Poor Chicken

Yesterday saw a trip to the doctors for little Katy who has a rather nasty sounding cough and a little bit of a snotty nose (but what kid doesn't have a runny nose this time of year??). Doctor gave her the once over, wasn't really interested in her cough and declared that she has ear infections in BOTH ears!! I was a little surprised seeing though she has no other symptoms (fever, lethargy..) Now she is on antibiotics for the next week which will hopefully clear up things.

Library

Recently we have been combining our coles shop with a visit to the library. Last week with her Winnie the Pooh library bag in hand Ella happily chose a selection books. This week Ella was a little more clued in with what she wanted to read. These included stories with puppies, kittens and frogs. As I was searching through the shelves for these requests Ella would spot a book exclaiming 'Ducks, I like ducks!' or 'Rabbits, I like rabbits!' We came home with 10 library books - 9 for Ella and 1 for Katy. As I signed Katy up, I was informed that the amount of books you can borrow is unlimited as well as kids don't get charged for overdue books. Now when I was a little girl I recall being only allowed to borrow 5 fiction and 2 non-fiction (or something like that). How times are changing...

Aston Cres = Fairyland

We're not really into gender stereotypes, and we've tried our best to avoid pressing Ella into girly things -- unfortunately it seems that the pink-fairy-princess-witch obsession is inbuilt into the female gender. Or else they get it from daycare.

Either way, you'll all be pleased to know that Daddy's day at home today was dominated by fairy wands. For other fathers out there, the recipe is as follows. Collect two straight-ish sticks from the garden (a large on for the large girl, a small one for the other). Cover in alfoil. Cut out 2 cardboard stars (large & small). Cover in alfoil. Add pink stickers. Sticky tape stars to end of wands. Spend rest of day ensuring nobody pokes anybody else's eyes out ....

Our big Kanooka

Today, Ella became a Kanooka. That may not mean anything to most of you, but for Ella it is a big deal. Kanookas is the pre-school room in our childcare centre. Moving from Sundews (her old room) to Kanookas means she plays with bigger children, gets more interesting toys, and is required to be a bit more independent. For example, Kanookas bring their own water bottle in rather than using a standard issue one; and Ella was so proud she carried it around all day.

We arrived in the morning and Ella ran inside to start her big day. Soon after entering the room, one of the older girls came up to Ella and said "Hello, little baby. What's your name, little baby?" Oh dear, I thought. Ella didn't seem to notice. I left her to it and returned 7 hours later to find Ella and her friends throwing her special personalised water bottle at the ceiling and all trying to jump out of the way before it sconed them on the head.

All good fun, but Kanookas is a bit more tiring than Sundews. most of the evening was spent in complete meltdown, and Nat packed her off to bed half an hour early. Looking forward to tomorrow ....

Deja vu

I had noticed a lump on Pippa's left chest over her ribs and decided that it was time to get it investigated. The lump had been there since Easter and although Pippa wasn't bothered by it, I thought it was slowly increasing in size. A visit to the vet on Thursday revealed that surgery was necessary to remove the 'suspicious' lump. Thus it was a feeling of deja vu as we dropped Pippa off to the vet on Friday.

Nearly 7 years ago, our 10 year old border collie Meg went in for the same surgery. The lump on the front of her chest was removed however Meg never recovered from the anesthetic and passed away on the operating table. An autopsy later showed an enlarged liver presumably from cancer which was unable to cope with the anesthetic drugs.

So Friday for us was a nerve racking day. We found out at 3.30pm that surgery went well, Pippa was slowly waking up and we could collect her at 5.30pm. All day I was debating whether to send the specimen off to be analysed so we knew what we were up against not that it would really change the treatment plan.

I am happy to say that this story does have a happy ending. We spoke to the vet who said the surgery had gone well. The lump was unusual but not suspicious. It appeared to be an abscess presumably from a grass seed although the said grass seed couldn't be found. Minutes later an excited Pippa came out to greet us. She has a large shaved patch, a few stitches from the operation and is a little sore but generally back to her normal self. Today she was running around the backyard barking at birds as well as standing at the front window assessing the comings and goings along the street. Looks like Pippa still has a few good years in her yet.

New Beginnings

Katy's noises are turning into words! Her vocab so far includes dada, muma, puppa (pippa), la (ella) and tata (bye). As for the walking front still a long way to go although Katy did walk pushing the dolls pram with help for a few steps. Her main hinderance is big sister Ella who loves to pick up Katy and take her everywhere. Scarily the other day I found Katy sitting on the couch after Ella had put her up there!

Another first for Katy was on Sunday when her temperature reached 38.5C which meant no childcare for Monday so Andy had to have a work at home day with her. She still hasn't recovered fully from her cold which has now progressed to a cough as well as to Andy and myself!

Brmm Brmm Katy!

Ella rediscovered her little ride on truck from its storage place in the cupboard yesterday. Next thing I know Katy is being pushed around on it by Ella! I was a little paranoid at first thinking Ella was going to push to quickly resulting in Katy falling off. However after hovering and emphasising the word 'careful' to Ella for several minutes I decided that it would be ok to leave them to it. Amazing there were no tears.

Ella decided that every so often it was her turn and would take Katy off the truck. Katy did her best to push Ella which was quite hard seeing though Katy insisted on crawling. The main danger I then discovered was when Ella decided to 'help' Katy push by propelling herself forward with her feet while Katy was kneeling and

holding onto the back of the truck. This turned into an exercise for Katy to avoid face planting! Again after stressing to Ella the consequences of her pushing herself and the potential for hurting Katy I left them to it. Double amazingly there were still no tears!!

So off I went into the kitchen to clean up. A short time later the two girls came back. I turned expecting to see Katy on the truck with Ella pushing but what I saw was Katy in Ella's dolly pram and Ella pushing! Oh dear I think Ella thinks that Katy is her real life baby!

Magic Carpet Rides

Nat is at a conference for most of the weekend, leaving me to hold the fort at home for two days in a row. And the mid-winter temperatures means that I can't just turf the kids into the back garden to entertain themselves. So we've kept ourselves occupied with bike rides to jammo; coffee with jase, abby & zoe; eating; cooking; playing jumpies on the couch and ... magic carpet rides.

A magic carpet ride involves putting Katy onto a sheet or blanket, perhaps with a few toys to keep her company, and pulling her around until she falls off. Then Katy is placed (gently or otherwise) back on the blanket and we start again. Good fun for all, and affords me valuable newspaper-reading time.