Sunday Snapshot

Cousins...

Go crazy together.

Dragon and Cousin Wilbie at the park for Great-Grandmas birthday.

Spendin' my time...

I'm not sure if Sunday Snapshot will happen this week (yet again) because I've been doing other things with my time...

like gazing at little bundles of cuteness as I edit the photos I took of these two...

And their sweet big brother, of course!

It's a wonderful way to spend my time, a gift for special people.

I love that I am able to call them both family and friend!

DOUBLE DELIGHT!

THEY ARE HERE!

This morning Kate gave birth to her beautiful little twins LMW a little boy was 3kg and EJW a little girl... really little... was just scraping 2kg.  Everyone is recovering and getting over the drama that is birth (it was by caesarian-section) but the babies are healthy and we are praying they will get stronger and stronger as the days go by.  Please pray that the babies are both strong enough to get out of special care quickly and that Kate is able to move around soon so she can spend as much time with them as possible!

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him.

Psalm 127:3

Congratulations guys, we can't wait to meet them and huggle them!

Love the McTavish family.

(and there will absolutely be photos as soon as I am able to get some)

Sunday Snapshot

Totally mixing it up today... Sunday Snapshot on a MONDAY!!!  Hold on to your hats, folks, if it's starting off this crazy who knows where it'll go!

*****

Lion wrote a song this week...

*air guitar intro* Dang ga dang ga dang... "You've got three minutes..."  Dang ga dang ga dang dang dang ga dang "we need a flat piece of steel..." Dang ga dang dang dang ga dang ga dang "We're going to the junkyard to look for an engine..." Dang ga dang ga dang ga dang ga dang ga....

My boy can't get enough of Junkyard Wars... or Scrapheap Challenge... or any of those shows.

*****

"Help, there's a dinosaur drowning in my coffee!"

I made coffees yesterday, cappuccino for Wolf and I and babyccino for the boys.  The kids had the dinosaur sprinkles on their babyccinos and Wolf decided he wanted them too... sometimes it's fun to be a bit childish.

*****

I knew it would happen one day, I thought it would happen sooner than this!  Lion had a little mishap while wiping his bottom yesterday... it was hilarious... he didn't think so.  He had taken himself to the toilet and obviously was finished and wiping his butt when we hear screaming coming from the toilet and lion comes running out with one hand held as far away from him as he can get it and the other holding his shirt up "I WAS WIPING MY BUTT AND MY FINGER WENT THROUGH THE TOILET PAPER AND I'VE GOT POO ON MY FINGERS!!!!  SOMEONE TURN ON THE TAP QUICKLY!!!"

My laughter was quickly met by another scream "It's really not funny, mummy, it's soooo gross!"  yes, we have discussed that before little man.

*****

"I've got my snugly to take to bed with me" says Dragon.

*****

Sunday School started yesterday.  Dragon gets to go this year, he was VERY excited.  At the moment it looks like he is going to be the only one from his age group that is going to go.  They are allowed to go at 3 as long as they can at least try to sit and listen and participate.  Dragon is better at that than Lion so I figured we'd be okay.  Dragon was absolutely thrilled that he was allowed to go and do the craft and listen to the story and sing the songs and do whatever else they do at Sunday School, he has been waiting for so long to be allowed to go!

*****

Is it just me or do these two...

...look like they have escaped from the Village People?

*****

Today is my first day with just Monkey Man and I.  I've got to admit, I'm quite enjoying it.  I just had lunch... I got the container with the leftover chicken still on the frame out of the fridge, put it on the bench and stood there and ate some.  Kids kinda expect you to make them something for lunch, dumping a dead, cooked animal down in front of them just doesn't cut it.  Picky picky.  Monkey and I did some shopping this morning because we needed a few things and it was so lovely, just the two of us.  I can be sad that the big boys are gone, but since that isn't going to change I'm not going to feel guilty having a lovely day without them!

*****

Finally... Update on Kate... 34 weeks, blood sugar levels are good thanks to nightly insulin and babies are still growing well. Dr is unlikely to induce babies until at least 37 weeks. She would appreciate prayer for more sleep at night and a smooth transition for little Wilbie when she is in hospital.  34 weeks was the magic date to be allowed to go to the hospital that she wants to.  YAY WE MADE IT... (I say that like I had something to do with it... hehehehe).  Don't worry, I will certainly be shouting it from the blog-tops with these little sweeties are born!!!

*****

It Still Seems Like Yesterday

It's one day of the year that is special because of them...

but it's every day of the year that we think of them.

It's two little girls that we miss so much, BGW & SJW...

but it's so many children for so many families.

It's been three years since they were born straight into heaven...

and it'll be every year that we cry again and again.

Please pray today for all the families whose lives have been changed forever because of stillbirth. Please also pray for Aunty Kate, Uncle Wilbie and Little Wilbie as they remember the two little girls they lost 3 years ago today.

Please also pray that God will keep safe their two little babies due in March, growing stronger every day.

Catching up...

It's been a while since I posted... a lot has been happening... a lot hasn't been happening too. It's been like that a bit lately.

Lion hit his head on a concrete chair as he was fishing something out from under it for me. It came up in a big red spot straight away. I looked at it and gave it a kiss and said "that's a good knock you got there". He looked at me with a big pout and tears in his eyes "what's so good about it?". Poor kid, I had to explain then that I wasn't happy that he hit his head.

Lion has also taken to wearing two different shoes when he goes out. Both clogs but two different coloured ones. It started because he accidentally put on two different ones and didn't want to admit he'd done it accidentally when I picked it up. So after his initial shock when he looked down he said "yeah, I wanted it like that" and has insisted on wearing two different clogs for two days now.

We googled "farm machines" the other day and came across this blog entry with pictures of equipment in trouble. Lion saw this harvester in a pickle and starts singing "and another one's down, and another one's down, and another one bites the wheat". He's quick on the draw with things like that, I love it!

(we don't let the boys have softdrink and if we do we try to make sure it's watered down... Dragon thought this was such a special treat at Aunty Em's engagement party)

I've taken to bribing the boys with a square of chocolate for going to sleep straight away since we are going through a rough patch with that again. Today Dragon ate his square of chocolate and got it all smudgy on his right hand, I told him to go wash it off. As he was walking away I thought to add "don't use that hand to turn on the tap, use your other hand" he walks back to me and shows me his left hand questioning "this hand?" Um, yes, little Dragon. There aren't many other options really, are there?

We made rockets at playgroup this morning. They were playing with them later and were driving them around in a car... why do rockets need to go in a car?

(Wolf pulled Dragon's pants up to his armpits and Dragon decided to wave his hands in the air running around squealing "yiiiiiiiiiikes"... that's my family)

My baby Monkey is 12 weeks old now. The time has flown! A friend has a little one only two weeks old... Monkey looks like a giant compared to her. Where have those 12 weeks gone? Actually I can tell you where they have gone... 3 GP appointments, 4 Paediatrician appointments, 1 Chiropractor appointment, 1 Physio appointment, 2 blood tests, 1 urine test, and now lots of physio exercises. That's a lot for 12 short weeks, poor little bubby. Now those who have stayed reading even though I am so darn tired I never manage to comment on any of your blogs are probably going "Chiro, Physio, you haven't told us about that..." Well, that was something I was watching... I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want it to be real because I thought it was going to be a much bigger drama than it really is. His little noggin is misshapen. He is forever turning his head to look over his left shoulder. I was thinking it wasn't too bad until he started being happier sitting up and one day I looked down on his head and noticed quite a difference, his forehead was flatter on one side, the back of his head was flatter on one side, one side of his face was more rounded, all the little things together made me realised I wasn't imagining it, there really was a lot of difference... so I promptly burst into tears and blamed myself for everything and felt like the most horrible mummy on earth. The midwife at the baby clinics had suggested we try chiro for his reflux and said they could help with his head as well. She made it sound like he would just examine his head and recommend a course of action and would do some sort of massage for the reflux. He didn't, he adjusted my little baby. It freaked me out, especially when he started trying to manipulate the plates in his head and used the big punchy thing to "fix" his spine. I'm sorry if you are a chiro but I'm a bit freaked out by the whole thing, we wont be going back. I spoke the Dr J about it and she said that the connection between chiro and reflux is speculation mostly, no one is sure if it's the weeks of chiro that helps them or if it is when they would have naturally grown out of it anyway. She also said that it's his muscles that are causing the head thing so don't treat the symptom, treat the cause and got us in really quick to the paediatric physio at the main hospital here. So, it's not all that bad as far as "flattened head syndrome" goes and from the notes Dr J wrote for the physio and what the physio tested him at he had improved in the week and a half between the two appointments. We have some exercises that he doesn't seem all that fond of because he really doesn't like stretching his muscles but I am noticing he is getting less cranky each time we do them (unless he's tired of course!)

We took a road trip last Thursday with Cousin Wilbie.

Oh, and Aunty Kate and Aunty Rach. We went to Frosty Mango for the morning. 45 minutes north of here is the most brilliant ice cream shop. It's in the middle of nowhere but it's never empty. We had a lovely time together, Monkey enjoyed being spoilt by Aunty Kate and Aunty Rach (Aunty Kate has made it to 24 weeks with her little twins, please keep praying for those little babies that they will be kept safe as we wait patiently for them to arrive)

After we had our icecream we went outside for the kids to run around before the 45minute drive home.

Aunty Rach had some Monkey cuddles in the shade while the 3 boys ran around like crazy finding every patch of sensitive weed and making it close up.

I tried to get a photo of the three big ones together... it didn't work. I took nearly 30 photos. Not one good one in the lot... it wasn't even like two would be looking and one looking away, not even one looking and two looking away... they were all like this...

Three silly rat-bags pulling faces and acting the goose. Gotta love 'em.

Lion and Dragon are playing some family type game in the sandpit and are calling each other "darling" I love it when they do these games.

Sunday Snapshot

One day early. Because we all know it wont happen tomorrow.

Ahhh, gotta start the post of with a bit of sleeping sweetness!

I have managed to track down what is possibly the last box of Zoton in town, we are going out later to get it. I also got a phone call from Dr Jenny that his wee test had white cells so there is some sort of infection so we need to get a formal test done now (she just did the first one in her office) which means another "clean catch" has to be performed. At the moment I just want this all sorted out NOW. Until my sweet husband took over at 6am this morning I was running on 3 hours of broken sleep, by far our worst night yet. It's not missing the sleep that upsets me though, it is seeing my baby in so much pain and discomfort for so long. Hour after hour listening to the sounds of his stomach coming up and down and hearing his hurting little cries. I had to keep him perfectly upright or he would squeal. Eventually when I didn't think I could hold him any longer (and he squirmed too much for the sling) I remembered how my Nigerian friend does her traditional wrap and grabbed a bed sheet and wrapped him to my body. Eventually the pains went away and I was able to lay him down for a short time until his next feed then we started again. My poor baby is sleeping at the moment, not peacefully but he's sleeping. But on to other things...

Do you want to know what sort of things make me feel "home"?

The sun shining on The Pinnacles beside our house...

Um, okay...

The unmistakable outline of Mt Stuart in the other direction...

Um, I guess it's a good thing home is where you're heart is because with this dust storm coating the entire east coast of Australia most of the landmarks are kind of hard to spot at the moment! Before the dust came we were blanketed with smoke from some bush fires so it's been over a week since we've seen the sky.

This sweet little man was 2 yesterday.

The old man next to him was a bit older than that the day before. We ventured out for a Bananas in Pyjamas rager of a combined birthday party last night and we had a blast! Lots of family and a couple of friends (with their 4 day old baby girl) and PLENTY of food. Cousin Wilbie had a great night.

I know Uncle Wilbie would want me to point out what his apron says since he spent the night letting EVERYONE know... "REAL MEN MAKE TWINS!"

That's right Cousin Wilbie is going to be a big brother.... to TWINS. Please pray for these little babies as they grow and get stronger and for their family waiting to meet them. See, Cousin Wilbie has two big sisters in heaven (Yeah, okay Uncle Wilbie, real men make twins TWICE) so there's prayers a plenty and Kate is on rest from 20 weeks (soon). Cousin Wilbie loves to tell people that there's a baby in mummy's tummy, and then let them know that there's TWO!

So how do you know that Cousin Wilbie is related to my boys???

THEY'VE GOT THE SAME CHAINSAW!

What? How do you cut a cake?

Now I have a for real question for all you helpful people... How do you store your craft stuff? Mostly your kids craft stuff. We have bits and pieces everywhere, some in with mine, some in their wardrobe, some in a set of file draw things, its chaotic and we need to do something about it so I'm after ideas. Please help!

Cousin Wilbie

Little Cousin Wilbie has had his operation. He should be home by now and recovering with lots of kisses and cuddles. The doctor did some little repairs and it will hopefully fix things for him.

Peach Blossom Update

Dear Mr Braxton Hicks,

They are not painless and you'd better be thankful I can't get to you (mostly because you're dead) because I'm sick of these stupid things already (it's been about a day but I still have WEEKS left).





I know I shouldn't blame you because something has your name but REALLY, I'm pretty sure you had a hand in naming them, WHY would you name something that women don't like after yourself? Now if you had discovered something good then sure, name if after yourself so that women like you by association. But instead you strike fear into the wombs of first time mums, you just annoy other pregnant women as they try to go about their business with their lady bits running off and doing their own thing and you just make me cranky. "Usually painless", bah humbug, I've never had a painless one yet.





Contorted in discomfort,


Mummy McTavish

************

In other pregnancy news... Nothing has changed except my girth. 25 weeks tomorrow. Next OB appointment is on Friday and he'll send me for my icky glucose test and some other blood work then. 5 weeks till I have my pre-admission appointment at the hospital where we do the birth plan. Mine is pretty straightforward... "I come in, you chop me open, you take my baby out and you give it back to me all cleaned up." I need to get a tour of the new hospital though so I'll book that then and I'll get my first Bounty Bag of freebies :) My leg cramps have gone for now which is nice, with the other two bubs from about 20 weeks I was having about 300ml of tonic water each night before bed or I would wake up with every muscle from my toes to my armpits contorted and tangled in pain. I had about a week and a half of that and it seems to have gone for a bit YAY.





We are getting LOTS of kicks, Peach Blossom is very particular about how I should sleep and sit and stand and how much I should eat and insists that I go to the toilet every 30seconds or it'll give me a big old belt in the bladder. It's just as active as Lion and Dragon were at this point so I'm expecting another little carbon copy when we meet this one.





I am starting to prepare my mind for another reflux baby, I have no reason to believe this one will be free from it. I am trying to remember everything we did so that I can put it into place BEFORE we have a problem instead of being in tears and thinking "oh, that's right, such and such worked last time". I have decided I will speak to the pediatrician while I am still in hospital instead of ringing her in tears 3 weeks in to tell her I can't make it to the 6 week appointment and neither can my sweet little baby. I will find out what course of action we will take while I am still in the hospital and just pray that we will have a reflux free baby and never have to use our action plan. I DO NOT want to medicate again and I think what we learnt with Lion meant that Dragon managed with over the counter stuff instead of the prescription medicine like my poor Lion had to deal with. So we will now have 2 babies worth of knowledge plus what Chimera learnt with Little Bear to put into action to keep this one free from reflux. I really don't want to watch another of my babies go through such horrible discomfort again.

*************

On another note...


Cousin Wilbie has to go into hospital for an operation on Monday. Something is wrong and has been for a while and it could be something simple to fix but it could be something trickier and nastier. They have done all the tests and now the only way to know for sure is to go and have a look. It's "only" day surgery but still more than a 1 year old needs. Please pray that it is all taken care of on Monday and he will have no lasting problems from this. His mummy would also like prayer for the bit where he has to fast for the WHOLE morning. The boy likes his food!


Cousin Wilbie is the cutest 1 year old boy on the face of the earth! I know you may think otherwise (if you happen to have a 1 year old boy of your own) but you'll just have to deal with it. This photo was from a while ago but all the recent shots are on the 2 broken computers. This was cousin Wilbie's interpretation of "green day" at playgroup on the day we did Lion and Dragon's "green day" photo shoot that makes up the blog header. He's one of those kids that you just need a cuddle from whenever you see them! He's so darn cute! Thank goodness he likes to give me cuddles (most of the time).

D-O-R-O-T-H-Y

Guess where we went today???? That's right, the Dorothy herself has graced our town with two performances and we were there!! Thank you to my lovely friend who won the tickets but had already purchased tickets for her family so gave us the free ones!!! We had an extra ticket so we found someone with a "free" child (under 18mos get in free) and took them. Thanks for coming Aunty Wilbie and Little Wilbie.

Well the lights dimmed and I got the boys on their seats and Dragon just stood there. It was all a bit new for him. He seemed to like it but really wanted to be cudding mummy to do that so he climbed on my lap and there he sat for the rest of the hour! He wouldnt clap, he wouldnt dance, he just wouldnt get involved. Lion on the other hand, he wanted to be with the kids down the front. Now I'm not sure who lets their kids go down the front in a theatre situation but they obviously dont have my kid. We were in row Q, just in case you are wondering the rows start at row A at the front and there are 26 of them, that makes us nearly at the back! Perhaps if your child had some sort of sense of direction you may (there was no way Lion would be able to find his way back to us), perhaps if you knew for sure your child would never get up on the stage and start goovin' with the great-green-one or try to flog the feather-sword (Oh, for sure Lion would) or if you knew that at the end they would wait down there for you to collect them (No chance, Lion would be out the door quick smart and I would probably catch him half way down the highway) if any of those things were true you may let your child go and get their groove on but no, I explained to Lion that those were the kids that were lucky enough to sit from Row P forward :) He did do a bit of dancing where we were but I did get the distinct impression from him that I was cramping his style (oh no, I sound like the mother of a teenager!!!!)

So my thoughts on the performance are...

*It's a girly show.

*I felt a little ripped off going to see a show that has originated in Australia and half the performers (including the very fake captain Feather-sword) were doing a dodgy aussie accent to cover up their American accent.

*Can I say I felt ripped off if the tickets were free???

*Captain Feather-sword could use a lot of lessons in how to act like captain feather-sword.

*For the amount of time Henry spends on set I really dont think it was worth including him!!!

*It was a good show, I enjoyed it, the kids enjoyed it (in their own special way) and we got to do something out of the ordinary.

*The postman made me laugh, he was so caracatured but scarily reminded me of people I actually know (and not caracatures of them, the real person!!!)

*They need trafic lights at the exit to the Civic theatre

*I will probably not take the boys to any more shows that involve audience participation at the theatre (or anyhwere with allocated seating) until they are a bit bigger.

*They could learn a few things from "Playschool Live", now that show ROCKED!!! best birthday I've had for ages!

*We really did have fun, I am just a whinger.

*My photos are dodgy because I wrongly assumed it would be no cameras but it wasnt so all I had was my mobile phone. I considered getting the lady in front of us to take some photos and giving her my email address but decided that reallywasnt such a good idea.

Green Day

Yesterday was Green Day at playgroup. As in Red Day, Blue Day, Yellow Day.... although some may have misinterpreted the theme...
That's right, those McTavish boys along with JMac went along as the boys from Green Day. Before I get horrible comments about putting eye makeup on 3 and 1 year old boys let me tell you that Lion wanted it on! And what Lion has Dragon wants so he got some too. I had to put it on with my finger so I didnt poke their eyes out so it looks a little more like black eyes but that's okay.

JMac has the serious rock star post sorted out.

Two of the sPunks had their own personal photo shoot before leaving home.

Lion was pretty pleased with his transformation.

Even Rock Stars need to do the dishes.


"Wilbie" whose mummy faithfully keeps up with the McTavish clan blogs, all decked out in green.
The GREEN food.

Notice it's a McTavish boy that is practically climbing onto the table to be closer to the food.