiddy car rides. He trotted off to get in the cars all by himself, and didn't need his mum or dad.

Unfortunately he's still not particularly well. He is very subdued and seems to have a very long lived tummy bug. So he was probably the least excited 2 year old at the showgrounds, and in fact fell asleep after an hour or so.

Melbourne

I'm in Melbourne this week for a law librarians conference. It's beautiful weather here, and the city is all excited over some football game that's happening tomorrow... not sure what all that is about ;-)

The conference has been really interesting and I've been catching up with lots of old friends. Simon and Harrison have been bonding at home - apparently H has been extremely happy and well behaved for Simon.

I'm flying back on what will probably be an empty plane tonight. On the way over I'm sure Alissa and I were the only two non-Eagles supporters on the flight, which was completely full.

Bushwalking etc

The new improved Simon has been spending weekends at home of late, and has managed to get his workload down to a more reasonable level. We spent a night at the Vines in the Swan Valley a couple of weeks ago, and for Fathers Day last weekend, drove up to Gingin for a picnic. Gingin is a very picturesque town about an hour or so north of Perth. We have fond memories of Gingin from our trip around Australia in 1994. It has a gorgeous old church and cemetery next to a lovely green park with a stream in the middle. Click on the image on the right to see a photo of the park at Gingin by georgieboy98.... We picnicked there, and played "Pooh-sticks" on the bridge in the park.

Simon took two days R&R this week, and did some camping and bushwalking near Dwellingup. Greg (childhood friend and best man) is in Perth this week, and staying with us on Friday and Saturday nights. Harrison is very excited by this prospect, but I suspect he thinks Greg is a tall guy in a yellow skivvy who likes singing "Hot Potato". H was further confused tonight by Simon having a conversation with Anthony on the phone. He thought he must have the coolest dad in the world, with two Wiggle friends, and was quite put out that he wasn't allowed to talk to Anthony. (Greg is part owner of Locomotion - which surely makes up for him not being a Wiggle.)

Harrison hasn't been himself lately - very sad, not eating, waking up in the middle of the night... all things that just aren't like him. The doctor couldn't find any specific illness last week, but we're concerned enough to be taking him back to the doctor again tomorrow.

A sunny day

Harrison is quite a bit brighter now, and it was a stunning warm winters day yesterday in Perth, so we decided to take advantage of the weather. Simon was on duty at the UWA Open Day, so H and I went to visit. Highlight of the trip was H getting a helium balloon from the guy at the student union stand. It's amazing to see the unadulterated pleasure a 2 year old gets out of having a balloon tied to his wrist and watching it bounce up and down and float in the breeze. We also had lunch with Mel and Tim - old friends of Simon's who've just moved to Perth. They live only a couple of minutes from us, and Tim works at UWA. We ran into them, as you do, in the car park at Karrinyup shopping centre a couple of weeks ago.

Pneumonia

News today is that Harrison has a bit of asthma as well as pneumonia... He had a chest x-ray yesterday, and is not a well boy. One of his lungs is a little collapsed. Poor little thing is mostly sleeping and coughing. Hardly eating at all. We had him in our room in his port-a-cot last night, behaving like new parents and listening intently to his breathing. He's a little trojan though - he is happy to hold the mask of the ventolin thing to his face and breathe in and out for me. I think he's intrigued by the contraption. Isn't so thrilled by taking medicine though. Simon is looking after him this afternoon, and will stay home with him on Friday as well. H goes back to the doctor tomorrow.

"I don't like it very much"

Funny thing happened yesterday while I was at Kings Park with Harrison and Simon's mum. For some reason Harrison started putting his forearm in his mouth and biting his own arm. We got in the car and started driving home, and this voice from the back seat said "I don't like it very much". We asked what he didn't like, and he said "I don't like eating my arm.". We burst out laughing, only to hear Harrison insist "I'm not funny!"....

Mum's going back to Toowoomba today, so it's a sad day for us. We did have a lovely time with her, and finished last night with fish and chips at Cicerellos in Fremantle, which was a favourite haunt of Dad's.

Valley Road

We've been in the new house a week now, and, although there's lots of cleaning up and sorting out still to do, we're very happy there. I think it will really suit our lifestyle. We tried out the local fish and chips last night (thumbs up), and the cafe at the local shops on moving day last week (double thumbs up). Yesterday I babysat Harrison's friend Rhys for the morning, and Mum and I took the two toddlers down to our closest park, which is only 300 metres or so away. They had a lovely time.

On Thursday night we drove for about 3 minutes up to Rendezvous Obseration City at Scarborough and had a night away. Mum looked after H for the night. We drank a lot of champagne, had a gorgeous dinner at Savanaghs, and generally had a fabulous night. It was the first time we'd both left Harrison overnight. He didn't seem to blink an eye (grandma is much more popular with him than either of his parents).

It was a good day for everyone on Thursday, as Harrison went to the Dorothy the Dinosaur Dance Party (the Wiggles minus the Wiggles). He was completely overawed for a while, but he did eventually get into the groove and danced his little heart out in the mosh pit. Best of all, we bought him a "big red car" afterwards. It's a small soft one that now goes everywhere with him - even to bed.

Winnie-the-Pooh

The Wiggles have slipped a bit in the popularity contest of late, and Harrison is now also a Winnie the Pooh fanatic, thanks to the DVD of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. So not only do we have to "wake up Jeff" (and every other Wiggle) repeatedly, we also have requests for "a small smackeral of honey" when we ask him what he wants to eat. It's very cute. I actually bought a couple of the A.A. Milne books (Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner) as they have the original illustrations in them. He loves looking at the map of the Hundred Acre Wood and singing the song from the movie. He also tries to drink from an empty cup, and says "oh bother, empty again... only the sticky part left".

Moving ...

Well, it seems so recently that we moved. Wait, it was recently that we moved! Well, we're doing it again. Simon found us a very nice duplex in Wembley Downs (just west and a little north of where we are now). There's lots of packing to be done. I pick up the key this week, and we have a week's overlap to move in. So goodbye Herdsman Fresh...

Hey, I just read that Wikipedia entry for Wembley Downs and discovered that we're right in the middle of the

"opulent mansions and striking residences in the Hale Heights, Buxton Road and Buntine Road/Faulkner Street areas".

Simon must truly be a yuppie at heart. Needless to say, our little abode doesn't quite qualify as an opulent mansion.

Sunny Brisbane

Harrison and I just spent 10 days in Brisbane, enjoying the warm weather and catching up with as many people as humanly possible while we were there. He travelled really well, and seemed to love flirting with all the rellies and friends. We stayed with VJ in Brisbane, and Mum and Dad also stayed for 3 days and looked after him during the day for me while I went to the ANZIIL symposium. It was an exhausting trip, but lovely to catch up with everyone. The only downside was that this morning Harrison was still on Brisbane time, so he was wide awake at 4:30am!

Just to make life more interesting, we found out last week that our house in Perth is scheduled for demolition on August 4th. So Simon spent most of last week frantically trying to find a new rental for us. Hopefully we'll know in the next few days whether or not we've been successful.

Happy 2nd Birthday

Harrison turned 2 on Sunday, and thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of his birthday. He is still singing happy birthday to himself 4 days later. He celebrated with a small party at Kings Park with some friends on Sunday morning. He got his first "real" musical instrument from us for his birthday - a ukelele. Now he can play along with his Dad and isn't so drawn to the big guitar, as he has one of his own to strum.

Visit from Grandmum & Grandfather

Mum and Dad visited in April, just on the end of VJ's second visit. We all went to dinner at the Old Swan Brewery to belatedly celebrate Mum's 70th and also Simon's birthday. The OSB must surely have the best view possible, and it was a lovely night. Mum, Dad, Harrison and I went down south for 4 nights, enjoying the delights of the top end of Margaret River (including a sumptuous lunch at Wise's winery), and Karri Valley. Mum treated us to a tram ride in Pemberton, and Dad shouted us a beautiful dinner at Karri Valley (probably the second best view possible). Harrison loved having his grandparents around - he calls Dad "Grandfather Dad", and I loved the afternoon sleeps and other luxuries the visit meant for me. He still can't believe Veronica isn't going to be there when he gets home at the end of the day.

Lilly, Ella and H...

We've really enjoyed catching up with the Cribbs again now that we're back in Perth. Here's a lovely snap of the 3 kids being towed around the back yard in Harrison's clam shell pool.

Milkshake madness

After Christmas we had a trip to Albany. We visited whale world (a weird "theme park" paying homage to Albany's quite recent whaling past, and attempting to cater to the green dollar at the same time). Best thing about it was the superb scones for morning tea, and this photo of Simon and Harrison simultaneously inhaling their milkshakes.

Christmas with Grandma

Harrison thoroughly enjoyed his second Christmas. He understood exactly what presents were for (him, mainly), and loved all the Santas in the shops and in catalogues. We had our nativity scene up, and he used to go for the figurines and say "wise man", "donkey"... Grandma was staying with us, and even though it was very sad not to have Grandpa as well this year, it was lovely for Harrison to be able to give her a good morning cuddle every morning.
Here's a photo of them on Christmas morning....

A new year

It's been quite a while since my last post. Since then we've had a couple of visits from family and friends (Simon's parents, Michele and Mul, Simon's mum and Marg and Neil, Lindy and her girls...), and a couple more are in the offing (my parents, VJ again, Simon's mum and aunty Audrey). We spent Christmas in Perth (much cooler than Brisbane!), and tripped around the south west once or twice after Christmas. We've been back a couple of times to Brisbane as well. Today is the first day of semester for both of us, so life is getting a bit hectic. I should be moving to part time work in March sometime, which will relieve a bit of the day to day work/family pressure.