Bianca has been having a runny tummy lately. Not constant like with a tummy bug, but certainly different to normal. She also doesn't have any fevers, she's still eating and drinking and seems generally well. So I'm not too sure if something is brewing or not and tomorrow I will give the hospital a call just to discuss with them if we need to worry or if we can wait a week for them to check it out (she is due at the hospital for clinic in a week). I hope it is nothing though. I'm so not in the mood for a hospital stay this close to Christmas...
Speaking of Christmas, this coming weekend (20th/21st) we will celebrate our Christmas. Now I would just like to clarify because I confused a couple of people. with a previous post - in New Zealand we celebrate Christmas just like everywhere else with Christmas Eve on the 24th and Christmas Day on the 25th. However, Bianca has her next clinic visit on the 22nd and that means the start of our 5 days of steroids for the month. If the last two months is anything to go by, we expect it to be a tough time with Bianca becoming quite emotional, grumpy and sad and she would likely not enjoy the actual Christmas day as much and so we thought if we celebrated it earlier, then that will be way more fun for her. She cannot wait and if she could open her presents today she would... She was so excited because when we went to the shopping centre yesterday a lady from the Telecom shop handed out some pictures for kids to colour with Santa's number here in NZ (0800 222 222) - and when you ring it you get his voicemail. Well, let me tell you he is one busy man - when she phoned his message said that fairy dust landed on some of the presents and all the toy cars escaped! Oh dear! But she got to leave her message to remind him what she would very much like for Christmas. You should have seen her face when she heard his voice on his message.
This coming week will be a happy and sad week at the same time.
So incredibly happy because on Tuesday Caitlyn is starting daycare on Tuesdays and Wednesdays every week and it is time for her to start doing some things with other kids in a daycare setting. When Bianca got sick that was one of the very difficult decisions we had to make, keeping Caitlyn out of a daycare setting because the risk at that point was just too great, there is still a risk, but we feel confident we are able to manage it better now. I've always loved the idea of my kids going to daycare because they get to play with so many other kids, they learn to share, they get to do all sorts of other activities which might not always be possible at home. But out of this initial decision to keep Caitlyn home, came a great solution - the au pairs we've had all along. First there was Sanna (from Sweden) and she certainly came at a time when we needed her the most. It was right at that time where Bianca still had lots of hospital stays and with a baby not sleeping through at that point, it was such a great help having her around. Then there was Sandrea from Malaysia and although she was only here for a month with us, it was such a great time having her too. And then Jody. Jody came all the way from Canada and became one of our family for 7 months. Each of these au pairs got to experience different stages of Caitlyn's development and my kids got to learn so much from people from other countries.
I've been making a list of the things Caitlyn says (and how she pronounces these words) and I realised just how many words she can actually say. Her longest sentences are "I see you" and "aw day law" (all day long). Hopefully this list will help the staff at the daycare centre understand if she suddenly holds out her hand and says "tick" (her hand is sticky) or she is busy eating and saying "Ro" (meaning she is pretending to eat Christiphor Robin, a dinner time game we invented to make eating fun) and so on, because of course when she says something she will continue repeating it until you show you understand what she said.
The sad part this coming week is that Jody is going home. She is leaving on Wednesday and it will be very, very hard to say goodbye. It is so hard each time these wonderful girls say goodbye to us. Each of these girls became part of our family and they will always be, even though they live so far from us. We've learned so much from them and they've been a lifesaver to us. Without them we really would have struggled.
Then just before I go - a big thank you to Sandra Masters and Terence's colleagues at his work for their very generous donation to Funrazor. It is much much appreciated!
Speaking of Christmas, this coming weekend (20th/21st) we will celebrate our Christmas. Now I would just like to clarify because I confused a couple of people. with a previous post - in New Zealand we celebrate Christmas just like everywhere else with Christmas Eve on the 24th and Christmas Day on the 25th. However, Bianca has her next clinic visit on the 22nd and that means the start of our 5 days of steroids for the month. If the last two months is anything to go by, we expect it to be a tough time with Bianca becoming quite emotional, grumpy and sad and she would likely not enjoy the actual Christmas day as much and so we thought if we celebrated it earlier, then that will be way more fun for her. She cannot wait and if she could open her presents today she would... She was so excited because when we went to the shopping centre yesterday a lady from the Telecom shop handed out some pictures for kids to colour with Santa's number here in NZ (0800 222 222) - and when you ring it you get his voicemail. Well, let me tell you he is one busy man - when she phoned his message said that fairy dust landed on some of the presents and all the toy cars escaped! Oh dear! But she got to leave her message to remind him what she would very much like for Christmas. You should have seen her face when she heard his voice on his message.
This coming week will be a happy and sad week at the same time.
So incredibly happy because on Tuesday Caitlyn is starting daycare on Tuesdays and Wednesdays every week and it is time for her to start doing some things with other kids in a daycare setting. When Bianca got sick that was one of the very difficult decisions we had to make, keeping Caitlyn out of a daycare setting because the risk at that point was just too great, there is still a risk, but we feel confident we are able to manage it better now. I've always loved the idea of my kids going to daycare because they get to play with so many other kids, they learn to share, they get to do all sorts of other activities which might not always be possible at home. But out of this initial decision to keep Caitlyn home, came a great solution - the au pairs we've had all along. First there was Sanna (from Sweden) and she certainly came at a time when we needed her the most. It was right at that time where Bianca still had lots of hospital stays and with a baby not sleeping through at that point, it was such a great help having her around. Then there was Sandrea from Malaysia and although she was only here for a month with us, it was such a great time having her too. And then Jody. Jody came all the way from Canada and became one of our family for 7 months. Each of these au pairs got to experience different stages of Caitlyn's development and my kids got to learn so much from people from other countries.
I've been making a list of the things Caitlyn says (and how she pronounces these words) and I realised just how many words she can actually say. Her longest sentences are "I see you" and "aw day law" (all day long). Hopefully this list will help the staff at the daycare centre understand if she suddenly holds out her hand and says "tick" (her hand is sticky) or she is busy eating and saying "Ro" (meaning she is pretending to eat Christiphor Robin, a dinner time game we invented to make eating fun) and so on, because of course when she says something she will continue repeating it until you show you understand what she said.
The sad part this coming week is that Jody is going home. She is leaving on Wednesday and it will be very, very hard to say goodbye. It is so hard each time these wonderful girls say goodbye to us. Each of these girls became part of our family and they will always be, even though they live so far from us. We've learned so much from them and they've been a lifesaver to us. Without them we really would have struggled.
Then just before I go - a big thank you to Sandra Masters and Terence's colleagues at his work for their very generous donation to Funrazor. It is much much appreciated!
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3 comments:
Bless her, I can just imagine the face when she heard Santa's voicemail!
Enjoy your early celebrations.
P.S. The poto's of our CHOC Present drive are up, go check it out! Bianca had a profound effect on all my friends!
Time for bed in Sweden, will be falling asleep while watching Gilmore Girls and right now, I´m back at having a crush with Jess :)
Anyway, just wanted to say that you are constantly in my thoughts and prayers. Give the girls big hugs from me, and remember that you´ll always mean a lot to me!
Love
Sanna
I really hope that Bianca enjoys the early Christmas, she is such a sweet little girl, and deserves so much happiness! I was invited to Sharon's choc party, and I was just amazed that one little girl has such an effect on what we do, she's amazing!!
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