Where's All The Fun Gone?!

I've got a bone to pick with the education department...yes I know AGAIN!
Well too bad I'm opinionated and I've got upset kids!

Today is 'What I Want To be' day at school.
The kids are encouraged to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. They had to give a gold coin donation if they wanted to dress up.

So last night Kaitlyn, Bradley and I went through our dress up box and started thinking up costume ideas. Kaitlyn wants to be a stay at home mum and Bradley decided on a zookeeper.
I let the kids stay up late while we made name tags and even got Bradley a little portable zoo to go with his costume.

This morning the kids were up early and bounding around with excitement. They got dressed.
Kaitlyn with pregnant belly, baby on her hip, sunglasses, handbag, necklace and wedding ring.
Bradley had name tag, boots, zoo animals and flanno shirt.
Arrive at school and all the kids were a bundle of excitement. They had dressed up great and all paid their gold coin donation.
Some parents had put quite a bit of effort into the costumes.

I approached Kaitlyns teacher and asked if they were having the usual parade first up to show off their outfits (as they have had with any other dress up day) and was told she wasn't sure. She was a relief teacher so I left it at that.

Then I took Bradley down to his class and asked his teacher. The reply I got was "we do literacy first thing in the morning and we can't take any time away from learning. If the weather clears up the school might decide to let the kids do a 10minute parade right before recess, but that decision won't be made until a few minutes beforehand"

So that got me mad. Yes I know it may seem childish and stupid for me to be so angry but why would a school advertise and encourage the kids to spend time dressing up and paying money and putting time and effort into costumes, only for them to say 'oh sorry we can't possibly take our eyes off learning for 20minutes to let the kids have some fun'
Well excuse me but that's bullshit. No wonder kids don't want to go to school anymore.

All the kids were all so excited and energy levels were through the roof at drop off this morning, and now my kids are upset and disappointed that all their effort was for absolutely nothing. So what?! they wore a couple different clothes for the day! Big deal!
I made Bradley a fricken portable zoo!!! I made it so when he paraded around he could show off his cool costume and look like a cool zookeeper.

The other dress up days there have been parades and even prizes for best dressed, parents have been invited to stay for the parades, music has been played and the kids have enjoyed themselves, even if only for a short time.

But today, well these days kids are too busy learning, there is too much work and too much pressure for WA to 'catch up' to the rest of Australia so suddenly our kids are worked so hard and pushed almost to breaking point. Forced to learn, playtime (especially in kindy and pre primary) has been slashed so much, pushed to always succeed and now we take away the only bit of fun they have.
Why did I even bother putting all that effort into getting costumes and making name tags, giving Kaitlyn a pregnant belly. We had a blast last night getting costumes organised and while they might seem like simple costumes I'm so mad that my kids are upset-Kaitlyn said 'why did we dress up mum, there is no assembly' what a big fat disappointment. 

Schools these days are pushing kids way too hard, taking all the fun out of learning and yet constantly telling parents that learning should be fun. So if learning should be fun why are you taking all the fun time and play time away from the kids?

Yeah that makes sense to me. . .

Stay at home mummy and zookeeper 

Shhh, Daddy's Sleeping!

Hubby is on nightshift at the moment, which is really great trying to get everyone quiet so he can sleep all day. Today we tried our best and failed absolutely miserably.
This is a quick run down of our day..

Isla started off the day in fine fashion. Hubby woke her up at 7am as normal and she comes out with her eye so swollen it was almost closed!! Must have had a fight with teddy!

Big kids went off to school, hubby Isla and I did food shopping and then hubby went to bed as he's on nightshift-all part of a normal day in our house.

After her morning nap I heard Isla in bed chatting away. When I went in to get her up she was sitting up in her cot!! Looks like someone has learnt to go from laying down to sitting up...except she can't lay back down again!

But then this afternoon. Well it got fun again.

I had been making different jams all day. I was pouring the plum jam into the jars, closed the lid and tipped the jar upside down, except one lid wasn't screwed on properly and boiling hot jam was literally spraying out the side!
I have little tiny burn dots all over my hands and my swearing and shouting had my previously sleeping husband running out to see what I had done. Oops!

By this stage I was running late for school pick up, hubby was awake now so I left Isla in bed and ran to get the kids-got there just in time! Although I think I still had dots of jam over me :-/

Coming home I told the kids daddy was still sleeping so they needed to be quiet.

Kids started off doing well. Isla decided she needed to do her first proper crawl-the kids almost started to scream with excitement but I managed to get that under control. Then Isla pulled herself up to her feet using a toy to hold on to. That was exciting but again I managed to keep the kids excitement to small squeals.

Then it all went bad. Isla head dived into the ground and started screaming, Kaitlyn tipped a massive pile of craft stuff on the floor that went crashing down and Zac started whinging to get into the bedroom.

Hubby's sleep didn't survive that.
Oh well maybe next time. . .

BOOST For Business?

Hubby is working nightshift at the moment.
So this morning while he was home and supposed to be sleeping we decided to go to the only 'cafe' in our town.

On Wednesday morning our golf club 'The Golfie' serves up coffee and cakes and turns into a stay-at-home-mummy morning tea playgroup place!

It's really nice, the coffee is decent and the cakes are to die for.
Plus it's the closest we can get to a proper coffee shop.

About halfway through my chocolate mud cake, Isla decided she needed a feed. No worries.
So I propped her up on my lap and unbuttoned a couple buttons on my top.

Except Isla was so distracted by everything around her I was constantly trying to keep my boob covered as she was whipping her head left and right letting my boob hang in the breeze.

"Hey, they should start advertising that they have skimpies here every week. Won't be fun for me but I bet the other blokes in town will like it. It will really boost the business"

Thanks hubby. . . 

When Did It All Change . . .

How are you're little ones settling in to the new year at school?

Tired? Maybe exhausted? Extra hungry? Maybe bringing home some extra attitude learnt at school? Lots of homework? Struggling to make the earlier starts during the week? Sick of making school lunches? Little ones struggling to fit in? Hard for them to make new friends? Kids don't like their new teacher? Workload too big for your kids? Wondering when school suddenly got so hard?

We've been through all these emotions and more in the last 3 and a half weeks.

Bradley has started his first year of pre-primary. So first time of full time school. All day every day. He's been tired. He's fallen asleep on his bed at 3pm. I've been jumping on him at 7am to wake him up.
But for the most part he has settled in quite well. Most of his kindy friends from last year are in the other class but he doesn't mind too much. He's made some new friends, he gets on with his work and at recess and lunch time he enjoys playing zombies and monsters with his friends from both pre primary classes. He came home and Friday and said to me "my teacher said I was a good role model today because I always pack away and do my work properly and listen when I'm on the mat" my heart sung with joy and pride.
He doesn't seem to mind his new teacher-although I'm not her biggest fan-and he really likes the education assistant in his class, she's lovely.
His teacher though, she's 50 trying to be 20. Parent information night was a chance for her to wear a short dress and show off her underwear and leg tattoos. Very unprofessional.
She gave a very simple talk about the "on entry" testing the kids do but basically said that no matter what their score or what areas they showed they were struggling in the kids would still be given the same work-she didn't say it quite as blunt as that but that's the gist of it.
Now I'm not the biggest fan of the education system in general. Because I'm a mum of a kid that learns differently and needs that extra help. So when a teacher tells us that all the kids will be given the same work regardless of ability I was quietly thankful that it was Bradley in her class and not Kaitlyn.

My poor Kaitlyn, though, is struggling with year 1 this year. Parent information night was a huge eye opener for me. The sheer volume of work that 6 year olds have to do is just mind boggling. The homework is insane: reading and spelling every single night and 4-5 activities per week. It's recommended to be 20-25 minutes PER NIGHT on homework (Bradley is expected to do 15mins per night for pre primary) For a 6 year old. Plus they do reading eggs and mathletics on computers that they could do (with a heavy emphasis on actually doing it) a couple times a week at home.
Thankfully Kaitlyn has a fantastic teacher. Parent night was a power point presentation with a different slide for each subjects guidelines. Plus rewards/consequences. Plus explaining homework, expectations, explaining the curriculum. He explained that each child would have different homework based on their abilities and some class activities would be slightly different based on ability.
Kaitlyn got her first lot of homework last night and came home with very basic flash cards and 'de-codable' books (books that use only a certain set of letters and each word and sentence is made up of only those letters) I really like these books. Last year in pre primary Kaitlyn was given books with repetitive sentences. Which were great for starting out but she memorised all the books and knew the flow of the sentences, so instead of actually reading, it was all just memorised. There wasn't much actual learning happening. I'm really happy with the way her teacher will be giving work and homework based on ability rather than the same work for everyone.
Every year I hope and pray that Kaitlyn gets a teacher that understands her and helps her. Someone that I can talk to and will support her.
So far we have managed this every year, we've been so lucky. I dread the year she gets a not so supportive teacher.

Out of all of the meetings and information and things I've heard about school this year the one biggest thing that has completely shocked me is how each different subject is taught.

In Bradley's class he has his normal classroom teacher for maths and English.
But he has a different teacher coming into his class room for: art, science, sport and social studies. Then he goes up to the library once a week with a different teacher.

In Kaitlyns class she has her normal classroom teacher for maths and English. But for science, social studies, computer, art, sport and library she has different teachers AND she moves around to DIFFERENT CLASSROOMS. Kind of like you do in high school.

When I commented on this to another parent the other day and how much the pre primary and year 1 students have different teachers and are even moving around to different classes for each subject she said to me "they are just preparing the kids for high school"

I'M SORRY BUT WHAT?? HIGH SCHOOL STARTS IN YEAR 7 NOT YEAR 1.
Why do 6 year olds need to start preparing now for something that won't happen for another 6 years!!!!!!

And even the pre primary's have different teachers. I guess they at least get to stay in the same classroom. But whatever happened to having one teacher that teaches all the subjects in primary school.

When I was in primary school (which really wasn't THAT long ago) we had our classroom teacher for maths, English, science, social studies and anything else we needed to be taught such as health. We went to library and music with a different teacher but our main teacher was the one spending the majority of time with us.
And when we made the move to high school the transition wasn't so bad. It only took a week or so to figure out where all the classes were and to adjust to moving from class to class.

Why then do such young kids need to start "preparing" now for what will happen in 6years.
If we could adjust in just 1 week-why do they need 6years!

My poor Kaitlyn has seen the enormous work load, she is very aware how far behind she is compared to the other kids and of course she's not coping with it.

Last week I was called up to the school during the day as Kaitlyn was in the office complaining of being sick. Little did I know she had been up there almost every day for a week and a half saying she was sick, or had hurt herself, she needed a bandaid, an ice pack etc etc. It seemed that whenever she was struggling to understand work or when it all got too much she was complaining and going up to the office to escape.
I was able to have a good chat to her and to the principal while I was there and we talked to Kaitlyn about asking for help or seeing the teacher if the work was too hard or she couldn't understand what was going on. Since then she hasn't been back up to the office.
But when I left the office last Tuesday I was absolutely gutted. I actually had tears streaming down my face as I walked out of the school.
How could I help my girl? What could I say or do to make her feel better? What else could I be doing at home to encourage her?
Sometimes it's so hard for me to accept that Kaitlyn is struggling. Ever since she was a toddler we have done activities at home, games, learning sounds, shapes, numbers, painting, drawing, making games, sight words. Over the years I have put so much time and effort in to her learning-and for Bradley as well. And I see Bradley thriving and learning so much and sometimes I feel like Kaitlyn hasn't learnt a single thing from all that time together.

I also found out that Kaitlyn had been making up excuses to the duty teachers at recess and lunch so that she could go and find Bradley in the pre primary play area. Being up in the big school this year means she's completely separated from her brother. And it seems there may be some separation anxiety on her behalf.

Homework last night was the typical disaster. Kaitlyn couldn't get the sounds right for a few words in the book: cue epic screaming meltdown. We didn't even make it through half the book (which was only 6 pages long with approx 15 words in the entire book). After the meltdown was over I went in to her room and laid on her bed and we talked.

I asked her how she was going, I explained that I wanted to help her. She told me the work was too hard for her. I told her I wanted to help her learn to read and write. She told me she doesn't like the work. I told her that if we could learn to read a few more words she would one day learn to read all those fabulous Barbie stories that she loves so much. I explained the whole 'practice makes perfect' thing and that I always wanted her to try her best. Even if she couldn't do something if she tried her best I would be so happy and so proud of her. She told me she wasn't trying her best that night, and maybe next time she would. We laid there for about 20-30minutes just talking. Trying to understand each other.

And then I left her to think things over while I did some reading with Bradley (who can read without even trying).

My poor Kaitlyn. Everything is so much harder for her. Nothing comes easy or very naturally for her. Every day is a struggle. A struggle to understand. To work 100times harder than any other student for a fraction of the results they get. To get up and join in with group activities. To push past and break down those barriers that hold her back.

But every single day of her life I'll fight for her, I'll fight with her and I'll love, help, support and encourage her because I'm her mum and if I don't fight for her, who will?

Worry Wart!

Today was Kaitlyn and Bradley's first gymnastics class!!

Excitement was pretty high in our house this morning. Kaitlyn was dressed and ready by 7:30am-class starts at 10am...

Last night while talking to mum and sharing our excitement with her I jokingly said "don't worry, Bradley will be the first one in hospital"
Bradley's quite a clumsy one at times.

After his little scare and trip to Perth a couple weeks ago and discovering the new heart condition I must admit I was a little nervous.

Time and time again the Drs have told us not to restrict anything in Bradley's life. He's allowed to run, jump, rugby tackle his friends and fly through the air on a trapeze.

And I've let him.

The first day back at school after discovering the vasovagal (2nd heart condition) he came home and the first thing he said to me was "I fell off the bridge today mum"

So there have never been any restrictions on what I will or won't let him do.

But that still doesn't stop me from worrying.

I worry that he will fall at gymnastics, that he will break a bone or twist his ankle. That he will experience any kind of trauma or stress to his body. It's a scary thought sometimes.

Even though I worry I still let Bradley live his life, I still signed him up for gymnastics and watched him climb a ladder halfway to the roof, I watched him climb up and jump off a gigantic blow up thing, I watched as he balanced his way across a fairly tall (almost chest height to me) balance beam.

The way the Dr described the condition to me is that if it worsens over time and Bradley experiences stress or significant trauma his heart could stop. But it doesn't stop me from letting my kids live their life. I don't want Bradley to be afraid to live his life because of what MIGHT happen-chances are his heart will never get that bad.

But I'm his mum. So yeah. I worry. It's my job to worry. 

Mini Bacon and Cheese Parcels

Mini Bacon And Cheese Parcels

I wanted to make mini quiches today. But I couldn't be bothered cutting out the pasty rounds and I was already using our muffin trays.

So I chucked some bacon in the frying pan and decided to just wing it.

This is the result:

Ingredients
5 sheets of puff pastry cut into 6 rectangles
400grams diced bacon
Half an onion finely diced
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 cup grated cheese
Egg and milk to brush pastry



Method:

Preheat oven to 180degrees

Fry the onion, garlic and bacon pieces in a frying pan until cooked.

Place teaspoon fulls of the bacon mixture onto the edge of a piece of pastry, top with a little bit of cheese.

Roll the pastry up. Remember to press the sides together so the cheese doesn't ooze out.

Brush the tops of the pastry parcels with the egg and milk mixture.

Bake in the oven for 25 mins or until golden.

These are great to freeze as well.

Makes approx. 30 parcels.


Variations: you can add corn or chopped spring onion to the bacon mix. Diced mushrooms would also be a great addition.
Pastry can be cut into 4 squares, fold each corner into the middle when full for a different shape, larger parcel.
There is so much you can add/change in this recipe!!

I Torture My Daughter, Every. Single. Day.

I torture my daughter every single day. Or at least that's what she would have you believe.

Kaitlyn absolutely hates having her hair brushed-I'm not even kidding, it's like the biggest thing we fight about. Every. Single. Day.

I always thought having a girl would be so much fun, I could braid her hair, put beautiful clips and headbands in her hair, and just all round have fun.
Kaitlyn clearly never heard those thoughts of mine.

The last few days I've re-upped my efforts to get her to let me do something more than just a pony tail for her.

She screamed, she cried, she told me the detangling spray I use 'sucks' but I finally got her hair in two beautiful braids. I told her that she could leave them in all night and her hair would already be done for school the next day.

We made it through the night with not a hair out of place but first thing in the morning she walked in to my room so sad "mummy, please can I have my hair in a pony tail for school today. I don't like this anymore"

I managed to convince her to keep her hair in all day but the second we got home in the afternoon it was out!

And today I was given one of those little hair things from the '90's, you know when you have your hair in a pony tail and you use that little hoop thing to make that little twist at the top??

I thought 'great, still a pony tail but not as boring'

She screamed when I asked if I could do it. But I won that argument and she looked gorgeous.

"Ok, get it out now mum I hate it. I. Only. Like. Pony. Tails."

Ok, ok I get it now. Only pony tails! :-( 

Isla is my last chance at playing around with fun hairstyles..poor kid was 12 hours old and I had a headband on her!

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane....And It's Not For A Holiday

As you would well know by now we don't do things by halves in our family! Our latest saga was an emergency Royal Flying Doctors Service flight to Perth for Bradley. He went in with stomach complaints and came out with a heart condition and missing testicle...

On Wednesday night after a bath Bradley was in his room getting dressed, being a typical little shit. He flung open his top drawer to get his underwear and the whole drawer came out and crashed onto his stomach. Of course it was the top drawer and was FULL of clothes at the time, I would estimate it fell from a height of 3 feet and weighed a significant amount for a little boy to have landing on his abdomen. At the time he cried but got over it pretty quickly and went off to have dinner and go to bed.

5am Thursday morning Bradley woke up screaming in pain. He couldn't move couldn't walk he was literally curled up in a ball rolling around on the bed in pain. And then he threw up-twice. Hubby arrived home from night shift at 6:30 and Bradley was still in pain so I took him up to the hospital.
He was still thrashing around in pain and screaming uncontrollably. I had to put the sides up on the bed to stop him from falling out. The nurse made the comment that he looked like he was in labour as Bradley was curled up in a ball, couldn't stand couldn't sit, toes curled up screaming in pain. His lower abdomen was very hard to touch as well, which is never usually a good sign. It was utterly terrifying to watch.
The Dr and X-ray people were called up (both were in the shower at the time!) and Bradley was taken through for an xray.
The scan showed nothing had been perforated  but even more worrying Bradley's heart rate had dropped dangerously low. I was told for his age his heart rate should be between 80-100 and Bradley's was sitting on 50-55.
The Dr told me that when the heart rate drops that low after a trauma it can mean the patient is likely to crash...not what I wanted to hear!!

The Dr up here decided to call the head of emergency at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth. That person was very concerned for Bradley's health and told us we needed to immediately get him to Perth.
The Royal Flying Doctors Service was called and they made tracks to get to Paraburdoo-our nearest airstrip, 45 minutes away. It was about this time I tried to call hubby, he had dropped Kaitlyn at school but I hadn't heard from him since. I couldn't get a hold of him so I called a friend to see if she had seen him. She went on the hunt and ended up finding hubby in the shower :-/ oops!
Because I had the car at the hospital with me our kind friend chauffeured Phil around, he picked Kaitlyn up from school, packed a few things in a bag and came to the hospital.

I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to accompany Bradley on the RFDS plane as I couldn't take Isla (breastfed baby) with me. I'll admit I was upset but I understand the rules and restrictions on those kind of flights. So hubby was set to stay with Bradley while I tried to get a flight for me and the girls to Perth.

As we were leaving the hospital Kaitlyn decided she didn't want to come to Perth. She wanted to stay here and go to school. I was obviously worried about leaving her behind. I had no idea how long we would be gone for. But she was very confident and definite in her decision. So I packed her a bag to stay with friends, packed Isla and I some clothes and grabbed the boys clothes.

I couldn't get a flight out until 5:15pm, Phil and Bradley were leaving at 11am so I had a few hours to wait. And let me tell you the waiting was absolute hell! I was just hoping and praying that Bradley was ok.

I went to the airport a couple hours early and begged to get on an earlier flight. By some absolute miracle I did! I got on a 4pm flight. About this time my body decided lack of food and all the crazy stress levels were annoying so I got real sick! I was dizzy and shaking and the take off was terrible! I had a 33 week pregnant lady next to me offering me water and talking to Isla to keep her happy while I was trying not to faint. 
Note to self: EAT when under stress!!

Finally 6pm I arrived in Perth and mum was there to take me straight to the hospital. I was so happy to finally see my boy and he looked soo good!! I was too late to be able to talk to any doctors but at least I could see him.
By this stage hubby had been awake for almost 40 hours straight!!
I hammered him with question after question about what the doctors had been saying.
From what I could tell the Drs were no longer concerned about his stomach, he seemed to have no trauma all the tests and scans came up good and the pain was slowly fading away-it seems it was kind of like a delayed shock and he just got a bit jiggled around.
But there were still concerns. Somehow someone had looked at his boy parts. Now I should mention a couple years ago Bradley had an operation on an Undescended teste. It was brought down and stitched down. But one of the drs noticed that he couldn't actually find it.

Friday we were sent for anther ultrasound-this time on his doodle bits. Bradley being Mr relaxed laid back and let the lady get to work. She couldn't find any sign of his right testicle so another Dr was brought in. The Dr spent a good 15 minutes with that ultrasound goo all over poor Bradley trying to find the missing testicle...she didn't find it either. So 2 more people were brought in. One of those people was the big boss lady. She was an absolute COW! She was the 'best' at her job and she totally knew it. She refused to answer any questions, actually she didn't even make eye contact with us. After about 15 minutes she said "it's not there, we can't find it" and walked out.

I must admit I was slightly amused-ok I was laughing. My sons testicle, that was supposed to be stitched down, had vanished. What. The. Hell. 

Anyway so back to the ward we went.

Later that day a Dr was sent in to talk to us. I asked about his stomach and she said he was all clear.
I asked about his doodle bits and was told that his right one was gone, no one could find it, they literally had no idea what had happened to it. So I asked what we should do and they said 'it's not causing any pain or discomfort so we will do a check on him in a year' at the time I was so tired and just wanted to go home, so although I wasn't happy with that answer I kind of accepted it.

Then I asked about his heart rate. His cardiologist keeps telling me his heart is perfect. So why was he having problems. Every time his body was under significant trauma or when he had a really high fever and was sick his heart rate was dropping to scarily low levels. Again they couldn't answer this question adequately and told me I would need to go back to his cardiologist. This wasn't an option as an appointment can take months!

So we left hospital and I made an appointment with our GP to speak to him.

Firstly I shocked him by being back in the city-he actually thought I had permanently moved back to the city! He's not a country loving person and he almost shivers every time I mention how remote our little town is!! Let me add in here that I've been seeing the same GP since I was 3 and now all 3 of my little ones see him. He knows us VERY well and at times finds my family and our various health issues very amusing. He too was a bit amused at Bradley's missing testicle. He advised that once things had settled down we should take him in for another ultrasound to see if it can be located.
And then I explained the history of his heart rate dropping and was a bit shocked at what I heard!!
The Dr told me he has vasovagal. The way he explained it to me was he's similar to people that faint at the sight of blood. Whenever you're scared or your body experiences trauma a 'normal' persons heart rate goes up. That typical heart beating so fast you can almost hear it thing. In a small percentage of people the opposite happens. Bradley's heart rate slows down. A lot.

The Dr said to me "it's like the healthy fit sports players that just drop dead, that's what a lot of them have" gee thanks Doc that makes me feel good! Bradley's isn't that bad-yet. And in all reality it shouldn't ever get that bad. But in an even smaller percentage of people it does get that bad. And if it ever gets that bad he will need a pacemaker to get his heart kicking up a notch again.

But for now: his school needs to be made aware of the condition and so do all Drs. A medical action plan needs to be made for the school. If he ever has a big trauma or a massive scare he needs to lay down flat immediately. We need to make note of every time it happens and what triggers it. We also need to have a really good chat to his cardiologist in 3 years time when we go back.

It's actually quite a scary thing. At the moment his condition isn't too bad. I mean worst case scenario is a pacemaker and we are far from there. It seems to take quite a significant trauma for it to happen but it needs to be tracked closely so we can be one step ahead if it does get worse.

Saturday morning we were on the 7:30am flight out of Perth and on our way home with a very happy, healthy little boy. I was so happy to see my big girl again, she did so well and got so spoilt while we were away!
The help we had over that 3 days was amazing, we are so lucky to have amazing people that can drop everything to help us out.

My mind has been racing ever since I spoke to the GP. Bradley's condition sounds terrible, it definitely sounds scary and it's not what a mother wants to hear. But we are a long way off 'worst case scenario.' Bradley is still allowed to play sports and run around, he can still live a completely normal life and chances are nothing further will happen. When the Dr says it's very rare and only a small percentage of people get to worse case scenario I have a little giggle. The CHD Bradley was born with was a 1 in 1000 chance. The vasovagal is apparently even a smaller chance....we actually had better odds of winning the lotto than having a child with his particular CHD. But no, we can't win the lotto. We get the kid with congenital heart disease! Our luck just isn't great! 

And thank goodness for the Royal Flying Doctors Service... We are quickly building up a massive pile of charities that have saved our children's lives!! Now that it's all over and done with Bradley has been enjoying telling everyone he went on a  JET plane (hehe) I don't want to ruin his fun and tell him it was a teeny tiny non-jet plane...

Pirate Bradley with his pirate sword after a visit from some very silly clowns :-) 

Back To School...

My babies are off to school!!

Somehow we managed to even get there early today (it definitely won't happen again though!) and by early I mean 2 minutes before the doors opened, instead of my usual '2 minutes before the bell rings and I have two kids to drop off'

30books, 2 kids, 2 lunch boxes, water bottles, hats, library bags, paint shirt and an unimaginable amount of stationary dropped off at school!! Seriously kids these days have WAY too much stuff to take to school!

My plan of filling up Isla's pram with all their school stuff was stopped when I realised Kaitlyn's class is up two flights of stairs and no there is ramp!! 😁 So it all got lugged in by us! Great morning workout.

By 10:30 I had scrubbed the bathroom top to bottom, done half of the gigantic washing pile, vacuumed all the floors (and under beds) and even been for a 30minute walk around the block! It's amazing what you can get done with 2 kids gone...but the silence is deafening-it's eerie and I miss my babies 😭

I hope they have a great first day with their new teachers and I can't wait to pick them up this arvo and hear all about there day

I hope everyone else has had a great start back at school! How did your littlies go? Any first timers? 

EDIT: My two survived quiet well. Bradley doesn't have any of his 'best buddies' from last year in his class, but he doesn't seem to mind too much. His teacher had a very cute little gift for each of them-a little bottle of bubble mixture with a tag that said "we've been bubbling with excitement to meet you" cute right?!? 

Kaitlyn was very nervous at first to be up in the big school, the classes are all upstairs so she's way up in the tree tops. When we walked into her class she suddenly wouldn't let go of my hand. But there were no tears and she smiled as I left the class room. 

I also totally embarrassed her by waiting in the wrong area after school! Oops! 

From today onwards once Kaitlyn is dismissed from her class it will be her big girl job to walk over to the pre primary area to meet me and Bradley by herself! I can't believe how grown up and independent my little girl is becoming!! But I'm also enjoying this new phase we have entered, it's exciting and I hope they enjoy it as much as I enjoy watching them grow up.