Declutter Bug strikes again!!!

Earlier this week, the declutter bug must have bitten me as I got an overwhelming urge to purge the house of unwanted, unloved and unused items in the hope of creating a more simpler and clutter-free life.

First on the radar was the linen cupboard in the hallway. I found quite a few bed sheets and blankets which we no longer need... especially ones for a double bed.... since we don't even OWN a double bed???

Next up, I set the girls up in the lounge room with a movie whilst I set to work decluttering their bedroom. It was paramount that I made sure that they were suitably distracted otherwise they would want to 'help', and then nothing would get done, or disposed of!!! Two hours later and the result was a car boot loaded up with clothes and toys to be donated. 

I also did a quick declutter in Jack's room whilst he was at school and gave my next door neighbour a bag full of clothes for her son. He didn't have much in the way of toys to get rid of, as now that he's getting older, he tends to only play with a few things, and the things he didn't need found new homes last time I did a declutter in his room.

Well, the declutter bug struck again today, and this time I decided to tackle our bedroom and walk-in-robe. Well, the end result was 2 huge garbage bags of clothes, and a large stripy bag full of other bits and pieces which were too good to throw away, but which we no longer needed and were just cluttering up our cupboard and drawers.

Even Tim got in on the act and he had a really good sort out of all his clothes and got rid of heaps! (He had so many clothes, but as he works all week and is only home on the weekend, all he ever wears is his work uniform and a few outfits at home, yet his cupboard hanging space and drawers were overflowing with unused clothes!)

I even managed to free up a drawer in the top of my chest of drawers, and have now turned the chest of drawers into a dressing table as well. No longer are my pretty bottles of perfume and jewelery box hidden away inside the walk-in-robe, but they are now proudly displayed onto of my new dressing table/chest of drawers. The top drawer is now home to my makeup and hair accessories instead of them all being crammed into the top drawer in the bathroom... which also meant that I inadvertantly did a declutter in the bathroom whilst I was at it too!

It was a such a good feeling taking all the bags of rubbish and things to be donated out to the car and knowing that these things would no longer be adding to the clutter inside our home, but also knowing that by getting rid of these things, I have been able to better organise the space in these rooms. Not only do I now have a lovely dressing table, but I also have an area set up in my room for my sewing machine and all the fabric and bits and pieces to go with it! No longer is it tucked away underneath my computer desk, but is sitting ready and waiting for me to let my creativity loose!

Still on the 'Declutter To-Do-List' is the loungeroom, kitchen/dining room, laundry, computer desk area, and the really scary one... the garage!! That one's going to be a doozy!!!

There's one particular item in the house which I'm eagerly eying off but think I'll wait another day or so... Melody's dummy! I hid it first thing this morning, and she has gone the whole day without it! I'm really excited about the prospect of getting rid of it as her dummy is like an extra appendage for her. The fact that she has managed to cope reasonably well without it all day is a really good thing! Think I'll keep it hidden for another day or so before the declutter bug steals it!

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best

"Hey Mum! Look at this cool new toy I found!!!"

"Woah... this standing up without holding onto anything business is tricky!"

"Woohoo! I did it!"

Ahoy there land lubbers and fairy princesses...

Well, I said that I would post some photos up of my handy work redecorating Jack and Ebony's room so here they are :)

This is what Jack's room looks like now...

Enter... if you dare!

This is Jack's door, complete with skulls hanging from the door frame.

And this is what Ebony's room looks like now...

Our vesicostomy journey is coming to an end - YIPPEEEE

A few nights ago, when I changed Ebony's nappy, she was wet down the bottom (where wee is supposed to come) and only a little wet where her vesicostomy is... which is a sign that the bladder is starting to function properly on its own again! I was soooooo excited! I was doing a happy dance around the house!


I took Ebony to see Professor Dewan (her Urologist) today and told him that she had the wet nappy the other night where its supposed to be wet, and he was just as happy about it as me!

He said that this means he can now close her vesicostomy as it means that her bladder has started working on its own again.

We have to go back and see him at his clinic in Geelong on 15 October so that we can go about organising getting her booked into hospital so that he can perform the surgery to reverse the vesicostomy, and also do the bilateral ureteric reimplantation.

He originally told me before she had her vesicostomy operation that once she was old enough, it could be reversed and I would have to catheterise her myself 4 times a day to drain her bladder manually. However, when I asked him about it today he said that as long as everything goes well, I shouldn't have to do that now because the bladder is now starting to work on its own again.

YIPPEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm sooooooo happy!!!

I'm Baaaaaack!

Well, what can I say other than I've been really slack with my blog over the last few months! For those who have been following me and waiting patiently for me to post my latest ramblings... I'm very sorry!

Since my last post, my friend has had her baby girl, and I was fortunate enough to be her support person throughout her labour. I can honestly say that aside from the birth of my own children, it is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. It was fascinating to be on the other side of the labour process and to experience it from the other point of view.

I've also been busy redecorating the kids rooms after Jack complained to me that his room was "BORRRRIIIIINNNGGG!"

He decided on a pirate theme for his room so I found him a new pirate doona cover, hung up some new blue curtains, hung up a jolly roger flag and some bunting with skulls and crossbones on it (which I made by simply printing out images onto paper, cutting and sticking on some string) and printed out lots of pirate themed pictures to stick all over his walls. He is so happy with the end result, and considering how much of it was achieved just using the computer and a printer, it was really cheap to do. I think all up for a new doona, the curtains, flag, a few ornaments and stickers it cost me about $50!

After doing Jack's room, I got the redecorating bug and decided that Ebony's room needed a revamp too. She now has a fairy princess and butterflies theme going. Her room probably cost closer to the $300 mark to do, but that was because we had to buy a whole new big girl bed and mattress, plus all the bedding and manchester to go with it. She was so excited about her big bed though and couldn't wait to go to sleep in it!

I'll post some photos later so you can see my creative handy work :)

School holidays have started, but because Jack has been at his Dad's for the last few days, today is really the start of the school holidays for us. so I'm looking forward to spending time with all my babies doing lots of fun things!

And the countdown begins... starting with a Baby Shower :)

My best friend is expecting a baby girl, and with this weekend signalling the last remaining 4 weeks until the little angel arrives (going by the due date that is!), it was time to hold a baby shower in her honour!

I got together with another friend and together we planned a 'semi' surprise shower. 'Semi' in terms of the guest of honour knew we were throwing her a baby shower, but that was it... she had no idea as to who was invited, or what events were planned.

We played a couple of games to keep everyone entertained and have a few laughs. 

For one game, we filled some baby bottles with about 50ml of water and guests had to race each other to see who could finish drinking the water the quickest. We were all surprised by just how difficult it actually is and found a new respect for babies who make it look so easy!

We also played where at the beginning of the shower, everyone was given a nappy pin. Whenever someone said the word 'baby', the person who caught them saying it got to take their pin. The idea was that whoever had the most pins by the end of the day won. This was also rather fun as once guests lost their pins, they felt like they were left out so they became very quick to pounce on anyone who said the word... and even thought of sneaky ways of trying to trick people into saying it! It also proved to be a good way of getting people to mingle and talk to people they didn't know.

There was also a questionaire booklet handed out to each guests with questions about the guest of honour such as what was her favourite food/movie/football team etc. We then went through the questions at the end and the guest of honour answered them so that we could see who had the most questions right.


There was also a section in the booklet where guests had to describe her using the letters of her name in the style of an acrostic, and also a page where they had to draw a picture of her (could be cartoon, stick figure, etc). This was rather amusing as there were several drawings with rather large baby bumps included. One guest even cheated and rather sneakily stuck the guest of honours' drivers licence to his page!


These booklets were all collected at the end of the baby shower and given to her as a keepsake.

It was a fantastic, relaxing day with lots of laughter, lots of yummy food, and she received many wonderful gifts. Now we just have to wait till the little bundle of joy decides its time to make her grand entrance.....

School holidays....

Well, Jack is on school holidays now for the next two weeks so now comes the challenge of trying to keep both him and Ebony amused, and therefore not trying to kill each other!

Day 1 - Jack woke up at 7.30am and within 15 minutes had already asked if he could play on the Nintendo Wii. When I told him "no", he responded with "what about my D.S?". When that requested was also greeted with a resounding "NO!" he asked the inevitable..."why?"

I told him that it was not even 8am, he was still in his PJ's and hadn't even had breakfast! Besides that, there was plenty of time for him to be able to play on the Nintendo during the next two weeks, and he better not think that he is going to be spending the entire holidays playing computer games!

He sulked off, and eventually went and got dressed and made himself some breakfast.

An hour later (at 8.45am) he sulked up to me once again, this time declaring the infamous words that all mothers dread when it comes to school holidays...

"I'M BORED!"

You can imagine how thrilled I was to hear this! 8.45am on the first day of school holidays and already the "I'm bored" syndrome has kicked in... YIPPEEE!!! 

Is this a sign of things to come? I seriously hope not... otherwise I may need to drag out my pink diamonte encrusted straight jacket from the depths of my wardrobe, find a nice quiet corner somewhere, curl up into the foetal position, hands over my ears, and start singing "LA LA LA LA" at the top of my lungs!

Guess Who's Turning 3!

 

Three bright candles on your cake

Two proud parents your day to make

One and only birthday girl

Fairy princess give a twirl

Bright as a button, cute and belle,

Fairy princess weave your spell.

Here's wishing you the most happy day
Perfect and magical in every way
For you our love and biggest kiss
This day we surely would not miss
With one wave of your magic wand
Happy Birthday...and all days beyond.

Happy 3rd Birthday Ebony!

XXXX

Spoilt? Or the victim of over-consumerism and commercialization??

It was my son's 7th birthday on Friday and I discovered 2 things about him, and also myself and our spending habits.

I had spent a fair bit of time trawling around the shops trying to find him something. I eventually settled on a large Meccano set of a remote controlled car which you build that has lights and music - not exactly a cheap present (approx $80).

After waiting patiently all day for my husband to get home from work, Jack eagerly ripped off the wrapping paper on his birthday present. The look on his face showed that he wasn't really all that thrilled by his present, but what I found even more disappointing was to hear "where are my other presents?"

I explained that this was his present and that it had cost a lot of money. "Oh..." came the reply.

All over the world, there are far less fortunate children who would be delighted with the most simplest of toys. Yet, here was my child, who when clearly disappointed with my offerings, sat there and without batting an eyelid asked for more. Is my son really that spoilt? Surely not...

I sat down and thought about this. I then remembered all the conversations I had had with friends and family members asking what they should get him for his birthday. Each time I was asked I had answered "I don't know. I had enough trouble trying to find something for him myself!" 

Every suggestion of more Transformers figurines, Lego, computer games for his Nintendo DS or the Nintendo Wii were met with "he already has heaps of those. He doesn't really need anything. In fact, half of the toys he has he never plays with anyway".

I realised that yes, in some ways my son is spoilt. He has pretty much everything a modern child could want, which is far more than what he actually needs. 

There is so much pressure to buy these new fan-dangled toys because you get bombarded with phrases like "but Matthew's got it" and "I'm the only kid in my class who hasn't got one", or my personal favourite "this is the only toy I want" yet when they get it, it sits in the corner gathering dust.

I hold myself at fault for caving in to this, but at the same time, a lot has to be said for marketing and society in general these days for helping to contribute to this. It is very hard in our modern day society to find toys for children which cost less than $30. No sooner have you been suckered into buying the newest and latest thing, than something else has come out to replace it.

Nowadays, the majority of toys do not really allow for children to actually PLAY with them. They have buttons that you push and they move/make noise/flash lights on their own. Children are very limited in what they can actually use their imagination for when it comes to playing with these toys as they are already preprogrammed to do everything with the simple push of a button, leaving the child to simply sit there and watch. 

The most common phrase to come out of his mouth is "I'm bored!" How could he possibly be bored when he has a room filled to the brim with toys? The answer is that there is only so much watching a toy that a child can do before they get bored... which then leads them to want something new to 'play' with.

Also, everything these days is associated with characters from movies, TV shows, sports stars, celebrities etc. The price of toys and even normal everyday items such as toothpaste, clothes, even breakfast cereal is increased dramatically simply because it has a picture of the childs favourite character or celebrity on it.

I came across a documentary called 'Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood' which is a real eye opener.

"Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car.

Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children’s advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world.

Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children’s marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids."

To watch this documentary, simply click on the links below:

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Part 1)

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Part 2)

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Part 3)

This documentary has really given me a lot of food for thought about what my children are watching, and what part I can play as their parent in limiting the amount of exposure they have to this sort of subliminal marketing.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away? I think we need more apples!

My little girl Ebony has been through so much in her short life so far.

When she was 8 months old, she basically stopped growing. She completely dropped off all the growth charts and was classed as Failure To Thrive (FTT). She went through countless blood tests and doctors appointments, was seeing paediatricians and nutritionists, but nobody could seem to tell us why she was not growing.

When she was 10 months old, our paediatrician decided to do a simple urine test to check for a UTI (as this can apparently be a cause of FTT). Low and behold, we discovered she did in fact have one and she was immediately placed onto antibiotics. Problem solved? Unfortunately not.

As soon as one course of antibiotics was finished, she would get another UTI. The paediatrician decided to keep her on a prophylactic dose of antibiotics to try and prevent the UTI's from recurring, however, she was even getting breakthrough infections whilst on the antibiotics.

In late November 2008, she came down with a UTI so severe, it spread to her kidneys and she was hospitalised with a kidney infection for 4 days.

We were then referred to Professor Paddy Dewan, a paediatric urologist and surgeon (and to us, a Saint!). After countless renal ultrasounds, xrays, DMSA and Mag 3 scans, a cystoscopy, and an operation called a urethral dilatation, he discovered that Ebony has Grade 3 reflux in her kidneys on both sides which was why she kept getting infections, as well as permanent scarring. This would require her to have an operation called ureteral reimplantation.

However, he also discovered she had a trabeculated bladder. Basically, the muscles of her bladder were so overworked from all the infections that they had stopped working and she was unable to urinate properly. Unfortunately, due to this, he was unable to perform a ureteral reimplantation as it would only make the reflux worse, and she could not risk any further damage to her kidneys.

He decided, the best course of action was to perform a vesicostomy. In simple terms, a vesicostomy is an operation where they make an opening below the belly button to allow the bladder to drain continuously  from this opening into a nappy (or into a special bag in older children) This allows the bladder muscles the opportunity to heal, and prevents urine from travelling back up to the kidneys and damaging them further.

She has now had her vesicostomy (or stoma as they are commonly referred to) since January 2009. We do not know how long she will need the vesicostomy for. It could be years. We do know however that she still has at least 2 more operations ahead of her (reversal of the vesicostomy and the ureteral reimplantation). On the positive side though, she has not had a single UTI since having it done! Her weight however, continues to be of concern and is being followed up with the paediatrician.

***********************************************

It has been over a week since I last posted on my blog, but that is with very good reason. Every day last week was spent attending medical appointments, visiting doctors, and even included an overnight stay in hospital when my 4 month old daughter, Melody, was admitted for treatment for a suspected UTI (urinary tract infection). This was a rather scary time as I was having a major case of deja vu.

Her child health nurse was concerned as her weight appears to be dropping and so she recommended I take her to my local doctor to be tested for UTI. 

I took her to our local doctor on Thursday and he did a simple dip stick urine test and detected some anomalies. He then advised me to take her to hospital for a more accurate test to be carried out.

The doctors at the hospital agreed that something was not right, however were unsure if it was in fact a UTI. Due to Ebony's history of renal issues, they did not want to take the risk of ignoring it so they admitted her for antibiotic treatment via IV drip. They also took some blood samples for testing (which we are still waiting to hear of the results). 

The following day, they said I could take her home and continue treatment with antibiotics as they felt she was more at risk or catching something else from the hospital as there are a lot of nasty things going around at the moment.

She appears well so we are hoping that it was not a UTI, or that if it is, we have nipped it in the bud.

Unfortunately, our medical issues seem to have spilled over into this week as Ebony is now unwell. She vomited on Sunday evening, and then again this morning (all throughout my car!) I was hoping that the episode on Sunday was a once off and would just prove to be a 24 hour bug, however, after this morning, I'm worried she may have picked up the nasty gastro bug which is currently doing the rounds... which in all honesty would not surprise me given how much time we spent in doctors surgeries and hospitals last week!

I don't think she has a UTI (at least I'm praying its not), but if she is still unwell tomorrow, I'll be heading back to the doctors again! Think I need to reserve a personal parking space... or at least ask if I'm entitled to discount parking!

Fun in the sun!

Ebony must have developed a touch of the cooking bug as she wanted to make her own sandwiches yesterday! She made herself a nutella sandwich - which is really good as for the last 18 months, about the only thing she would eat on sandwiches was vegemite! 

After she made her sandwich, she announced that she wanted to have a picnic in the backyard,so we took a blanket outside and ate our lunch in the garden.

Even the Milo the cat got in on the picnic! 

It was quite a nice day yesterday (although a little chilly) so we stayed outside to play for the rest of the day. Ebony and Jack played on the swingset... 

and Milo the cat... well, he played on the trampoline!

We had a great time playing in the sun!

"Pizza, pizza, I love to eat the pizza"

Last night, as I began organising dinner, Ebony announced that she wanted to help me. As this was the first time she had ever asked to help with cooking , I took full advantage of the moment! I decided to make pizza as it would be something simple which she could help lots with.


I had a child sized apron and chefs hat in the kitchen drawer which she asked to put on. She looked so cute!


The first pizza we made was one with bacon, mushrooms, tomato and cheese. She had lots of fun sprinkling the toppings on, although she tended to just sprinkle them in one area so I had to help her to spread them out a bit.

The second pizza we made was a dessert pizza. We smothered this pizza with lots of nutella and then covered it with chocolate chips! Ebony had a great time making this pizza... especially when it came to licking the spatula clean that was covered in nutella! And I'm sure there were quite a few chocolate chips that never made it onto the pizza!

Once we had finished making the pizzas, she set the dinner table ready for everyone to sit down and eat the pizzas she had helped to make! She was so pleased with herself! 


I really enjoyed spending this time with her. It turned what would normally be a rather uninteresting job for me into a fun experience which I could share with my little girl.