28 October 2007

Sunny days chasing the clouds away....





 

This week's title is, of course, taken from the tune of the Sesame Street song, but feels appropriate. We've had some lovely weather this week and have been able to get out in the gardens most evenings to water our precious plants.

Noah seems to have really enjoyed his first week back in full-time daycare and has been very happy and settled each night when we've picked him up. His wound continues to heal slowly, at times this week it has looked rather nasty but we think this is just as a result of the wound trying to form a scab and heal which when you consider that he is always on the go and it doesn't get much air-time it is hardly surprising that it is taking such a long time. We're keeping a close eye on it but are encouraged by the fact he doesn't seem in any pain or discomfort with it for now.

This weekend was kicked off by a fantastic breakfast at the Maranui Surf Cafe in Lyall Bay with our friends Guy and Shannon who were treating themselves to the weekend off from all the preparations for opening their new furniture store. The food was fantastic, the company great and Noah was in his element watching all the planes take off (as it was a roaring southerly). That's twice in two weekends we have managed to find great venues for breakfast AND plane spotting all at once! Then it was off to the Warehouse where we finally managed to find a plastic clamshell sandpit as we have been after one for a while...now we just have to find some sand! We spent the rest of the day hanging out at home together doing painting..which was fun if a little messy so the bathroom is definitely the best venue, and other household chores.









I then went out to a friend's hens night which included a pole dancing lesson of all things! It was actually great fun if a little hard on the muscles (as I ache in my shoulders and arms something chronic today!).

Today we went to a dedication for our friend Marissa and Keryn's son Magnus. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon out in Plimmerton and their house has fantastic views towards Mana Island and the South Island, it was just lovely to be part of their special day. Noah amused himself quite well independently for most of the time, going off on his own for short bouts of time, playing with various toys and wandering round the garden. We also noticed today that when he was playing with his blocks he was trying to put one interlocking block on top of the other so is showing real signs of learning and developing with his play.

After a frustrating weekend where our wireless router appears to have died and I spent a fair bit of time trying to fix it and locate the source of the problem, we're now back to the good old days of plugging in a network cable and have taken the router in for repair, let's hope it gets fixed quickly as not having the wireless connection is a tad inconvenient.

The shot of this week has to be the photo of Noah tasting his first Nutella sandwich....classic!


22 October 2007

A lovely long weekend

Well we've just enjoyed NZ's first long weekend since June, and were blessed with some lovely weather to boot (which after the wind and rain we've had recently was a nice change). But more on the weekend later....

This week has seen Noah bounce back remarkably well from his operation. Monday was his last day with nanny Michelle, and then I took the day off on Tuesday to pick up Mum from the airport and we spent a nice afternoon reacquainting Nana and Noah.

Then it was Nana daycare Wed - Fri and by all accounts a lovely time was had by both. Noah enjoyed lots of book reading, cuddles, playing with Murphy, spying the wind turbine from various windows and chilling out watching Baby Einstein DVDs - all of which has aided his recovery no end. We have also noticed how many new words Noah is trying to say, tractor - 'takta', spider - 'pieda', cheese - 'shees' and doing the sign for milk whilst saying 'mmmuhh' and wanting to knock on things whilst saying 'noh noh'. Too cute and nice for Nana to hear them first hand too.



  


On Saturday morning, the four of us went to Chocolate Frog for brunch and the seat we chose just happened to have a fantastic view of ALL the planes taking off from the airport. Noah was in seventh heaven every few minutes when one flew right past the window.

Strangely, he had thrown up in the night which usually signals him needing to get something out of his system, and as it turned out it sparked a sudden change in his eating, as he had been incredibly fussy with his food for the past few weeks. However, Saturday morning it was like he had a new lease of life after getting rid of whatever was in his system, and he proceeded to eat like a horse all Saturday and in fact has been much more the Noah of old for the rest of the weekend! Yay. You could have knocked me down with a feather that this included a packet of raisins on Saturday afternoon, and then 2 whole bananas and 2 packets of dried apricots/apples over the course of the weekend. For a boy who doesn't eat fruit it was somewhat of a breakthrough! Small steps...

After dropping Mum back at the airport on Saturday night, I enjoyed a girl's dinner out with my girlfriends from lifegroup at One Red Dog. As well as a general catchup with the other girls, it was a lovely chance to see Vinnie who I hadn't seen since Christmas and who was just down for a few days from Tauranga. Noah and I went to church together on Sunday morning, dropped Vinnie at the airport, did some gardening, and then caught up with Tracey & Dayne & kids for afternoon tea before Mark then popped out to watch Wellington Phoenix play football at the stadium.

Today we hung out together at the park this morning when it was bitterly cold as a brief southerly blew through, and then this afternoon we took advantage of a gorgeous sunny afternoon, planting some Italian & cherry tomato plants and rocket lettuce in the garden (to help fulfil Mark's dream of becoming Jamie Oliver down under!) Noah loved 'helping' with his plastic trowel getting stuck into whatever dirt he could find whilst we endeavoured to keep one step ahead of him, popping the seedlings into the garden and pots for growing. We're hoping seeing them grow will encourage Noah's interest in eating vegetables too. Now if we can just keep that pesky cat Murphy from digging around the new seedlings we'll be doing well...it's certainly not for lack of staking all the freshly dug areas that's for sure.

Unfortunately we have been a bit slack with the camera this week (we didn't even manage a photo of Nana and Noah together which was very remiss of us), and today when we remembered to take some photos the batteries ran out... so all we have to show for our efforts are a couple from our expedition to the park and a few shots of what the garden is looking like.. oh well it is something different for a change!


 


 


Tomorrow Noah starts daycare full-time, and hasn't that come around nice and quickly!

14 October 2007

Our brave wee man

Well we are through and out the other side of Noah's operation day...and to be honest as a parent you question why given the choice would you put your child through an operation like this!! Of course you do as it is for the 'greater good' but the trauma isn't easy on child or parents.

Firstly, on Thursday (a day before the op) Meghan recieved a call that Noah's operation time had been bought forward to 8am. This was great news, as it meant we didn't need to worry about starving him during the morning, but instead could take him straight to the hospital.

We got to hospital at 7.30am, but unfortunately the operation had been delayed for a few hours due to a another baby needing more urgent treatment (this included a specialist surgeon flying up from Chirstchurch to perform the procedure). Noah was magic....he didn't complain once about not having his 7am bottle of milk or weetbix, but instead amused himself and kept our minds off the job in hand. The 2 hour delay turned into 3 hours and luckily Noah decided a sleep was in order, so when we got the call from the anaesthetist he was still fast asleep and needed to be woken up. Meghan had the horrible task of being with him until the final moment as he went under, and returned to me a little tearful.



 

The longest 45 minutes of our lives past and we had the call to go and get him....you've never seen two parents move so quickly!!! We met him in the recovery room and all he wanted was George (the monkey) and Mum....both were there to give him the love he needed. A few bubbles later (long story, but one of the theatre staff had some bubbles!!) we hopped on the bed and had an orderly take us back down to our room, where we had to wait for a minimum of two hours and a wee wee from Noah!!

As expected, Noah drank and drank and drank (and slept), but no wee for four hours!! This meant our day at Wellington hospital was a very, very long one, and one we will want to forget in a hurry!!

He was very sore when we got home, and managed a few half hearted smiles (and a flex of the muscles....one of the new things he likes to do) but a quick shower, a bottle and some drugs saw him sleep for a full 12 and a 1/2 hours.....what a boy!! Must have been something his little body needed.

Saturday was a very relaxed day, although we took him shopping and then in the afternoon out to Lower Hutt to the shopping Mall. We managed to keep him busy and stationary, as the position in his stroller seemed to suit his bruising etc. He even started walking in the afternoon....no mean feat if you see the size of his scrotum and how black and blue it actually is, but Noah is Noah and nothing was keeping him down. However, most of his time at home was sitting/lying on his 'Bob the builder' couch/bed, probably the most comfortable position for him. Mum and Dad tended to him with toys and food/drink.


 


 

Another 11 hours of sleep, and Sunday morning was a little different. A lot sorer and a little more agitated unfortunately, but none the less a smile, laugh and flex of the muscles saw Noah help Daddy cheer on England to the final of the world cup!!! (get in there my son....) He didn't want to eat or drink for most of the day, which was really hard work. At times I think it made me and Meghan lose sight of what he has actually been through over the last 48 hours, as we were complaining about how fussy he has become with his food, when really we should realise that his body will take time to heal/recover and when he is hungry, he will let us know. He couldn't stop wanting to walk around the house, helping both Mum and Dad with various cleaning activities, but you could see he was pushing himself a little too far sometimes!!

What a trooper we have, and we are both praying that he continues his recovery over the next week and somewhere along the way finds his appetite as well.....


 

07 October 2007

Wild wild weather

The weather this weekend has been odd to say the least. As you will see from all our photos, it was a pretty sunny day Saturday (if a little windy as it has been all week) and we were able to get out and about to do the shopping, enjoy a spot of brunch - bacon, banana and maple syrup pancakes at Eva Dixon cafe in Miramar.



 


Then we parked up near the runway to do a bit of plane spotting for the wee man (which he loved and not quite so frightened of the big 737s taking off this time as the spot we had was further down the runway and they came past already in the air).





In the afternoon, we got Noah out into his paddling pool for a brief play, although he was more interested in spotting planes flying over the house as you can see from the picture!




We then took a long walk down to Thorndon to check out our friends' new warehouse where they will be opening an exotic furniture business in the next couple of months. Then it was home via the duckpond and the playground (a must-see stop on the way home).


 

Last night, the weather took a turn for the worse and during the night it was actually hard to sleep as the wind gusts were so severe that I actually felt the bed was shaking at points (Mark was sleeping downstairs to get up for the 2am England v Australia quarterfinal rugby match). I guess with our room being up in the roof space so to speak, its hardly surprising that when the wind blows up there, it really blows. Having said that, we felt pretty lucky moving in here that we don't really get the north-westerly wind which is prevailing but this week has been an exception, as about the last 3 nights we have endured wind gusts over 100km/h (reminiscent of our wedding day!).

Add to the wind a pretty violent thunderstorm for about an hour this evening with about 30 lightning flashes and thunder claps (a couple almost overhead), and torrential rain, and there you have the weather... wild and weird! We're just hoping that our supposedly mended roof will hold up to the onslaught.

This week we have Noah's operation on Friday to get through which will be our utmost priority, it is bound to be a pretty difficult day for us all so we will be praying for God's protection on us as a family and in particular for Noah to recover quickly from the procedure.



This weekend Noah has started to try and walk and carry around multiple things at once, i.e. always one George, his little plane and a big bouncy ball if he can manage them all. It is quite hilarious that he thinks he can manage them all but he won't put any of them down..oh no. He has also started standing up without having to use anything for support, i.e. just puts his bum in the air and pushes off with his hands which is pretty clever, hard to believe he's only been walking 4 weeks!

This last pic is just to show Noah's absolute favourite toys at the moment, he hasn't lost an ounce of his fascination with planes, helicopters and the wind turbine this week. We have to be a little bit careful of him with the metal one as it is quite sharp but he loves zooming it around the room so much that we're just making sure we monitor his play with it whilst he still has the potential to fall over relatively easily. It has been a bit of a shame that the wind turbine has been either stopped (due to the crazy wind) or not visible (due to low cloud) at various points this week, but when it has been viewable, Noah exclaims in excitement 'ra ra' translation: round and round with finger motions to accompany...it is so sweet how the simple things are a child's greatest joy.



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