Imagination

Harrison loves to take things to day care for show and tell, but he's only allowed to do it once a month, so instead he’s started taking imaginary toys (or as he says “pretending toys”).  He "holds" them in the car all the way to day care, carefully cradles them in his hands as he walks in, tells his carers what his imaginary toy is today and pretends to put it in the show and tell box. At the end of the day he's still acting as though there's a toy he has to put in his bag, or get me to hold while he washes his hands etc.  At home this morning he had so many imaginary toys in his hands that he couldn’t get up into his chair for breakfast.  He puts an imaginary train on the tracks along with a real one, and talks through a whole scenario around the race between the two trains and what they say to each other etc.

 

The other day when I picked him up from day care he claimed to have left Spencer (imaginary train de jour) behind.  I tried to persuade him that I could see Spencer in his bag, but he'd have none of it.  So I tried another tack and said I'd see if there was a spare Spencer in the glove box of

the car.  Sure enough, he fell for that one, and held the "new" imaginary Spencer for a while.  But after 5 minutes or so he announced

that he didn't like the new Spencer and wished he could go back to day care to get his old one. Aggghhh...  

 

It's actually not a bad phase because he can be totally distracted by something that isn't there – I don't have to worry about bringing toys for him to play with when we go out, as we can invent something at any time.  This morning our whole trip to day care was taken up with him describing what colour lollies he had (along with appropriate grunts and groans while he “made” them) then him asking me which one I’d like, passing imaginary lollies back and forth, offering me a drink of milk in case my lollies were too spicy… It’s quite fun.

Christmas plans

Our travel plans changed slightly and we’re now flying direct to and from Brisbane, rather than driving.  I was a bit tentative about attempting to visit Brisbane for just 5 days at Christmas time and coming away sane…  So we’ll now be there for about 12 days, and staying in one place the whole time, which hopefully will make it easier to see everyone, and to also take some time out for ourselves as a family.  It will be nice to plan some excursions that just the three of us can enjoy, like ferry trips and picnics, or a visit to Australia Zoo.  I’m quite looking forward to it. 

 

 

Holiday plans

We’re once again planning a trip east, and juggling the logistics of how to get there.  The current plan is to drive to Adelaide straight after Christmas, leave the car at the airport and fly to Brisbane.  Then Harrison and I would fly back to Perth, and Simon would fly to Adelaide and drive the car back to Perth.  I have almost no leave, whereas Simon has heaps, so it makes sense for me to get back for the re-opening of Uni on January 7^th, whereas he can take another week. Because of my limited leave, we only get about 6 days in Brisbane, which is not ideal, but can’t be helped.   The advantages of this are that

¨      we put some kilometres on the car for FBT purposes (but not too many for greenhouse purposes),

¨      we have some semblance of a family holiday (driving 2700 km in the middle of summer and camping on the Nullarbor – some would disagree about the holiday tag!),

¨      we get to visit family and friends in Brisbane, and   

¨      Simon also loves the long drive and the time to himself.

Spoke too soon

Well, I may have spoken too soon about the buffet at Observation City.  After we had dinner there on Sunday night, Harrison complained of a sore tummy all morning at day care, and didn’t eat any lunch, then he vomited everywhere just before nap time.  He seemed OK after that, and he did eat all his dinner last night.  I strongly suspect that something he ate on Sunday night had gluten in it.

Syd-en-ey

Had a trip to Sydney last week… my last law librarian jaunt.  I went to the law librarian’s conference (and gave a paper).  It was nice not feeling I had to go to all the law stuff – there were interesting papers on things like climate change which had a scientific bent.  One lesson learnt was not to rely on the venue having the same version of powerpoint as you.  I am usually an anti-powerpoint person and make the plainest presentations I can, but lately I’ve become a fan of timed transitions, and done things like have large black and white photos timed to fade in and out in the background as I talk.   This time I’d just used one or two “features”, and a groovy handwriting font on one slide, but when it came to present, they had an old version of powerpoint, so none of it worked!

 

I stayed on for the weekend with Michele F.  She lives in Newtown, almost on King St in a small terrace.  She and Mul are immersed in the inner city lifestyle.  It was a bit of a Ford family weekend, as Lisa has moved to Sydney, and Mary and Allen were also down visiting.

 

Simon took Harrison to the Perth Show on Sunday (he insists on calling it the Ekka, which I’m sure does not go down well with the locals).  A good bonding experience for the boys.   We decided at the last minute to go to dinner at Observation City (Scarborough) last night.  This is the secod time we’ve taken Harrison there and been brave enough not to pack any food for him.  They always have multiple gluten free dishes, including 3 or 4 desserts.  I think we’ll become regulars, just because it’s so convenient.  And they only charge $3 for him, which is a bonus.

New, new job

 

After saying in July that I was moving jobs to Curtin Uni, quite a lot has changed.  I never did make it to Curtin (and they were extremely accommodating of me, which was great), and am now the Science Librarian at UWA.  This is, of course, also where Simon works (but safely across campus), and where Harrison goes to daycare.  I'm loving the 10 minute commute!  One of the exciting things about this new role is that we're building a new science library and merging 4 different science collections together.  Something I'm not unfamiliar with from my days at ECU!  So I'm thinking about service models, 24 hour accessibility, multimedia rooms, training rooms, call numbers, spreadsheets, desk design, shelving, seating etc etc etc

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 ....

For the record

Simon has almost finished his record 4 or 5 years of extreme workload. So after being a de facto single mother for 3 years, the tide is starting to turn. I'm going to keep a record now, of the time he spends at home on the weekends, until it becomes completely normal for him to leave work on a Friday and not think about it again until Monday.

7/8 July - in Brisbane, a couple of hours of work
14/15 July - in Brisbane, no work
21/22 July - home on Saturday, working from home on Sunday
28/29 July - home, but working Saturday afternoon, and a couple of hours Sunday
4/5 August - stay tuned....

A change is as good as a holiday

Mixed feelings today as I resigned from ECU to take up a position (starting August 20) at Curtin Uni.  I will really miss the folks at the School of Law and Justice.  But I am very much looking forward to a week off between jobs, and to starting a new challenge.

Rudd v Howard on myspace

Interesting mention in the Australian on the weekend that Kevin Rudd has over 8000 friends on his Myspace site, and Howard has only 8 on his.

and I was, like, what's that?

The word "like" has appeared in Harrison's vocabulary, much to our consternation. He reports on conversations with friends and intersperses 'I was, like, "what's that?" ', and 'he was, like, really funny' in the descriptions. Don't know where he got it from.

Happy birthday Marg

Marg Y's birthday was on Saturday (Bastille Day), so Harrison, Marg and I went to Whiteman Park, where we had a ride on a steam train and a birthday picnic, and then to Caversham Wildlife Park, where we hand fed kangaroos and patted a koala. It was a glorious weekend in Perth - clear and sunny and pleasant. Quite unlike the very chilly weather they're getting on the east coast at the moment.

I made a gluten free cake for her birthday... an interesting combination since it started out being a butter cake with a hint of lemon, but then we added squares of chocolate at the insistence of my assistant chef. He couldn't conceive of a birthday cake that didn't involve chocolate! We decorated it with gluten free hundreds and thousands, and gluten free marshmallow flowers. Now if only I had a daughter I could roll out the old "hippy flower" cake for about 15 years in a row, I reckon. With Harrison I think it's going to be variations on the train theme for a few years to come.


On Sunday Harrison went to his first "theme" birthday party. It was a superman theme, so he had an excuse to wear his superman costume. The boys had no trouble dressing as super heroes, but for girls, it seems fairy and princess costumes are all they can come up with. We coped very well with the food issue - he had his own iced mini-mudcakes instead of birthday cake, and we brought along a big bag of coloured pop corn to share, plus he had a few of his own snacks as well. There was another girl who also wasn't able to eat the party food, so he didn't feel too "special".

In a couple of weeks he has a pirate party to attend, which should be fun.

Simon is in Brisbane for 11 days - teaching an intensive native title law unit at QUT. Life continues pretty much as normal for Harrison and I, except I do the day care drop off three days a week. Simon seems pretty relaxed over there, actually, so hopefully he continues that way when he gets back.

Harrison refused to wake up this morning - asked me to turn off the light and kept trying to pull up the covers and roll over and go back to sleep. Even when he was up and dressed he kept telling me he was tired. Not sure why. He was fine by the time he got to day care, so perhaps he just didn't want to face Monday.

Downlands 1987

There's a website for my 20 year high school reunion, where people are posting photos and bios in the lead up to the reunion. I thought our class was particularly disfunctional, and the 10 year reunion was ridiculous. It was preceded by the most offensive sexist "questionaire" imaginable, and the event itself was in a half empty hall with a crush of people around the bar, no music, little food, no speeches, nothing. So I didn't have high hopes for round 2, and had absolutely no enthusiasm for making any effort to get there. But it seems we're a more interesting bunch 1o years later. A bit less of the blokey/boozey crap, and people seem a bit more circumspect about life and their place in the world. It seems a lot of people spent 10-15 years figuring out where they fitted, and are more settled now. Of course, I'm still not going, but I'm reading the website with interest.

Stop singing, Donkey!

Simon was singing along to Bernard Fanning while he was driving Harrison to daycare the other morning, and he kept singing after they'd arrived and he was leaning into the back seat of the car, putting Harrison's shoes on. He was just thinking what a lovely father-son moment they were sharing, when Harrison burst out at the top of his voice with "Stop singing, Donkey!" (a la Shrek 1).

Pre-School

We finally relented and let Harrison move into the pre-school room at day care. It's not classic pre-school, just what they call their third room. He is loving it, even though he's just visiting for half a day at a time right now. We were a bit worried about over-educating him too early in life - neither of us believe in "hot-housing", or pushing him to excel and achieve when he could be playing and enjoying being a kid. But I think the different environment and slightly older kids is good for him. While we absolutely love the carers in the toddlers room, it's probably getting a bit too same-ish for him. There are younger kids starting there, and the dexterity and language etc between the youngest and oldest is quite significant at that age. The pre-school room also has a lot of "incursions" during school holidays - visiting firemen, farmyard etc, and interesting activities aimed at older kids. Mum had some good advice about not trying to push H to a higher level of achievement in reading, writing etc, but to look for other things that are still at a 3 year old's level to interest him. Cue for Simon to spend some time on music and sport, I think!

Shrek

Harrison's latest obsession (along with everyone else under the age of 10) is Shrek. We have the first movie on DVD, and he loves it. Especially the music. He goes around at daycare saying (in his best Scottish accent) "tha'll do Donkey, tha'll do", and "can't we just settle this over a pint?". He loves to pretend to be the Donkey, and points out that while Shrek calls him dong-keh, he calls himself don-kee. The karaoke bit on the DVD is played over and over and over.

Tomorrow I'm taking him to see Shrek the Third. Unfortunately Simon is working, so he'll miss out on sharing Harrison's first movie experience.

Health houses and handbags

Mum and Dad have both been keeping the Toowoomba medical fraternity busy lately. Dad with his diabetes (he's now on insulin), and Mum getting tested for a hereditary thyroid condition that it seems most of her family has. Dad also has to go back to the sleep specialist as his sleep study showed up some issues.

Paul and Anna have moved into their house, but their blog doesn't yet show the updated photos (see the link on the side bar). Madonna and Peter are also in their new house, which apparently is beautiful (they raised an art deco home and built under it).

Simon's marking exam papers at the moment, as well as looking at final proofs of his admin lawbook, and doing the update on his native title book. Plus he's going to Brisbane in mid July to teach an intensive Masters class at QUT. The good news is that he has a fairly light teaching load next semester, and those books should be finished once and for all in the next month. So we look forward to seeing him at dinner and on the weekends. Harrison is starting to think Daddy is just someone who visits occasionally!

I bought two dresses for Denis and Tracey's wedding (a girl needs choice, after all!), and I'm going to try my hand at making a handbag for them. Might have to ring Rosie for advice.

Winter begins

It's the first day of winter, and very chilly in Perth. It is a beautiful sunny day (as it was on the weekend, too), but there's a definite winter chill.

Simon's mum left yesterday after her 3 week visit. It was sad to see her go, and her visit seemed to be over very fast. VJ was talking about visiting sometime soon (health permitting), and Mum and Dad are considering a visit in September, so I'm sure it won't be long before that spare bed is in use again.

Reunions

It's Simon and my 20 year high school reunions this year. Neither of us are going, as they're on the other side of the country. Hard to get my head around having been out of school for 2 decades. We've been going out for 17 years in October, and married for 9 years tomorrow.... I certainly don't feel that grown up!

Mothers Day

Had a nice Mothers Day - Simon has been working very long hours including all day on Mother's day, but he did manage to buy some exquisite orchids for me on Saturday evening. Marg also bought over some tulips when she came for dinner on Sunday. Harrison made a card at daycare. He drew pictures of each of his grandparents in the respective mothers day cards for Grand-mum and Grandma. He's getting quite good at drawing people - he does eyes with pupils, hair, smiles, and very long arms and legs. He takes it all very seriously.

Simon's mum arrived on Sunday afternoon, and I cooked roast pork, as it's her favourite dish. My first time at cooking roast pork (being vegetarian and all), but it seemed to work out well. Marg brought dessert over via Herdsman - the most delicious summer berry crumble and Connesieur icecream.

Funny thing happened on Sunday morning. Simon spoke to his mother before she got on the plane in Brisbane, and afterwards said to me that she seemed a bit disappointed that he was going to be working long hours during her visit. I asked if he remembered to say happy mothers day to her, and he hadn't - so he called her back. He had a 5 minute conversation, during which she said she didn't think he'd forgotten to wish her a happy mothers day. At the end of the conversation she said "bye Dan". Simon pointed out that he was her OTHER son - so she said "well in that case you did forget mothers day!". Simon calls me back to report this conversation, and gets off the phone. 5 minutes later he calls back sheepishly and says... "I might have kind of forgotten to say happy mothers day to you as well..."

And to continue the saga of Youngs working far too hard. Marg has also been working until 1am and all weekend in her new job (which is supposed to be less onerous than her old one!). I had arranged that I'd pick her mum up from the airport and drop into Marg's house for afternoon tea on the way home. We arrived at 3:30ish, and Marg comes to the door still in her pyjamas. She'd been working all weekend, and hadn't showered or eaten at all that day... After a while at her house, Mum whispers to me - "do you think we're getting a cup of tea?", so I make one. We take one mouthful of tea, and realise the milk is off! It's a week past it's used by date. But she did bring a fabulous dessert and wine that night, which more than makes up for the tea... And she gave me wonderful flowers and said beautiful things about my mothering.

New photos

I've attached photos to the entries about camping at Lake Leschenaultia and Simon's birthday.

"Surprise!"

Harrison is still not good at keeping secrets.  He told me last night that they were making something at day care for Mothers Day.  I said he'd better keep it a secret, and he agreed - but in the same breath told me it was a Mothers Day card!

 

Plus he always confesses if he's been naughty.  I picked him up the other week and the first thing he said was "Hi Mum, I wasn't listening today!".  And when I asked him what he meant, he said he was tickling Joseph when they were supposed to be listening to a story, and he kept tickling him and making him giggle even after Amber asked him to listen...

3 today

Harrision is 3 today. He had a little party yesterday (more of an afternoon tea really) with his "significant adults". Much easier to handle than a party with kids. He got thoroughly spoiled, of course. I bought gluten free lamingtons from Alternative Bites, and made a lamington train cake for his birthday. We had to replace some of the sweets that the recipe called for as couplings and cargo etc with gluten free alternatives, but it turned out pretty well. Today he has taken a GF cake in the shape of the number 3 to day care.

He's also taken all his Lego Thomas trains to daycare. Simon said that he started off well, giving trains to the other kids to play with, and being very excited to be able to share them, but then there was a bit of snatching when Harrison was distracted, and he ended up with no trains at all. Worst of all, some other kid took Toby (his birthday present), which has hardly been out of his hands since he unwrapped him. I'm sure it's all a lesson in negotiation, disappointment and compromise...

New baby for Pip

Pip and Kane had their third child on the 27th of April - a little boy called Ben. Laura and Tom seem delighted by their new brother. It took a while for blogger to decide it was going to show the text of this post, and in the meantime I had a chat to Pip. She is doing fabulously (such a calm, capable mother!), and baby Ben is an exceptionally good baby.

I'm really looking forward to seeing their expanded family when I visit Brisbane in August for Denis and Tracey's wedding.

Qantas does it again

Unbelievably, Marg had the same dramas with Qantas on Sunday as I did in January (see Day from Hell). She was a minute late at the check-in-kiosk and they wouldn't let her on the flight - she had to wait 8 hours for the next flight. Flying business class made no difference either. They are vicious!

Back moustache

No, I'm not talking about a particularly hirsute person, just Harrison-speak for back massage. If you say you have a sore back, he will offer to give you a "back moustache". Yesterday I asked what he did at daycare, and he said that he and Joseph (his partner in crime) played back moustaches. I asked who gave the massage, and he said - "I gave Joseph a back moustache, and then he gave me one, then we sang "lights, camera, action, Wiggles" in front of the TV". He has worked out that a turned off TV makes a fine mirror, so is constantly playing his guitar and singing and dancing in front of the TV. They have a TV at daycare which obviously serves the same purpose.

He's a very tactile person, loving to squeeze your arm, or your face, giving kisses, wanting you to sit close to him on the couch, or lean right over his bed when you're reading a bedtime story. He loves nothing more than a tummy tickle, and will instruct the tickler as to the appropriate method and protest if the tickle ends too soon for his liking.

Another term Harrison invented (when Leah was staying with us) is a "dark hug" - this is when you give a hug, but he buries his head in your chest and arms, and can't see out.

Simon's book

Simon's native title book is now being advertised on the Federation Press website. He's in the "proof" stage for both books, and consequently pretty busy at the moment. But hopefully it will all be over soon.

Clean bill of health

Dad's angiogram last week went well - he didn't need any stents, nor a bypass. He doesn't yet have his sleep study results, and it sounds like his diabetes is worsening, but at least the heart is pretty good.

Lake Leschenaultia

We went camping with the Zerring/Mashers to a little place only an hour out of Perth last weekend. It was pretty luxurious - hot showers, flush toilets, a lovely lake with sandy beaches and canoe hire, and a little kiosk. The three kids had a lovely time together. Harrison is a bit too little to do all of the things Matty and Sam can do, but he tries to keep up, and they're very considerate of him. Saturday was a glorious day and the kids all paddled in the water and played in the sand. Sunday was overcast and drizzly, so while we did do the walk around the lake it wasn't as pleasant as it could have been.

Shut the door!

Yesterday afternoon Harrison heard a car arrive in the garage and got all excited at the prospect of Leah arriving.  I told him I thought it was Dad home, and he was insistent that it had to be Dad AND Leah.  Harrison opened the front door to see his Dad getting out of the car, and said "Hi Dad, is Leah there?".  When he got a negative reply, he simply shut the door on his poor old Dad and went back to whatever he was doing.

Dad's angiogram

Dad is booked in for a sleep study and then a day later an angiogram (in late April).  Mum sounds a bit worried about it all, especially since both Dad's parents died fairly early with heart problems...  Hopefully the fact that he hasn't yet had a heart attack bodes well and means they will be able to take corrective action such as putting in a stent.  Dad would have a pretty good diet already since he's diabetic, and he has exercised frequently for the past decade or so since moving off the farm.

 

I had a sleep study last year (my dear husband complained that I kept him awake at night).  It was really interesting, and quite a holiday for me - I was given dinner, read a magazine, and the nurses fussed around wiring me up for monitoring before I settled down for the night.  The room was really dark and silent.  Best of all, I knew there would be no little person calling out "good morning mum" at 6am, and no stressed out person tossing and turning beside me.  The nurses said I slept like a princess and I had to be woken at 7am so I could go to work.  When the results came back, they showed that while I did snore, it was well within normal range.  The specialist facetiously said that sometimes it's the sensitivity or sleeping habits of the partner that's the problem....

Birthday

It was Simon's birthday yesterday, and there were lots of celebrations. Harrison proudly got Simon's presents out of their hiding spot first thing in the morning and helped him unwrap them. Then we had a nice fruit platter for breakfast (better than Simon's usual Up'n'Go in the car on the way to work). We had a "special" dinner of pan fried snapper with a caramelised potato and tomato salsa side dish. I had made a gluten free mud cake for his birthday cake, but the ganache hadn't had enough time to cool and solidify, so it was more of a sauce. Leah took some photos of a chocolate covered Harrison looking decidedly drunk, and one where he looked like a vampire with dark chocolate sauce dripping off his mouth. I'll add one to this post when I get a chance. After H had come down from his sugar high and gone to bed, Simon and I went out for coffee while Leah stayed home with Harrison. All in all a nice day.

Newsletter blog

For my sins I am the editor of the law librarians' newsletter in Western Australia this year (I did the same job in Qld a couple of years ago). I've been thinking about whether I could do the newsletter better as a blog... Looking at labelling the various elements of the newsletter so that people could sign onto an RSS feed just for the posts about union list updates, for instance. Blogger's new Layout feature might allow me to be a bit more flexible with what sort of content I have where. I might have a play around for the next issue and send out both versions - one pdf and a blog version for selected members to review. You can create a post by email (which I'm doing right now), so the president's report could be filed by email if necessary. There could also be permanent links to sites of interest - journals, blogs, research sites etc. The sticky issue is whether people could get an RSS feed just when a new issue is complete, rather than each time one element was updated.

Visitors galore

Leah is staying with us for a couple of weeks while she finds a house. It's lovely having her to stay, and Harrison is having a ball with her. She's fabulous with kids and seems to have endless capacity for playing games and doing silly voices or actions. That's what comes of having a "theatre person" in the house. Marg and Neil leave on Sunday for their drive across Australia. They should arrive in Perth on Easter Monday and they'll stay with us until their house is ready for habitation. They already have the lease, but they'll need to furnish it before they can move in. And finally, Simon's mum arrives in mid May for about 3 weeks.

Amidst all this excitement we have Simon's birthday tomorrow and Harrison's on May 7th. Harrison and I have done our shopping for Simon's birthday, but he's struggling a bit with the concept of keeping a secret. He told Simon this morning - completely unprompted - that he has a surprise for him AND that it's a DVD. I'd better remember to make the birthday cake tonight.

Coeliac Awareness Week

I went to my first Coeliac Society event this afternoon - a forum for Coeliac Awareness Week. It was fascinating. I learnt -

• if you don't have one of the 2 HLA genes (HLA_DQ2 and HLA_DQ8) you will never get coeliac disease (30% of the population have the gene, and only 1% have the disease). Simon and I don't yet know which of us has the gene, but we have had the blood test and neither of us has CD now.
• Gluten intolerance is a different thing, which may or may not be related. It doesn't do any bowel damage.
• There's a tribe in the Sahara desert in which 1 person out of every 18 has coeliac disease (the highest known incidence)
• It is very rare in SE Asian populations and in Australian Aborigines. And reasonably wide spread in Ireland, Iran and India.
• Instances of coeliac disease in young and old people (under 20 and over 50) are equally spread between male and female, but in the 20-50 age group there are 4 times as many women as men diagnosed.
• The average time for a diagnosis is 5 and a half years in Australia, and 11 in the US (our doctors are more aware of it, but still not great).
• The cause of coeliac disease came to light during the Dutch famine in 1944 when there was very little flour. Many patients with coeliac symptoms had miraculous recoveries during the famine, and then relapsed when flour became available again. Before then they knew of the disease, and that it was carbohydrate related, but not that wheat specifically caused the mal-absorption.
• It's a breach of the Food Standards code to label a food "99% gluten free" or "No added gluten" - these are labels I've seen in coffee shops.
• There was a study by Catassi (in 2006 I think) which showed that for 50 healthy coeliacs, given between 10mg and 50 mg of gluten per day, no coeliacs who ingested 10mg in the study showed any symptoms. At 50mg a day there were adverse reactions, and 4 people had to withdraw because of the severity of the reaction. To eat 10mg of gluten you would have to have 500g of a food containing 20 parts per million of gluten (which is a very low level of gluten). That would be 80 slices of a "gluten free" bread that actually had 20ppm of gluten in it, or 8 slices of what some overseas countries class as "low gluten" bread with 200ppm in it. Basically it shows that tiny traces of gluten ingested inadvertently won't adversely effect coeliacs, so they don't have to be really paranoid about it to the extent of never going out.
• "Gluten" doesn't really exist - it's the collective name for the several different proteins in wheat, rye, barley and oats.
• And on a lighter note, while the rule is "if in doubt, leave it out", the lesser known rule for coeliacs is "if there's no doubt, pig out." This quote just before afternoon tea!

We were all given 2 big sample bags of GF food (most of which I'd tried for Harrison or knew about). One was a chocolate mud cake mix - I might make it for Simon's birthday.

The Alternative Bites people also put on a spread. I had heard about Alternative Bites but haven't been there yet. They are a totally GF cafe that also sells takeaway and frozen foods - pies, sausage rolls, cakes etc. I had heard many times that the food is indistinguishable from the gluten equivalent, but didn't really believe it. I was stunned at the variety and quality of the spread. It was about 5pm when the talks finished, so I took a few things home for H to try. He had a piece of pie for dinner and a couple of little treats (a bit of lamington and a wafer biscuit). He loved it all - particularly the pie. He used to love pastry and of course hasn't had any since he was diagnosed. The lamington was really really good quality and I was amazed that they could even make a wafer biscuit.

This is one place we'll definitely be visiting. Now that Terena lives south of the river we'll be going in that direction more often, so I'll make a point of dropping into Garden City.

1-0 to Carmel

I'm sure everyone knows that there is a friendly rivalry between Simon and I over what Harrison is called. I agreed to the name Harrison on the understanding that it wouldn't be shortened, and Simon is determined to call him Harry.

When Leah arrived on Monday she asked Harrison whether he liked to be called Harry or Harrison, and (with Simon whispering Harry, Harry, Harry in the background), my little darling thought for a moment, and then said quite assuredly - Harrison. What a trooper...

Leah's come to town

Leah arrived in Perth yesterday for a job at Curtin. All very unexpected and quick, but lovely to see her again. Simon picked her up from the airport and she came for dinner last night. Harrison was a bit shy at first, but soon he was chatting and flirting. He was quite excited because he's heard Leah sing on Simon's CD and he was looking forward to a bit of a jam session with her. He got out his plastic (silent) electric guitar and his ukelele and they did a bit of air guitar together. He was very sweet - suggesting she try his accordian and his maraccas. There was a bit of singing - I ended up with the maraccas, which is indicative of what my son thinks of my muscial ability ;-) It is great to watch Harrison go into total enjoyment mode over music. He really can't stop his body moving and the joy on his face is wonderful to see.

Leah is hoping to live either in Leederville or Fremantle, and is looking around for places to rent over the next few days. It will be interesting to see whether having Leah in town will mean Simon does a bit more music.

Belfast Mill

Harrison seems to have the same taste in music as his Dad. Simon sang Belfast Mill (the Furey's song) to him the other night, and the next night he asked me for the "town" song as he was going to sleep. I didn't know what he was talking about and asked him to sing it for me. He sang two verses word for word - At the east end of town at the foot of the hill there's a chimney so tall, called Belfast Mill. But there's no smoke at all coming out of the stack for the mill has shut down and it's never coming back. That song and Simon's original song If I were a fish are his favourites at the moment.

Harrison would be delighted to learn that Simon wrote If I were a fish as a nonsense song for kids after we visited Michael and Jenni for Christmas in 1994 when Nathan was about 3. He had a T-shirt with if I were a fish printed on it. In January this year, Harrison met Nathan for the first time and the two were instant best friends. Harrison adored him and Nathan was the most caring and sensitive 14 year old farm boy you could imagine.

I dug out a Furey's CD and Harrison loves listening to the folk music. I tried to sing Marie's Wedding to him yesterday but couldn't remember the words, so he corrected me and sang the whole thing. Of course, the Wiggles do play Marie's wedding on one of their albums, so Irish music has had the stamp of approval. The good thing about the Wiggles is that they do a lot of traditional music. It seems to strike a real chord with kids. Harrison is always on his feet for a Greek or Irish song.

Photo of Adam

We visited Adam today (and Terena of course!). I think he looks a bit like Rhys, but darker reddish-brown hair. He was pretty sleepy when we were there (as most newborns are). Harrison loved him - gave him the most tender kisses on the forehead and feet. After making quite a fuss on the way to the hospital about Adam's gift (he decided he was baby Adam and he needed the teddy bear), he gave it to Terena very graciously. Terena looked very happy, if a bit tired. She'd just been moved to a room with a double bed and a nice view, so hopefully the remainder of her stay will be pleasant. Second time around she's taking advantage of the rest times and trying to get some much needed sleep. We took a couple of photos. Here's a cropped one of Adam... I told Terena I'd e-mail a photo to the playgroup mums, so I'll probably just send a link to this page.

Terena's new baby

Terena had a little boy, Adam, on Friday. Rhys is now a big brother and apparently is besotted by little Adam. Harrison was very excited to go shopping for a gift for Adam, and we're all going up to St John of God to see the baby this afternoon. Terena looked extremely good on Thursday - it was hard to believe she would be giving birth the next morning.

Stella's new baby

Stel became a mum yesterday at 10am. She had a little girl - Madeline Elizabeth Margaret (Mem) weighing 6lb 3oz. Lovely for her family to celebrate a new life following her dear Dad's passing last month.

New library - virtual tour

There's a virtual tour now for the new library... so you can see all the bright colours, the courtyard, and the seating.

Thomas again

Harrison is so into Thomas the Tank Engine now... the Wiggles are taking a bit of a back seat (although Dorothy and Henry were being squeezed into the back of a Troublesome Truck yesterday). We are using a big Lego Thomas set as "incentive" (did someone say bribery) for getting him to sleep in longer. Each morning if he waits quietly for us to get him up he gets another part of the set. He's only got two bits left now, but it has been bliss hearing him stir early, and then lie quietly waiting for us to come and get him. He has read the "newspaper" that came with the Thomas and identified that there is a James and a Toby set that he doesn't yet have. So I guess birthday and Christmas are taken care of now.

Thomas

This is a shot of Rhys and Harrison with Harrison's new Thomas the Tank Engine one night when Rhys was staying at our house while his parents went out. Harrison got a huge Thomas set from grandma for Christmas (it was Andrew, Tristan and Jeremy's old set gathered over about 10 years). It's all battery operated and the tracks are quite complex. I'm not sure that they even make that type of set anymore. After a few incidents of trains being dropped on tiles, and many requests for the carriages to be re-coupled, we decided to put it away for another year or so. Harrison is playing with a Lego Duplo version now. It's not as fancy, but more robust and probably better for his level of fine motor skills at the moment. He can easily put the carriages together and has fun swapping Percy and Thomas's faces around and making them the wrong colours. Hopefully this means that when Harrison is old enough to deal with the overpasses, smaller engines, batteries etc, the big set will still be in working order.

Book launch

Last night the UWA law school had a book launch for books published in the last 12 months. There were 5 already published, and although Simon's two (the Admin Law one and the Native Title one) aren't yet published, he got a mention as well. We went to dinner to Soda Cafe afterwards (Rachel was babysitting). Still can't quite get used to the price of eating out over here. Everywhere seems to charge like a fine dining establishment. You seem to jump from Subway or suburban Chinese to paying $30 for a main.

Marg's move

Marg and Neil are visiting this weekend - looking for places to live. Marg has given up on the law firm lifestyle (or lack there of), and taken a job as general counsel for a company over here. (Good on her!) She and Neil will be long distance lovers for a while until Neil is able to sort our his business and move over. She's looking at living in Leederville if she can find somewhere nice. As a consequence we're going to dinner perhaps to Anna's Vietnamese tonight... it's to be negotiated as we have to bring Harrison and we're not sure how well he'll go to sleep in his stroller. Simon's voting for Hillarys because there's lots of space, but I'm a bit over the food there. Nothing very interesting and the couple of "real" restaurants are really noisy and expensive. Plus it's very overcast and drizzly today, so walking around the beach and boardwalk isn't very appealing. And of course, it's not in Leederville!

Me 'n' Bandit

Last night I put Harrison to bed (with his fluffy dog, Bandit) and went off for a shower. When I got out of the shower H was sitting up in bed calling out "Me 'n' Bandit need some more milk! Me 'n' Bandit need some more milk!". When I brought the milk in, he had the first drink, and then confessed "Bandit doesn't want any" as he lay back down to go to sleep.

Bread incident

We're back in the swing of things. Work is pretty busy, and I can't decide whether to sit in the library or in the law school (my instincts tell me the law school). Harrison is happy at daycare, but we did have an incident last week where he was given a piece of bread, which triggered some diarohea and vomiting. Not too bad, and it was a genuine accident - the staff have altered some procedures so that it doesn't happen again. It was our first experience of Harrison eating something with gluten in it. We are trying to teach him to ask "is this gluten free" instead of "is this alright for me", but with a toddler it's risky relying on him to be alert enough to avoid the wrong foods just yet.

We recommenced our Pilates/swimming routine on Sat morning. It was actually cool and windy (as opposed to 40 degrees), so Harrison didn't get his paddle. He and Simon played bear caves instead while I exercised. Harrison was the bear - he had a kitchen in his cave and made Simon muffins and cake. Simon's having a bit of a snooze in front of the cricket as I type. He did the vacuuming and cleaning while I pushed H around Lake Monger this morning. Speaking of H, he's just woken up from his nap, and we're off to the zoo shortly.

New library

Back at work this week... The new library and IT building is open, and looking great. Very bright, lots of groovy and comfy seating, the bookshop and an Aroma cafe half in and half out of the library, a big e-lab and heaps of other computers. Still a bit of unpacking and settling in to be done, and my office doesn't yet have a phone, but it's all so much better than the old library. I'm staying in my office in the school in the long term, but I'll sit in the library office for the next couple of months so that students finding their way around the new library can find me easily. It's actually really quiet, so I'll probably get a lot of work done.

H settled in well at daycare. He's a "big" boy in the toddlers room now, and seems to be loving it. The girls can't believe how much his tummy has shrunk since last year. It's so funny watching him go through his little routines there - putting his hat back on the peg, and stopping to take his sandals off before bouncing on the mini tramp without being asked. UWA is great with hygiene and tidiness and getting the kids to take responsibility, but they're also incredibly warm and loving. They were genuinely glad to see Harrison again and take real pleasure in seeing him happy and healthy. There was a birthday at daycare yesterday and he couldn't share the cake, so I made and iced a gluten free one last night and sent wrapped slices to daycare today for them to keep in the freezer and take out when there's a birthday. Hopefully it will taste OK!

We also swapped the breadmaker the family gave me for Christmas for the Panasonic one that has a gluten free setting. Made bread for H on Sunday and it was amazing! I liked the GF bread that came out the breadmaker we'd borrowed from Mel, but the stuff I made on Sunday was a much better texture, even though it's the same mix. Who knows, I may even start making ordinary bread for Simon and me.

Day from hell

Yesterday was quite a day... Up early to get to the airport and drop the hire car off. Got confused getting petrol for the hire car, and somehow ended up in the taxi queue at the international airport. So that made me later than I planned. When I arrived at the automatic check-in, the screen said to see a staff member - who duly informed me that I was one minute late checking in. She could see I was travelling alone with a toddler, and I told her I was going to Perth. But she refused to allow us on the flight. In fact, she triumphantly told me at the end of our conversation that I was now 3 minutes late. It was 5 hours until the next flight to Perth, I had no stroller for Harrison to sleep in, no car, and no baby seat, so no one could pick us up. The food outlets didn't cater for coeliacs at all, and the snooty manager of the big one refused to even let me read a label to determine if Harrison could eat anything. With a 5 hour flight on top of the 5 hour wait at the airport, it was shaping up as a very trying day. If I had been travelling alone and going to Sydney or somewhere the waiting time and flight time would both have been much less significant, and I wouldn't have cared. But travelling alone to Perth with a toddler - it just seemed cruel to put us through that for a one minute delay. Luckily I found a fruit salad for Harrison and had some milk with me. He slept on a bench for an hour and a half while we waited. He was full of beans on the flight, but very well behaved. He walked up and down the aisle in his flashing sandshoes about 20 times and flirted terribly with the stunning woman sitting beside us and all the flight attendants. The only concession Qantas was prepared to make was to get a coeliac meal for Harrison on the later flight, so at least he was fed. The flight was very long - 5 and a half hours, and then we waited for another hire car. Simon wasn't home until late the next day and he had both keys to the Forester, and I would otherwise have been stranded without groceries at home. By the time I got home it was 7pm, and I still had to get milk etc, and feed and bath Harrison. It was after 10 by the time he was asleep. All in all physically and emotionally exhausting, and not a day I want to repeat.

Back from holidays

We're both back from our eastern odessey... not without it's dramas. The drive over went reasonably well. Harrison was fabulous in the car for the 4500km trek. We camped all but 2 nights, and he loves the tent. It was a challenge keeping a toddler safe in dusty campsites in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't a blade of grass in sight between Kalgoorlie and Broken Hill. At Broken Hill we had grass, and there was a pool at the van park, plus an excellent airconditioned campers kitchen, so we stayed 2 nights and made that our rest day. We arrived a day or two early in Toowoomba. As usual there was lots of running around trying to catch up with people. Harrison met all of his cousins and loved every one of them. Simon had only a week in Brisbane and then drove back, while I stayed on and flew back on Thursday. A day or so after we crossed the Nullarbor the cyclone aftermath brought several inches of rain to the area, and destruction to Esperance (where we had holidayed in December). And then as Simon was driving back, floods hit South Australia and western NSW. He was a day or so after the roads were cut, so the highways were all open again when he went through. Some of the roads around the national parks he wanted to visit were still closed, though.

Veronica's party was great. She fed the whole family (all 11 kids and all their children made it), and we got some family photos before the party. Her friends arrived a bit later. It was a "wake" - she thought she'd be dead by 40 so decided on the funeral theme. She had a coffin with ice in it for the beer, RIP signs and a wreath, and people gave her condolence cards. Dad did the eulogy. He got a bit preachy so Harrison was on hand to do a loud rendition of "Toot toot chugga chugga big red car" at his feet. Bridget and Jacqui (two nieces 8 and 10 years old) partied almost all night. I think Bridget went to bed just before me at 2:30 in the morning. They were being the fashion police and rating people's outfits (they weren't very harsh judges, because I got top marks)... They told one guy his belt was substandard and he needed to get a new one from Stockwhips for Stock Men (Dad's leather work business), and then they added that he could get a wallet as well. Dad would have been proud.

Harrison and I saw Paul and Anna's house - almost complete . Apparently in about 6 weeks the interior will be finished. It looks really impressive. It has fabulous entertaining areas, a 3 level proper home theatre, and wonderful curved upper deck with water views.

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.