Friday, May 11, 2007

Catching up.

The news is out ;) So thrilled to be a part of this. Will have some yummies to show off soon.



In the mean time here's another one for Scrapware. I coated the Pirate and skull with crackle medium, then painted with Making Memories Manilla pain. A bit of treasure map paper (Rusty Pickle?), and some flowers and jewels to soften. I've had these photos in my little "to be scrapped" idea book for a while. The original idea came from a Pencil Lines sketch, but didn't really end up much like the original sketch in the end. It all came together easily, and I'm really happy with it now.







Remember the piggy bickies. I know quite a few of you have made them now. Yum. How funny is that little bicky pig. He's made of felt, beads, a button, and some photo corners. Just playing, can you tell? LOL. Also a good excuse to use pink. Dont see a lot of pink in my albums.
















Just waiting on some dimensional magic to dry and I have another for Scrapware to share - then I'm on to the Crafty Matters one.

BRETT UPDATE: Almost back to normal as far as the swelling goes. Had the last jab today. Still lots of oral antibiotics to go, and another x-ray tomorrow. The specialist called today to see how he was going, which I thought was nice. He still had today off work, which was great. He wanted to take the boys to school/childcare, and pick them up too. He went to pick Liam up early, so he could sit in and watch him do his show and tell. Friday is his day for show and tell. It's great that they do it in his class. It's so good for their confidence to stand up and speak to the class, and they just love to do it. It's such a fantastic program, so nurturing. He's also doing really well with his speech. He's finished with SH, and has now moved on to S, and is doing well. It's great that his speech should be totally worked out by next year when he starts prep.

And on that: amongst all the happenings this week, we had the prep information night at the school we are looking at for next year. It's the same night I went to last year, but last year as I sat there I felt my heart racing, I wanted to cry, and just felt so unprepared. (a little history for those who don't know) I sat there the entire time last year thinking "he's not ready for this!", but feeling so confused, becasue the principal kept saying "you'll all thing these kids are so much bigger than yours, and your kids are not ready for this", so then I tried to tell myself that it wasn't him, it was me who was not ready for it. But the alarm bells didn't stop going off. A few days later I had the chance to speak to his kinder teacher, and she agreed with me that she didn't think he was ready either. I was glad. In my heart I knew she was right. We looked into repeating kinder (preschool) again, then I discovered Leap into Learning. It's a prep class at a school, fairly local, but the program is de-emphasised on accedemic learning, and increased emphasis on social skills. Although it's a prep class, it's called Leap, because it's designed that the children will go on to Prep next year, and they don't want them to feel like they are repeating. Leap is also more 'babied' than prep. The leap teacher stays with her class at all times, appart from when they are at specialist classes (library, art, music, sport etc). She stays with them in the playground, and they have their play times earlier than the rest of the school. They then come inside, and the rest of the school go out. It's designed for kids who either didn't get funding to do a second year of kinder, or who are just not quite ready to go to school. Sometimes it's becasue they are young, and sometimes, like Liam it's because they are shy, quiet and just a little immature. I really love the program and the school and can't recomend it highly enough. If anyone wants more info on it, email me or leave me a comment. There are only two schools in victoria that do it. Were were lucky that one is within 5 minutes drive (... well make that 20 minutes at school times!) Anyway - although I do love the school, we are pretty sure he will leave there at the end of the year, and move to the original school we had planned. It's a big jump in numbers though. His current school has 240 kids, the other has 600. But we can walk to the original, and as he gets older he can ride. His friends will most likely live locally to us. And I guess as long as the class numbers are not large, it doesn't really matter that the school total number is. So, back to the prep night. This time I sat there very relaxed, not freaked out at all, and *knowing* he IS ready for this, and he will not only cope with it, but I believe he'll love it too. I'm glad we made the choices we did, and I still think I'll put Ethan through Leap too. I was planning on holding him back a year, as he's an early birthday (and a boy), but now I think I'll put him through kinder the right year, and then through leap. But we'll wait and see how he goes with kinder first.

And (lots to catch up on this week) it all happens at once around here. In the midst of all my running around this week, I spent Monday morning with Liam's class leading them through a mothers day card. I had fun. It was one of those things I had always wanted to do, and one of the reasons I wanted to be home when my kids were at school. So I could be involved with things like that. Ethan came along too, and played in the home corner the whole time, sat with the big kids for fruit break, then we all went outside for recess before Ethan and I came home. Liam loved having us there too :) I ran out the door to take Liam to school on Wednesday morning, only to discover my car had a flat. Luckily Brett was home, so I left Ethan with him (didn't have to swap the car seat over) and took his car. He felt too crappy to change it, so we called RACV. I think it's probably the second time in about 9 years we've ever called them. Thursday morning I ran out the door, to discover the crows had got into the bin and there was rubbish everywhere. Then today... Ethan's paperwork arrived for his operation. He's going in on Friday 25th. Ohhhhh getting nervous, but trying not to think about it.

And one last thing for yesterday ... it was Hannah's first birthday! Her party is tomorrow.
OK WARNING!!! Pics of Brett below. If you don't want to see, don't scroll down anymore.
What he should look like.
This is Wednesday morning. About 24 hours after the original little niggle in his tooth. Would you tell this man to go home and take his tablets he's just started, and which still have at least another 24 hours before they start working? Frankston Hopsital Triage thought that was the best idea. I think Frankston Hospital Triage's job, is just to get rid of an many people as she can!

4 comments:

Megan said...

Holy moly he looks like a totally different person. I still can't believe the hospital sent you guys home. That is so poor.
Hope your doing better Brett and loving the LOs as always Katie - congrats on the Crafy Matters stuff!!

Jess said...

Poor Brett - he looks terrible! Glad it's on the improve now.

Love the layouts - I have that skull and Pirate word and I really must pull out my photos of the boys dressed up to use them.

Congrats on Crafty Matters! Sarah is very clever to snap you up for that!

And finally - I completely understand where you are coming from with the school thing. I agonised over what Ethan should do this year and I am SO GLAD that I gave him another year of kinder. His confidence has soared, his concentration span has improved out of sight and his social skills are much more advanced. Like you, I'm going to face it all again with Angus, but this time there will be no hesitation if I'm not completely confident that he's ready for school. I wish we had a LEAP programme here, because it really does sound like the best of both worlds. The closest thing we have is a pre-prep class at a private school which costs several thousand dollars in fees!

Jess

Yvette Adams said...

Oh my goodness! I just saw the photos of Brett. Can't believe it's the same guy! Poor guy. :(

Maree said...

Good Grief!!! Poor Brett. I hope he's feeling better now. Having been through the whole Frankston Hospital scenario years ago when I lived in Langwarrin I can understand your enthusiasm about their care..... Seems not much has changed. All the best to you guys.