Tuesday, April 29, 2008

All moved in

We had TONS of people over helping us move at the weekend. It was very uplifting to see so many people caring enough to help us out. It all went really smoothly. We're really enjoying our new place. there are wee girls living next door who Kaya and Lana love playing with. It's so much quieter here than our last house.


Ok here are pics..

Front of house



hallway



master bedrooom



Girls bedroom (we needed to get them bunkbeds because we didn't have enough room for the others)



bathroom


kitchen and dining area



livingroom


Bakcyard - my favourite part - there are wild groundsquirrels that come right up to our back window. And woodpeckers.




And here's a video of me walking through the house. I guess you could call it a virtual tour







Thursday, April 24, 2008

Turtle from the outside

I felt Turtle kick from the outside this morning. Very sweet. I was resting my hand on my belly while snoozing next to Zoe. And it kicked my hand, like it wanted me to move it off or something. Took me by surprise!



Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Zoe on her soap box

"I have a dream..."





Sunshine



I'm LOVING it. Green all over the trees now, daffodils and flowers brightening up the gardens, green yards where the brown ones once were. The weather today is sunny and in the 70s. According to our car it reached 81 at the weekend. This is as good as Summer ever got in Scotland. I've had to break out the sunscreen and shades and sun hats. The girls are out playing and feeling happy. I just love it! (I'm sure I'll be rather fed up with it come 3rd trimester and 100 degree weather! But for now this is awesome)



Help the Earth by surfing the web



I thought THIS looked pretty cool. It's an Internet search page, which uses the yahoo engine, and spends money earned through advertising to plant trees.

They claim "For every 1000 searches made, Ecocho grows 2 trees
- this offsets a ton of greenhouse gases."

Seems worth the click to me.



Ah the taste of Scotland



My dad and step mother sent us a box of some British foods they managed to pick up at a local store.

Irn Bru is a Scottish soda drink, Rene LOVES it especially.

They also sent Scottish porridge, Weetabix, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Fox Crunch Creams, some Indian curry pastes, and loads more goodies. Kaya tasted some of it and got all sentimental and said,

"It's like when I taste this, I feel like I remember Scotland, and it remembers me. It's like we're connected"



Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Ultrasound today

I had a midwife appointment today, but she was called off to deliver a baby. So I was seen by the nurse instead. Uneventful, nothing to report, everything seems well.

And we had the ultrasound. Of course we told her we don't want to know the gender, so she didn't tell us. But turtle looks great, healthy. Was moving and opening his/her mouth. Very cute. Kaya said it looks like a peanut. Lana kept asking if the baby and I were going to be ok. Sweetheart.

Here are some pics.
First the profile pic. Cute.



Then the face shot. Babies always look like skeletons at this stage, which is kind of creepy. But I love this shot, it looks like Turtle has a huge smile on his/her face!



New Playlist!!

I've changed my playlist to be all Apologetix songs. This is a Christian parody band, who do covers/parodies of popular secular songs, but with a Biblical twist.

Very funny, very clever, very entertaining. Do click play and have a listen. Google their lyrics and sing along. They rock.



Thursday, April 17, 2008

How I make porridge



This is not a traditional scottish way to make it or anything. It's my own method/recipe I've developed. It's certainly not low calorie, but still a yummy way to get more of that oaty goodness in your body.

Ok first I boil the milk. Fat free works fine. Kaya prefers me to add chopped pears and chopped prunes in while the milk is boiling. I usually omit them when making porridge just for me, cause I'm not as keen on it, but she loves it and gobbles it up when I add them.

Then I add the oats. None of this minute oat, or quick oat garbage. I get organic rolled oats from open harvest (health food store). If you live in Scotland, any oats from the supermarket will work perfect, cause they know how to make them proper over there. The yankies don't do oats right.

I add a pinch of salt and cinnamon and a few spoons of brown sugar or molasses and boil away for ten mins or so, stirring frequently.

Then I serve it into bowls and pour some heavy whipping cream over the top! It's sooo indulgent and tastes so good. You can mix the cream in, or let it sit on top like curds and whey. Either way is good.

My customers give me rave reviews








Wednesday, April 16, 2008

I just thought this was cute





Happy Heart

We had Zoe's EKG appointment today. I was so nervous about it, I didn't sleep much last night at all.

First, they did the EKG which did show something abnormal. Then they asked us more about her symptoms and they seemed quite conserned. But when they listened to her heart, she no longer has a murmur. So in the past few weeks it's vanished somehow.

So they did an ultrasound of her heart. And it appears to be perfect!



I'm very relieved to hear that. Very relieved.

From describing these episodes where she turns blue and gets really sleepy, and the Dr observed how sleepy she was acting while we were in there, they seem conserned and want to do further testing. She's going to have a 24 hour EKG, and maybe some brain testing incase it's a fault there, like maybe these are some kind of seizure she's having but with no jerking etc. I don't think that's likely, but I'm glad they're checking out everything to rule it out.

I do hope we get to the bottom of it. Who knows, maybe she's been healed? I know a lot of people were praying. Either way I'm just SO HAPPY it doesn't seem to be a heart issue. From what I read on the web about it (I know, you should never look this stuff up on the web) the heart thing would have been a huge worry.

Here's hoping she never has another episode. Either way I'm glad she has a perfect heart!



Tuesday, April 15, 2008

a-saurus

Kaya told me if I were a dinosaur, I'd be a Grumpy-asuarus and if Daddy were a dinosaur, he'd be a Pumpasaurus.


Lana was a lot kinder and said I'd be a Happy-mumasaurus and Daddy would be a Kingasaurus cause he'd be king of all the dinosaurs. :)



Monday, April 14, 2008

Cookie Monster

Zoe loves her cookie monster <3









Thursday, April 10, 2008

Depression



At Lana's Psychiatry appointment on Tuesday, the Dr told us she has depression, based on the answers we gave in the interview. I refused meds for her, so they're doing a series of therapy sessions, which will be for the whole family, not just Lana.

I don't have much to say about it at the moment. I haven't been able to digest it properly yet myself. Part of me wonders how it's even possible for a 3 year old to have depression. I tend to think she has a depressive temperament, and depressive tendancies, rather than she flat out has depression. Sometimes she's fine and plays happily and is as cute as ever, though she does have low energy levels compared to other kids her age. I think the diagnosis was based on her lack of enthusiasm for socialising, the fact that she sleeps a lot when she's upset and that she loses her apetite a lot. That's what they seemed to be focussing on anyway.

I just don't know what to think. I find it quite crazy really.

Anyway I thought I should give some sort of an update. So here it was.



Good big sister



Kaya's good with her little sisters (for the most part).
She's excited about turtle coming too. Today she was rubbing my tummy and talking to Turtle. Then Zoe tried to feed her snacks to Turtle and Lana was having fun shaking my belly all around. hehe



Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Look who's walkin'



She's such a stinker she hardly lets me get a photo or video of her toddling around. As soon as she hears the "beep" of the flip being turned on she throws herself onto the floor.

I did manage to get one vid of a few steps. She can do better than this though. She can walk clear across the room.
Disclaimers - her clothes are falling off, the buckle broke. She's in a sposie diaper - we did sposies while we were all ill with the cold. She has a thick lip where she bumped it on the porch earlier that day.







He's a good man



I won't always admit this, I can't have him getting a big head. But I thought I should say something today about my darling husband, Rene.

Zoe had a really rough night on Sunday night, didn't sleep well. Then on Monday night she started acting the same way, refusing to sleep and I was exhausted by this point. She was also pretty hot with temperature (don't tell me this stupid cold is going to strike again!) so Rene took her, sat up in bed watching tv while holding her and let me sleep. She didn't really sleep at all and neither did he so he took the next day off work.

He also helped me clean up the house because the landlord was due to come with some people to look at the house.

Every day he washes the dishes, all the dishes. We don't have a dishwasher and I rarely have to wash a dish ever. He also washes laundry, even cloth diapers!

And he's been putting up with my hormonal mood swings and has been a rock for me.

Thanks Rene. I do love you.
xx



Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Dr visits, health issues

Zoe had her 12 month check up and Lana had a Dr appointment too scheduled for today. Despite us still feeling ill, we got dressed and went, because we had a list of things to talk with the Dr about.

Zoe's growing well. In the seventy somethingth % for weight and 95th for height.
I told the Dr her hands and feet turn blue sometimes and occasionally her lips do too. He said the hands and feet don't worry him but the lips do. He listened to her heart and she has a murmur. So she's going to have the ECG done, and I don't know if she'll have the ultrasound one done too. He's setting that up. I'm trying not to get too worried at this point. But mums can't help it.

Then onto Lana. She has a mole on her leg that will need removed in a couple years.

She has excema.

She's getting surgery on her eye, to put something in her eye permenantly to keep the duct open and drain the fluid. He's going to set that up and call us about it.

She's also being referred to a phyciatrist because we brought up some "quirks" that she has. He said he's not worried about the hair twisting, that he had 3 kids who were hair twisters and it's just a normal comfort thing. But the combination of all the other things I mentioned (lots of little things, she is sensitive to a lot of sounds and has to cover up her ears, she internalises emotions, sleeps a lot, etc) he agreed she should be checked out. I told him I don't want her on meds for behavioural issues and he agreed with me and said I can refuse any medication or treatment if I don't agree with it. So I'm comfortable with that. She's not a bad kid, she's not misbehaving. She's an extreme strong melancholy temperament type and I don't know if she has something else going on which could be diagnosed. She's such a sensitive soul, and carries the weight of the world on her wee shoulders. I do worry for her.

So I'm feeling a bit numb after all that. Just sent Rene out for ice cream (I'm pregnant, I'm allowed) and I'm getting back into my jammies to veg out for the night, and hopefully get over this cold.



Absence

Sorry I haven't been posting much, and the things I have posted haven't had pretty pictures over the past few days. We're all loaded with the cold here (other than Rene, who seems to have an indestructable immune system!) and I've just had no energy for posting or taking photos of sick kids.

The girls slept all day Sunday. I took them to church in the morning (I know, I'm bad, I didnt' realise at the time how sick they were getting) and by the time we got home they went straight to bed and slept until the next morning. They were up briefly in between, but not for long. Next day when they woke up they were all coughs and snot and poor Zoe is too. My sinuses have been killing me, and I've been having nose bleeds and headaches. So it's all fun fun fun here.

Kids seems slightly chirpier this morning, although they were still coughing all night and are still all stuffed up and snotty. They are playing though instead of lying down, so hopeuflly its a sign that we're going to start getting better.

Then I'll make my blog pretty again with nice pictures and less boring stuff in it.