Christmas Part I

This Christmas is going to have to be written up in instalments. Darron is on leave at the moment, two weeks, over Christmas and New Year! First time in 10 years! So we decided that rather than spend Christmas driving all over the country side we'd go to Rosedale this year and start alternating years. We had already celebrated with Dad and Trish and Paul, Melissa, Bella and Ave, Tenealle, Steve and Jack and Tim & Beck a couple of weeks ago, due to a couple of my siblings heading to QLD for Christmas.

Mum and Ed came over the day before Christmas Eve to give Coen his pressies! (I got some too! Darron had already received his golf bag a couple of days before to make packing easier!)

Coen got some fantastic Thomas toys and cooking equipment, but most important was the wheelbarrow!

Which he used to tidy up all the wrapping paper. Those Coen sized work gloves are too cute!

Then on Christmas Eve we packed up both cars, Coen and me in the Territory with all the luggage, Darron and Riley in the Barina! Coen discovered early in the trip that he could halt the convoy by simply requesting a potty stop. Within the first 15km we had stopped 4 times so he could use the potty at the side of the road. I think he enjoyed the power trip immensely! We stopped in at Dad's where Riley disrupted Shakes' bath by jumping in and out of the water, and eventually made it to Rosedale where Riley jumped in and out of the pond, possibly scaring the new fish to death!

Dayle and I had some fun with Mawson, and Wendy took some fabulous shots of him with her new camera! Then we settled in and waited for Santa to come!

Jen

Trip to Melbourne Aquarium

On Tuesday the 9th of December Coen, Myself, Pop, Nathan and Shailea went on an expedition to the Melbourne Aquarium for a Salvation Army Kids Christmas Party.

Here's Coen and Pop enjoying the train ride in. Coen made sure Pop packed his camera.

A new exhibit at the Aquarium is the Penguins. They have both King and Gentoo Penguins. We all loved watching the penguins waddling across the ice and swimming in their tank. After all Coen's swimming lessons he though he was capable of joining them for a dip, if only he could get over the glass!

Here's Coen on his Snowdo, still in the Antarctica Exhibit area. It wasn't easy getting him off this thing.

We found Nemo!

The kids got to play with some shark eggs

And a Star Fish

We got to see Iva the Diver feeding all the Fish, Stingrays and Sharks. Apparently the diver's are most afraid of the sea turtles as they are rather bitey.

The sharks aren't too fussed by the diver's but keep an eye on everything that's going on.

There were lots of interesting things to see.

And after being all fished out Coen got to meet this fella who gave him a HUGE Car as a present.

Darron

Showing off Hidden Valley

Mum and Ed had a lovely BBQ on Sunday to show off their new home. All the Lamb clan was there, it was really nice to catch up with everyone, especially as we'll be chrismassing in Rosedale this year, it was a bit of pre-christmas christmas!

The young folk headed over the back fence to have a hit of golf.

Beck played with her super new camera! Here she is taking photos of Coen and Maddie playing in the garden, which they did all afternoon! We're looking forward to seeing how they turn out. I'm sure both the photos and the kids will turn out beautifully!

And Coen and Emily had a lovely cuddle! He was so gentle and careful with her. They're both just too sweet! Thanks Tai and John for sending us the photos too!

Jen

A Little Victory

I admit I'm not the world's greatest housekeeper. I'm really good at some things, I can colour inside the lines, braid my own hair and make fantastic banana muffins, oh and pizza, I make good pizza too. But the thing that I'm best at is procrastinating, and procrastination and housework are not the best of friends. Add to the mix a sick child who wants to be held ALL DAY LONG; toilet training the same child, a task requiring everything to be dropped at an instant's notice; Darron being on night shift, not sure what the relevence of that is but I'm using it as an excuse; and warm weather, it's not even hot and I'm already not coping. The end result is this...

It's a disaster, let's take a closer look...

So I thought if I photographed the horror I might be able to shame myself into some basic housekeeping. And guess what... it worked! Coen was my shadow, and we did have to make several dashes to the potty, but I'm claiming a victory. A little victory over my procrastinating self!Now there are just my other messes to take care of.

Maybe some other time...

Jen

Another Big Weekend

We had another big exciting weekend! On Friday we celebrated Tenealle and Steve's wedding. It was a wonderful day, the rain held out for most of the day. It was a really fun wedding, lots of dancing! Unfortunately I have NO photos. I've relied on Tim and the new camera again! All the great pics he and Beck took are on Facebook.

Then we spent the weekend at Rye with Dad and Trish who were looking after Jack so his parents could have a honeymoon weekend, Paul, Melissa, Bella and Ave. It was great to catch up with everyone and Coen had a ball playing with the girls.

We made it to the beach a couple of times, it even got warm on Sunday morning!

Jen

A Big Weekend!

We're still recovering from a huge weekend!

On Saturday we went to our friend Belinda's beautiful wedding. It was wondeful to see her so happy! Congratulations Belinda & Shaun!

I love this picture of the two of them dancing, the joy in both their faces makes me grin!

And here's us with the lovely bride!

Then after a wonderful sleep in on Sunday (thanks Mum & Ed!), we picked up Coen and headed over to Lilydale Lake for Jack's 1st Birthday party.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Coen had a great time running around, chasing Bella and Ave! Credit for the great photos goes to Tim on Beck's new camera. I think the one above is just about the best photo ever!

And there's the photographer himself, roped into silly facebook style pictures by his sister!

We've got something on every week until christmas now, busy, busy, busy. Must remember to get some sleep in at some stage. Next is Tenealle and Steves wedding on Friday. It should be a great day and we're really looking forward to spending the weekend down at Rye!

Jen

Coen has allergies

We already knew he was sensitive to cut grass and pollens, as well as tomatoes and oranges. But these were all minor reactions that cleared with a dose of Dimetapp. We knew from the moment it appeared on Tuesday morning that this was different. It started under his chin and spread like crazy. While we were waiting to see the first doctor of this adventure (one in Wallan, couldn't get in at Kilmore) we could see it spreading before our eyes. Watching this spread across my baby's skin was quite frightening.

One of his more "minor" outbreaks

After a dose of phenergan it started clearing, but then on our return to the Dr to check it suddenly appeared all over his head spreading down his neck and shoulders, the Dr handed us a referral and said go straight to the Royal Childrens, if his breathing becomes difficult, call an ambulance. So with memories of both of Darrons episodes of anaphalaxis flooding our heads we bundled Coen into the car and headed off. Sure enough just before we hit the Hume, Coen started coughing with every breath, so the ambulance came to get us. By the time they arrived his breathing had settled a bit and they took us to the Northern Hospital, (not really where we wanted to be but the closest) where Coen was checked out by a Dr who seemed personally offended that we'd been heading to the Royal Children's! He prescribed more medicine and told us to see our GP. At least Coen had an exiting ride in an Ambulance!

Now while we'd love to be able to go to the local clinic in Kilmore, we just can't get in to see Tony (my childhood Dr) and the only Dr you can see on short notice is an absolute flaming idiot who offends me so much I can't stand to be in his presence (the toned down version), and you usually have to wait at least an hour to get in. So we decided to try one of the other clinics in Wallan and stumbled across Dr Kincaid, who was wonderful, she gave us a referral to a paediatrician for allergy testing and then as we were leaving the welts sprung up before her eyes. She sent us home to dose him with more medicine and told us if it gets worse head to the Royal Children's (bit of a theme here...).

So we did, and he did, so we did, off we went again. This time we made it to the RCH without incident, and after being told that the wait could be 3 hours we settled in. Coen had a wonderful time playing and chatting up staff, in the end we only waited an hour and a half to see a Dr. She gave us all the info on his hives and basically told us to stop worrying about the rash and only worry if his breathing became difficult. It was a great relief to speak to someone who knew exactly what she was talking about. She also gave us a direct referral to their allergy clinic so we don't have to worry about seeing the Paediatrician now, which should shorten the whole process.

Everone's biggest worry has been because of the family history. With Darron having anaphaliaxis caused by we still have no idea what, severe food allergies in both our extended families and excema and asthma through both sides, Coen is a prime candidate for massive allergies. We've always known this but nothing can prepare you for when a bad reaction actually happens. So now we wait for the clinic to call us and then we get to spend more time at the hospital, getting allergy tested. Once we know what it is, we can deal with it.

A big thanks to all our parents for their support (mostly by phone as we dashed all over the countryside!)

Coen is now an 'ideal' patient. He lifts up his shirt, waits patiently for the beep on the thermometer, takes nice deep breaths with the stethoscope on his tummy and back, turns his head for the torch in his ears and opens wide, sticks his tongue out and says "arrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". He even nods in understanding and says "yeah" "aha" & "mmmm" in understanding when the doctor is explaining things to us.

Jen & Darron

A Day Out With Thomas... and Grandpa

Yesterday we went to the Day Out With Thomas show at Emerald. Coen loves trains, especially Thomas the Tank Engine and Puffing Billy, so when the two are combined there was fun to be had. I couldn't believe it when I called to book tickets and was told that the original date we wanted to go had been booked out 3 weeks in advance, so after a date shuffle we were on our way!

We picked up Grandpa (the genetic source of Coen's train obsession) on the way to Emerald and managed to get the very last parking space in the carpark! I had expected the event to be much more commercial than it was. It was quite low key, they obviously cap the numbers low and the heavy involvement of the local scout troupe gives the whole thing a bit of a back county feel!

The weather was perfect, warm, overcast and breezy.

The Pantomime was perfect, cheesy, overacted and silly.

During the show Coen had a bit of a dilemma. The rush of steam up close was very loud and frightening, but it was life sized Thomas and he couldn't help but look. So he clung to Darron for most of the show.



He was brave enough to have his photo taken with the Fat Controller, who was not that fat and I'm sure the Fat Controller is bald (I've seen enough of the dvd's to know!)



And with Thomas and Grandpa.



After the show and a ride on Bulgey the Bus we had a ride on one of the Puffing Billy trains to Menzies Creek and back to Emerald. Coen was pretty apprehensive about the whole idea of going on a noisy train...



But once he was on board he had a wonderful time!

It really is a beautiful part of the world, and I find I enjoy a ride on Pufing Billy as much as I did when I was kid. We had a great day out with Grandpa and Thomas!

Jen