4 today

My 'baby' turned 4 today! I know i'm stating the obvious but isn't it amazing just how much change happens in the first 4 years of life? Look at these pictures!

Happy 4th Birthday Caleb! My wild, crazy, stubborn, brave, independent, gorgeous boy.

We've had a lovely day celebrating Caleb's birthday. DH took the day off work and we went up to Glasgow   to Toys R Us as Caleb had a voucher to spend, then lunch at Macdonalds and then onto the Riverside Transport Museum. Caleb had his favourite cheesey pasta for dinner and then his aunt and uncle popped in with presents followed by his Gran and Grandpa. Now for the big birthday party with his friends on Sunday! We've hired a sports centre...thankfully!

                          

Birth Sampler

To show that i do stitch, here's my latest progress on Aaron's birth sampler. I'd really like to have it finished for his 1st birthday in October but im thinking that might be too optimistic.

Im suddenly having a panic about my nephews birth sampler that i put into the framers over 2 months ago! I just remembered. I have got to chase that up this week. Imagine they've lost it or something horrifying?! Eeeek.

Caleb has started his preschool nursery year and his first week was a big success. He loves it. Mummy loves it.

Moany mum

As of the end of July, the wee one was crawling. Boy, does life get harder! Suddenly i appreciate how much easier newborn babies are. Sitting on the couch, watching tv and feeding baby for hours sounds like total bliss now. This crawling/pulling himself up to standing/falling over/bumping his head and crying coz that hurts phase is sooo hard! I cant divert my eyes for a minute. He's also at that age where i cant be out his sight for 30 seconds without starting to moan, crawling to find me and climbing up my legs until i pick him up (which sounds quite cute now im writing this but is actually a pain in the butt when im trying to make lunch or dinner etc) Plus he's teething, which doesn't help. He has 4 teeth now, the last of which just came in this week and i thought we'd get some respite before the others start to arrive but no, today i see more coming along the bottom. Give me strength. In addition to all those moans, the older one has been hard work, probably because so much of my time/attention is taken up dealing with Aaron. Im glad nursery school starts back next week, we are in need of our routine back again and Caleb needs more stimulation.

Oh and im still up through the night with Aaron and he's been waking for the day at 5.30am which, quite frankly, is killing me and turning me into a grumpy cow by 7pm. On the plus side, both my kids were sound asleep by 6.30pm tonight which is great. Shame im too tired to do anything with my time though....

Moan, moan, moan.

However, im grateful for my boys and i love them very much. Look at these faces! Too cute. Im just tired, busy, hormonal and grumpy :)

edit: My moaning must've been heard. Aaron slept alllllll night and mummy slept 9.30pm-6am! Hurrah

Happy Canada day y'all

Wowzers, June just flew by. My husband was away for 5days and that left me busy busy busy with the boys and around the house....the chores seem never-ending. 

Caleb finished his "ante pre-school year" at nursery. He loved it there and im sad he has to move to a new nursery but in the long-term it makes sense for him to do his pre-school nursery year in the school he will be starting next August (plus its a 5minute walk from my house). Im sad he has to leave his wee buddy Noah, the 2 of them get along so well and gravitate to each other every morning. However, i know at this age (3) that friends come and go and are quickly replaced by others.  

There was an end of term awards ceremony and the kids sang to all the parents. Too too cute. They were all individually presented with a book from the headteacher. I was very proud of my boy :) 

So now nursery school has come to an end we have 6 weeks of "summer" to pass. If the weather is dry this shouldnt be a problem but if it's as wet as it has been recently i do not know how we will fill the days!

Here's how i'd fill my days if i didnt have two little boys to entertain; stitching! Here's Aaron's birth sampler which i love working on

Finally, Happy Canada day! We didnt do anything to celebrate. I feel like we should, the boys are half Canadian after all. What do you Canadians do to celebrate? Matthew had no suggestions lol

My proud mum moment

Sometimes you just really need to hear something like this :-)

Bleugh

I was touched to read your comments on my last post regarding Caleb, thank-you all so much. Unfortunately we are in the midst of another infection. The paediatrician decided he was fine to go back to his old meds on Thursday and boy, was she wrong. Saturday we were back to square 1; high temperature, sore back, hurts to pee etc etc. Its been pretty stressful. So far, we have managed to avoid the hospital although there has been a trip to the emergency doctor and a few calls to NHS24 which, by the way, is an amazing service. For all the grumbles you hear about our health service, i think it is amazing that we have it, and for free. When you hear about people in other countries who cannot get serious health conditions treated because they cant afford it, it makes me truely grateful to live here!

On top of all that we had a few days of Aaron hitting high temperatures after his immunisations. My gosh, parenting is so hard at times, not to mention stressful, exhausting, overwhelming and worrying too. I just hate to see them sick, it makes me feel very helpless.

Anyway, i need to finish on a more cheerier note. Im sitting here looking out into the garden and here are my lovely potted plants :-) I cannot wait to get things actually planted in the garden but we're waiting on the developers putting drainage in and re-turfing it.

My poor boy

April 18th - April 23rd are the kind of days we want to forget but ones which will be scarred on our memories forever.

You know it's not going to be good news when a phone call starts with "Dont panic but....." and then on to tell me that Caleb's fever had hit plus 40degrees, he had started to shake and was on route to the doctors surgery.

He had taken unwell at nursery on the Tuesday and we took him to see the doctor Wednesday morning and he'd got some meds etc. Whilst my mum was watching him on Wednesday afternoon and i was at another appointment with Aaron, my sister phoned to tell me he'd got worse. I met him them at the doctors surgery and boy, what a scary sight. He looked terrible, was trembling uncontrollably and talking jibberish. The practice nurse and the GP stripped him down, started bathing him with tepid water to get his temperature down and phoned an ambulance.

Caleb has a reflux in his bladder which basically means when he pees some shoots back up to his kidneys. We discovered this when he got sick as a baby and ended up in hospital. Its managed by antibiotics and there have been no infections since he was 5 months old, until now and this was a bad one. 

He ended up in hospital for 6 days/5 nights. He was on a drip at one point, and having intravenous antibiotics. My poor boy. Here he is looking a bit better, waiting to have an ultrasound on his kidneys (he loved the wheelchair). The worst bits were definitely getting the cannulas put in to his veins. He had to have that done 4 times as they kept coming out. It was awful, he was hysterical and it was horrible to watch him so upset.

He's home now and getting back to normal. We will have follow up appointments and tests to come and we are praying that the damage to his kidneys isnt too severe.

Happy 3rd Birthday!

From this 1 year old

To this big 3 year old!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my beautiful big grown up boy!

Soccer mum

Im trying to find some time to stitch on my nephews birth sampler. I started this over a year ago. He turns 1 on the 26th January and i really want it to be his 1st birthday present. It was supposed to be his birth present! I am so nearly finished, look!

Tomorrow Caleb starts Football lessons. Signing him up for this was my first experience of the dog eat dog world of motherhood lol You had to go to the sports centre when it re-opened on the 28th December and queue to sign your kid up. There were 20 places. I arrived at 10am only to find the damn sports centre didn't open 'til 1pm and i had plans that afternoon. So, my mum went for me! She arrived at 1.05pm to find 6 mothers in the queue already. Caleb got a place and has 12 weeks of classes ahead and then we shall queue again to try and get a place on the next block (if he enjoys it). Crazy eh? He's excited, he has boundless energy and is obsessed with "fast running" at the moment. "Fast running" with a ball is his dream come true so this will suit him perfectly!

As we enter the world of Statutory Maternity Pay i am trying to be more organised with food buying. I am actually planning meals. I might publish to my blog each week, not for interesting reading but simply for my own motivation and to keep track of what we've had. This week i planned for us and for Caleb:

Monday- Chicken Casserole and rice / chicken nuggets and rice
Tuesday - Fish cakes, potatoes and vegetables / fish fingers, potatoes and vegetables
Wednesday - my mum shall provide
Thursday - Tomato and Cheese Pasta Bake
Friday - Beef Casserole and rice

I am not planning the weekends!

Tomorrow is also Caleb's 3rd Birthday party; a joint party with his friend Eve. We have a sports centre booked for a bouncy castle and soft play party. 20 kids. That should be great for the tinnitus!