Before and After

I put those two "chocolate" pictures of Harrison together - on the left is him just pre-diagnosis in October last year, weighing about 11.3kg. On the right is him in August this year, after 9 months on a gluten free diet, and weighing about 15.3 kg. He is still quite underweight for his age, but he is catching up on the height he lost.

Denis and Tracey

I just spent 4 days in Qld for Denis and Tracey's wedding. The weekend included a cooking class for VJ, Trish and me at the Spirit House, Yandina. It was a fabulous day, and the food (of course) was sumptuous. So Kate and Karen had better prepare themselves for some "from scratch" Thai food when they come to dinner at our new City Beach house! Paul and Anna were having lunch at the Spirit House that day, too - though luckily for them they didn't have to eat our cooking.

The wedding was beautiful. Weather was warm, many guests stayed at the Kenilworth pub or camped at the showgrounds (where the reception was), so it was a very social extended event. I think they bought 25 dozen eggs, and about $900 worth of meat, and that was just for the before and after barbeques. Tracey's sense of style was very evident, as was her attention to detail. The bridesmaids and flower girls (4 of each!) had a different dresses designed by Tracey. There were buses organised from Nambour (where a lot of guests were staying), and past various B&Bs where other guests were staying. It's a good thing Tracey is studying event management I think!

For the record

Doesn't seem like much is changing, though the stress levels are markedly reduced.
Sat 11th - Simon worked all day.
Sun 12th - Simon worked a few hours from home (but was in communication with us, which is an improvement)

Moving again...

Yep, it's only a year since we last moved, but we're on the move again. This time to a house with a backyard for Harrison to run around in. That was really our only criteria for a house, and it was surprising how difficult it is to find rental accomodation that includes grass. Actually, this one includes weeds, but with some TLC we're hoping they turn into lawn!

It's a fabulous location at City Beach - walking distance to the lovely Boulevard shops, and with a bitumen walking/cycling track from literally across the street through bush to Floreat Beach with its cafe, playground and barbeques. I can see us strolling down to the beach for a coffee and a walk on Sunday mornings. The house itself is an older style house, with very old kitchen and bathrooms, but there are 4 big bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a big rumpus and store room under the house, and most importantly, the kitchen and living areas over look a sizeable backyard. The bonus is that two bedrooms and the living areas all have magnificent ocean views.

We move around the 25th of August.

For the record

Not great process... 4th August, Simon worked all day. 5th August, he worked for the afternoon.

Emergency

We had our first trip to the emergency department last night. Harrison woke up unable to breathe. With all the terrible flus around, and 4 toddler deaths in Perth this winter we decided to rush him to hospital. Luckily we're not far from the children's hospital (Princess Margaret Hospital in Subiaco) and their emergency department is fabulous. That's the same hospital that drew blood from him in 5 uneventful seconds last year, after I'd spent 4 days going back and forth to pathology labs having nurses repeatedly try to get needles in his emaciated veins for hours and hours.

Turns out Harrison has croup and should be better in a few days.

Chocolate scones

Simon took Harrison to watch the splashes and crashes at the Avon Descent on Sunday (I had the flu so stayed in bed). Mel provided rocky road (aka chocolate scones). Harrison looks much healthier in the August 07 photo than he does in the October 06 one. He's also about 4 kilos heavier.

Thanks for appreciating my service

Love this You Tube video showing why libraries and librarians are so universally loved ....