Speech stuff

Monday I have an appointment with a speechy at Liam's school. That's great news as I was worried (as I am sure I have mentioned) about how they prioritise the kids. In schools they take the worst kids first - those needing the greatest amount of assistance with their speech. As we've worked hard on Liam's speech for the past year now, he has improved A LOT! He's now about 80% done with it. Only has a few blends to learn, and it's just a case of those sounds he knows becomming habbit. But, I was concerned that because he has come so far, his assessments would show up as not needing so much help, and therefore, putting him as a low priority, and he'd never actually complete his speech therapy, and all the hard work he has put in so far would be forgotten. Anyway, I'll know more on Monday, but it looks good so far. His last speechy did put his papers through as a high priority, because he has a tendency for disfluency, and a predisposition to stuttering. Although since kinder finished up, he has not shown any disfluency, even since starting school.

Tomorrow I'm scrapping with the Scrap Pile girls :) Yet to pack or organise anything, and still have to work out directions.

Then next weekend is the Scrapanalia retreat! Wanted to mention to anyone doing my class: The layout is a 12x12 and Jess has mentioned that you will need a 7x5 photo. Anyone wanting to adapt the page to an 8.5x11, a 6x4 photo will be perfect.

OK off to have dinner with the famiy :)

Surgeon's visit

The surgeons visit went well. Well if you ignore the fact that I called a few hours before our appointment to confirm my time, and the location of his office. I picked up Ethan early from daycare, and drove to Frankston. Arrived at the office to find Ethan had fallen asleep. Found a shady carpark, set up the pram, transfered Ethan into it, got into the office... only to be told his offices are not here today, he's at the hospital! and... "they should have told you that" Grrrr. Started to put Ethan back in the car, and was thinking about how hard it was going to be to get a carpark at the hospital, and decided to put him back in the pram and just walk there... despite the heat. So, once we finally made it it all went well. He actually slept through the majority of the poking and prodding. It will be done under general anasthetic, but will be day surgery. The surgeon told me he does about 10 of these a week! That's a lot of kids huh. It won't be done for a few weeks, but it's not urgent so that's fine. I'll let you all know when he does go in. One think I did want to record (which he will hate me doing when he's older) is that when he was born he had 'fluid in his scrotum'. Not sure if that means blood, or just fluid? But we were told it was because a muscle at the top of his scrotum wasn't closed, and they would keep an eye on it and it should fix itself. At each health centre appointment I asked about it, and was eventually told it was fine now. But... I now find out it wasn't actually fine. As Mr S (surgeon) put it, "it didn't get better, it got bigger and now his bowel fits through it". It's not something anyone could have done anything about anyway, except surgery. It's a fault, a weakness, in the muscle that he was born with.

I've been putting the boys to bed earlier, as I have mentioned, but Liam is not tired. He'll stay in his room and read books, sometimes I find the room a little moved around, but I figure it's one of those times when you pick your battles. I can't make him feel tired, or want to go to bed, and he stays in his room quietly. He doesn't wake up Ethan, and no one else would even know he's awake and he's not making a huge mess so why fuss. Anyway, last night I put him to bed, and came up to the study to do some work. About an hour later he appeared at my side and told me he needed the vacuum. I did wonder what huge mess he'd been making if he needed that, and went to investigate. Only to find his room spotless, everything put away, but there were some little bits and pieces (paper, small pieces of playdough etc) on the floor, and he needed to clean them up so the house fairy would come. Had to giggle. Gave him the broom instead, so he didn't wake Ethan ;) How could the house fairy not visit after that huh. (that also lead to an early and excited morning wakeup call!)

Ethan also said two new words yesterday. Shovel (shubel) and Leslie (Eslie) He has lots of words in his vocab now, and many sentences too.

First day run down.

The first of MANY school lunches! Over the holidays I did quite a bit of baking and stacked the freezer full on mini muffins and little treats. Today he had hedgehog naughts and crosses... or hugs and kisses. I just made up the hedgehog recipe, but processed up the bicky crumbs quite fine, and instead of setting it in a slice tin, used some Ikea ice trays instead. That's his little treat to eat after his sandwich, grapes and yoghurt. It all packed together, along with some icepacks and bottle of water, into his Spiderman insulated lunch bag.













I was up early, and got ready before waking him. As he ate his breaky I gathered up his uniform and put it out for him. Usually I have to nag and nag, for him to get dressed, but this morning, I turned around and there he was. All dressed in his uniform. Looking very proud, and very old! As the time came to head to the car, he could not control the excitement! I tried to get him to stand still for the compolsary first day of school photo, but he just kept bouncing around. I did my best ;)



















We picked up Brett on the way, and on our arrival at school located his locker. He got a scooter on his picture, which he thinks is pretty cool.














Into his classroom. He was greeted by his teacher Monica, and although he clung pretty close to my leg for the first few minutes we soon found an activity he wanted to try. I felt right at home too, as almost everyone had their cameras out.














Ethan wanted to join in too. I think he'd like to go to school right now!



















When the time came for us to leave... about 10-15 minutes after we arrived, he happily said goodbye to us. I dropped Brett back at work, did some grocery shopping and headed back to pick him up. He was very happy to see me, but as we made our way back through the playground to the carpark he said "mummy?"
"yes"
"I didn't want you to come and get me yet!"

I guess that's a good sign that he likes school. He had also been asking to have a sleepover at nanny and poppy's and we told him sleep overs have to be on Friday or Saturday nights now. Friday afternoon, after school we headed home. Poppy came over to pick him up. I was helping him pack his bag and he said, "I have to pack my school uniform!" He was quite disapointed that there is no school on Saturdays or Sundays. He's also VERY impressed that he can tell Aidan that he goes to big school. "One day Aidan, when you are big like me, you'll be able to go to big school too. For now, you have to go to kinder". LOL, there is only 6mths between them, but they are different sides of the cutoff. Because we have held Liam back though, to do pre-prep this year, they will actually be in the same year level as of next year.

For the first week (Thurs and Fri only) hours were 9.30-12.30, and also for the following week (this week). Next week we start full days :) Bring on next Friday! I'll be child free from 9-3! Whoooo Hoooooooo! Really, I do love them... but wow, what a treat!