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.

6 months today!

Well this little boy is 6 months old today! He has started solids, has 2 teeth, is so smiley and we love him to bits! Its amazing how much development there is in the first year of life. Happy half Birthday Aaron!

We were away over Easter. We spent a few days with good friends in a lovely house in Wootton Bassett. 14 adults and 8 children! Normally its just us ladies that meet up for weekends away so it was lovely to have a family weekend this time and let the kids all get to know each other!

My friend organised lots of fun activities for the kids; den building, bonfire building, a scavenger hunt, an easter egg hunt. It was great! 

All that outdoor living has put us in a more outdoorsy mood and when we got home we went and bought a Chiminea so we could have some mini bonfires in our back garden. Caleb and DH had good fun collecting and chopping wood from the forest behind our house. 

Just a few days of the Easter holidays left now before the nursery school runs start again. Its been a good Easter!

Gardening

Having lived in a flat since we got married and only having communal gardens maintained by gardeners, ive never really been interested in gardening. Now i have my house though, with front and back garden, i cant wait to get gardening. I have plans (in my head)! Pinterest's good for that!

I started off small this week, just potted a few tubs of pansies to pretty up the place! Im quite proud of my efforts. Aaron sat in his highchair whilst i worked away. I had a great time. Im not going to take photos of my tubs (yet), the neighbours will think im crazy.

I want a raised vegetable bed, some small trees and bushes, pretty flowering plants around the edges....ooooh the possibilities......one day, one day! I have a lot to learn yet.

Speaking of neighbours, the sun being out has been great for meeting people at long last. This street is going to be great for the kids. I met a lovely lady a few houses up who has 3 boys, one of whom will be in Caleb's class at school. In fact, already on our street alone, Caleb will have 4 classmates. Lovely! It's just like where i grew up. My sister and I spent hours outside playing with all our neighbourhood friends and i have such great memories! I love that our boys are going to have that too! Im so thankful for our new house.

Mother's Day pictures

My boys on Mother's Day!

My Gran with Aaron on Mother's Day weekend

Mother's Day was a perfect blue sky sunny day. I got  some flowers (and a voucher when he realised the flowers weren't gonna cut it), breakfast in bed and time to go for a nice 20minute run. Yay! We had lunch out with the family. Nice day.

It was lovely to celebrate Mother's Day with Gran, who wasn't doing very well a few months ago. I love this picture!

Amy Farrah Fowler

Im so into The Big Bang theory right now.

I cant believe Amy Farrah Fowler (or her real name, Mayim Bialik) actually has a  phd in neuroscience in real life AND shes written a book about attachment parenting. 

It was only on reading this article that i realised she is that Blossom girl and the kid in Beaches.

Everyday's a school day.....

Getting Together for IWD

Seeing as this is a stitching blog, i will post my new start first. Apologies for the blurry picture. This is the piece i have chosen to stitch for Aaron and behind it, my start. I'm lucky if i stitch for even 10minutes a day at the moment so this chart is ideal, nice and simple and i rarely have to look at the chart

This week i held a mini fundraiser to support Oxfam's Get Together Event for International Womens Day. It was simply a tea and cake party in my home for a small group of friends, who bring a donation for Oxfam. With the issues that have been going on with work recently i've been thinking a lot about Women's rights and  the blatant inequalities that still exist in society. However, our country has it good compared with others. Do you know...
  
"There are around 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty worldwide; more than two-thirds of them are women and girls. Statistics like these reflect the bleak reality of life for millions of women in the developing world. All of Oxfam's projects have gender equality at their heart, ensuring women overcome the discrimination they face, and secure their basic rights." 

Just by having a few friends over, we raised nearly £50!

Our days/weeks have been busy recently; our usual commitments, lots of playdates for the kids, sorting out my redundancy, hospital appointments for my ear, Aarons eczema, injections..... and so the days are flying by!

31 today!

Yikes, im officially over 30! Today is my 31st birthday.

Im very thankful for my life; my husband, my 2 gorgeous boys, our beautiful home, my family, my oldest friends, my new mummy friends.

We're off to Tony Romas for a birthday lunch.

p.s. I got a hearing aid yesterday. A sure way to make you feel old.