Upside Down – #photoadayjuly

18 Months ago our world turned upside down……………………and we’re still trying to get things the right way up *sigh*

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A Photo A Day For July – Letter #photoadayjuly

As my heart swells with pride, happiness and love I can’t think of a better day to share this with you…………

J says I love you everyday, it’s part of his routine at bedtime and when on the rare occasion that I manage to escape go out, (usually to the supermarket), on my own, but it’s rarely said with any feeling behind it. I know that J loves me, he doesn’t have to say it because the little things he does everyday show me ………………. but this little note along accompanied by a hug *sigh* ……………..words can say a million things. xx

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Running Free – Silent Sunday

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6 Years Ago……………

6 years ago today my life changed completely…………….

6 years ago I was resting quietly watching Prison Break when my water’s suddenly broke a month earlier than they were due to.!

I’d had a difficult pregnancy. I’d had 2 bleeds which quite frankly had us crippled with fear and had us thinking that once again the worst was going to happen. When we’d finally reached 14 weeks, further than we’d ever got before, we’d had our first scan and finally felt brave enough to tell our parents, then went on to tell other important people once we’d had a second scan and had passed the 20 week mark. By 20 weeks I had developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, (something that has remained with me), and SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction). Both meant moving around quickly became painful and difficult…….Little did I know that over the next few weeks this would get so bad that I would become housebound except for hospital and midwife visits and Hubby would be cutting my food up for me, filling forms in for me etc because my hands and the lower half of my body had become pretty much useless. I then began to swell, really swell…………my hands, my feet, my face and everything in between. My blood pressure rose and I developed Pre-Eclampsia. At 34 1/2 weeks I started having contractions during a hospital stay (for the high blood pressure), thankfully with medication labour was stopped. I returned home only to be back at the hospital a week later begging for my baby to be born! I was in so much pain! The doctor and midwives assured me that they didn’t deliver babies that early and that they had booked me in to be induced the following week…………………………………that night my waters broke!

After 25 hrs of contractions every 2-5 minutes, alot of gas and air, (Hubby said I really did look like I was flying high ), and a spinal block that had only worked on one side, the doctors and midwives realized there was a problem. J was struggling……………I was struggling and I can still hear the Doctor’s words, “we need to get this baby out now“. I was whisked off to theatre whilst Hubby was left standing in our side room, a cleaner later brought him down to the theatre room!

A little while later I heard one of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard, my baby boy’s first cry! Hubby held him close to me so that I could see his beautiful face and stroke his tiny fingers. I’d never known love like that which hit me at that very moment!

After a brief couple of hours together J was taken away to Special Care, it was another 2 days before I got to see him again. But after a week in hospital we finally got to take a gorgeous baby boy home, it was Mother’s Day.

Six years have passed so quickly and he has grown so fast, it’s hard to believe that six years ago I was sat watching the TV ……………

Hope he has a great birthday

Mummy loves you heaps little man, I’ll never forget the day that I saw you for the first time. The love I felt then has simply grown over the past 6 years……………..You’re the best thing that ever happened in our lives and we love you xxxxx

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“I Found You!”

Last night J decided that he wanted needed to play Hide and Seek with myself and his Dad. Hide and Seek is one of J’s favourite games, it’s also one of our favourite games to play with him. It’s one of those games that always end in tears…………… of laughter.

So it started with J declaring that he would count first and that he would count to 20. He began straight away not giving us any time to think of somewhere to hide. He was already at 7 by the time we’d left the living room, which was the room that he had to count in despite the sofas, beanbag and other furniture that he could hide behind being in that room.

When we play Hide and Seek we don’t actually hide, no we simply stand in a different room. We only had 2 lights on in our house last night, the living room light and the kitchen light. J does not like the dark. So when he yelled “20, coming ready or not!” I knew it wouldn’t be long before we also heard “I give up, where are you, I can’t see you!” followed by “don’t make me jump!”. When he yells this we aren’t actually allowed to come out of our hiding places, no this is our signal to make a noise, making J aware of where we are. So he found me first and then I had to find his Dad with him because he wouldn’t go into the dark rooms alone and ofcourse we had to put the lights on before entering each room. When we discovered his Dad’s hiding place J jumped and screamed……………….. but they were screams of laughter…………. then he had us shedding tears of laughter, (he has one of those contagious laughs).

Next my turn to count and by J’s rules I had to count to 30 because I’m bigger than him I listened as his feet pattered up the house and heard a door open and a light switch click. Finding J isn’t usually hard because he usually “hides” in the place that he’s just found you in LOL I reached 30 and went hunting……………….. as soon as I left the living room I spotted a glow coming from under a door. Obviously I couldn’t just find him so I noisily searched the house, saying things such as “I don’t know where J is, he’s very good at hiding” and so on. It was so funny listening to him giggling to himself and then listening to him yelling “I’m in here!” hehehe I opened the glowing door and there he sat in my desk chair, giggling.

The way that J plays games is so funny sometimes and although we were in fits of laughter whilst playing , when we think back to the game last night we’re actually a little proud. Oh I know it’s just a small thing but he came up with solutions instead of yelling He didn’t want to go into a dark room alone so he put the light on and followed me in. He didn’t want to hide in a dark room and so he put the light on and sat waiting to be found. Simple solutions I know but so often we get screams and tears because he doesn’t have anywhere to hide and he can’t find anyone or even because he’s scared that someone will make him jump. We had so much fun playing Hide and Seek with him and the best thing of all……………. he was having so much fun and was so busy playing it that he forgot all about feeling anxious and school………………..until bedtime

Ofcourse this has now got us thinking, distraction works so………….what are we going to play this evening? …….and tomorrow?………….and the next evening? ………………….

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Rays Of Light and Colour – A Gallery Post

When I saw the theme for this weeks Gallery was Colour I considered using several different pictures. I had pictures of animals, there’s so many fantastic and colourful animals in Australia. We’ve had some really colourful (and noisy) birds in our backyard, then there’s the bugs…….. and then the bigger animals…………… way too any pictures to choose from

So then I considered posting some of J’s artwork, ok it would have been yet another picture of Angry Birds, Smurfs or Mario that he would have drawn but it would have been colourful. In fact I had a couple of pictures all set and ready to go but then last night the sky did this……………………

Rays of Colourful Light

What can I say, I’m a sucker for good sky picture. I love the colour that the rays of light made as the sun started to set.

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What Makes You Happy?

I’ve started to put together a feelings book with J, I’ll blog more about that later but I wanted to share the conversation J and I had about Happy

Me: Can you show me a happy face?

J gives me one of his beautiful smiles

Me: That’s great! I like to see you happy, what makes you feel happy?

J: You

Me: Aw thats lovely sweetheart, you make me feel happy too.  What else makes you feel happy?

J:  Nothing just you

Me: Ok, well I’m sure some other things make you feel happy………. How do I make you feel happy?

J: I don’t know (shrugs his shoulders)

Me: What do I do that makes you feel happy?

J: erm…….. play with me with my toys

Me: Do your toys make you feel happy?

J: Special Dog does

Me: I think you make special dog feel happy too.

J: But he’s a toy!

Me: You make me smile so much!

*

pause whilst we have a cuddle

*

Me: Do cuddles make you feel happy?

J: Yes

Me: Cuddles make me feel happy too. I do lots of other things that make me feel happy, like listening to music and writing. What things do you do that make you feel happy?

J: erm playing Mario and stuff………… like Angry Birds and Smurfs with you.

Me: I know you feel happy when you play those games because you smile lots when you’re playing them. They’re good fun aren’t they?

J: Yes but I don’t want to talk anymore.

Me: That’s ok little man we don’t have to talk anymore. Would you like another cuddle?

*

J responds by giving me a big squeeze – one very happy Mummy!

*

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My Favourite Time Of Day

I was recently tagged by the wonderful Mummy Matters in a post titled My favourite time of day.

It may surprise most people but my favourite time of day is bedtime, nope not mine but J’s. Once the usual battles have ended we complete his routine. (Sometimes I wonder if maybe, just maybe the battles have become part of his routine.)

He cleans his teeth (battle number 1), puts his smurf sticker on his chart, (something new we’ve started to encourage him to brush his teeth). Then he goes to the toilet, (battle number 2) and washes his hands. Next it’s pj’s on (battles number 3 and 4, getting him to his room and choosing pj’s). Then we choose bedtime stories, J has the same book each and every night plus one other of his choice (battle number 5, choosing a storybook). I read his bedtime stories, it always has to be me that reads them and then put the books back on his bookshelf. Next he has to have a small drink of water and then sets his clock with his 2 little fingers and my index finger (if we do it wrong we have to start all over again!). Once his clock is set he then gives his Dad a kiss and cuddle and then Mummy gets a bedtime kiss and cuddle. Then he climbs into bed (this can sometimes be yet another battle) and his light gets switched off.

Next is my favourite time of day……………. A few months ago J was refusing to go to bed, refusing to stay in his room and to say that bedtimes were a nightmare would be an understatement! Sometimes just getting him into bed would take over an hour!  However a few months ago I started sitting with J again until he was sleepy. To start with I was sitting with him for up to 30 minutes but I’ve now got this down to approx 5 – 10 minutes.

It’s these 5-10 minutes that are my favourite time of day

my favourite time of day

Sometimes we talk, sometimes about school, sometimes about a fun thing that we have planned for the next day or week, sometimes he opens up about something that has been bothering him, not often but sometimes, sometimes we talk about completely random things, such as a computer game or a toy he’s played with and sometimes we don’t talk about anything. Sometimes I stroke his arm or his cheek, sometimes he holds my hand. Sometimes he simply lays with his head on his pillow and I watch him as his eyes become sleepy. This is our special time each and every day. This is without a doubt my favourite time of day.

 

My tags are: Growing My Family Tree, Soft Thistle, Stuff With Thing and Wonderfully Wired  Tell me What’s your favourite time of day?

 

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A Happy Memory – A Gallery Post

So this theme for the Gallery is A Happy Memory.

Tara over at Sticky Fingers couldn’t have picked a harder topic, when you have so many happy memories how do you choose just one, well I couldn’t but I did manage to hold back and just chose a few.

I know that I’ve used this photo in the Gallery before but I just had to use it again. I took this picture of my beautiful Nan a couple of months before she passed away. It was taken at her 80th birthday party that I had helped to organise. To me this photo represents one of the happiest memories that I have, my Nan was happy, she had a great time and was a little tipsy when I took her home and to me she hadn’t looked as happy for a very long time. I miss her everyday but when I look at this picture all I feel is happiness and love.

My next photo is quite possibly one of my happiest moments EVER!

This photo was taken when we finally got to take our little man home. We had waited so long to become Mummy and Daddy and so this photo brings back one of my happiest memories, the day we finally got to bring our baby boy home

Since J entered our lives we’ve had one happy memory after another, it’s so hard to choose between them but here’s a few favourites…………..

J presented me with breakfast in bed on Mothers Day this year, A very special happy memory

my Great Uncle B and I have always had a special relationship, I love this photo because it reminds me of the special relationships J also has with my Uncle B, it's almost like there is nobody else around

 

This was taken on our first family holiday and J's face is just pure happiness

 

 

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Peace And Tranquillity – Silent Sunday

                                                                                                                                                  

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