Scarface

A sad and sorry Boo.

Poor little Boo.  He's had a mishap. 

Me, Milly and Buster were parked outside a friends house, ready for a playdate with Mother's Group.  It was pouring with rain, so I unstrapped the kids from their car seats whilst I was still in the car.  I've gotten out and started heading round to the kerbside of the car to get Milly and Buster out and I hear Buster screaming.  Milly had opened her car door and jumped out and Buster had followed.  Only he fell and landed head first into the gutter that was raging with water.  When he got up screaming his face was covered with blood and he was soaking wet.

After getting over my normal panic and paralysis reaction, I picked him up and rushed inside.  After we cleaned up Buster's face we saw that he had a deep little cut to his forehead.  Head wounds like to bleed, so face washers were at the ready to try and stop the blood.  He also had a graze on his head, nose and above his lip.  He'd stopped crying by this stage and had a very sad and sorry look on his face.  I think he was in a shock.  I know I was, and am very thankful one of the mums in my Mother's Group is a nurse with a level head and took charge of the situation.  She offered to go to the chemist and get some steri strips, which are thin adhesive strips which can be used to close small wounds.  I thought it was a deep enough cut that he might need a stitch or two.  In hindsight, I should have trusted the professional.

I decided to rush off to the hospital to get him checked out.  You know what traffic is like when you're in a hurry..........it is slow moving.  It was even slower moving given how much rain was coming down.  I was driving just as cautiously as everyone else on the road, with my precious cargo strapped in his car seat and looking a little confused and still very sad and sorry for himself.  Michael was working from home, so I dropped Milly off and Michael gave me a blanket and a change of clothes for Buster.

I drove around the hospital for 30 minutes.  There was not one car spot available.  I went into the two separate parking stations and lapped them twice.  I was getting so frustrated and by this stage a little teary as well.  I even exchanged words with the parking toll booth guy, asking him what I can do, where can I park, look at my poor child etc etc.  The parking toll booth guy just shrugged.  Aaarrgghhh!!!!!!

I then decided to ditch the hospital and head straight to my medical practice.  Again more parking problems, but at least I found a spot, even it was a little walk.  I hadn't had time to change Buster into some dry clothes and I was also soaking wet from holding him and walking in the rain.  With Buster wrapped in a blanket and cradled in my arms I presented him to the medical practice receptionist who said yes she could get Buster seen by a doctor but it would be a wait (because I didn't have an appointment).  I looked around the waiting room and it was half full with senior citizens.  So we waited an hour and watched as each senior citizen was called by a doctor and five minutes later were out again with their prescriptions filled.  I can't deny I was feeling a little pissed of that the older generation and their refill prescriptions were getting priority over a child with a cut head and banged up face.  After waiting one hour we saw a doctor who had a good look at the wound, cleaned it up and sent us to the practice nurse who put steri-strips on the cut.



Day 2 and a nice little scab is forming.

When we finally got home I collapsed on the lounge and finally exhaled.  By this time Buster was also back to his normal happy self and was busy looking for his next object to jump from.

As for Milly, well she originally denied that she had opened the car door.  She has been spoken to previously numerous times that she is not to get out of the car herself and wait for me or Michael to get her out.  However, one of the mums from Mother's Group had witnessed Milly open the car and get out first.  On cross examination Milly now admits she opened the car door and doesn't like anyone talking about the incident to her or hearing us tell anyone else.  She didn't get in trouble, it was an accident, but hopefully now she will adhere to why we like to get the kids out of the car and the dangers of doing it themselves.

The Wee Man

"Mmm, charming!" I can hear you say.  Yes, there is nothing more lovely than a photo of a toilet, I'd agree.  "And what's that thing on your toilet?" I also hear you ask.  Well, it's a Wee Man.  A toilet training urinal just for boys.  How does it work?  It clips onto the front of the toilet, allowing small boys to urinate while standing up un-aided - just like Dad.  Once a small boy's mission is completed, you just tip the urinal backwards allowing the wee to fall into the toilet. 

A good friend passed this on to us when we had Henry, and he used it a little when he started toilet training.  He quickly moved on to standing on a small step and weeing straight into the toilet, but Buster is a wee man (ie a small man) and he's just a little too wee (ie small) to stand on a step and reach the toilet.

We hadn't planned on starting toilet training yet.  We needed to do a bit of reading as a refresher, as it has been a while - in fact it has been since Henry.  We didn't need to train Milly, she wasn't interested and refused.  In typical Milly style, she decided when she was ready and just toilet trained herself.

It all came about when we were getting Buster ready for his bath and he kept saying "toilet now, I go toilet now".  So out of storage we found the Wee Man and set it up.  Buster is a very observant child and he stood in front of it knowing what to do..... but nothing happened.  Two days after setting up the Wee Man, Michael was getting Buster's bath ready and he turned around to find Buster had in fact done a wee in the Wee Man by himself.  So very proud.  He has since followed this up with another successful wee, but that is as far as we have taken it.  Only at bathtime do we encourage him.  I'm not really sure that he knows when he wants to do a wee, he certainly never tells us when he's doing a poo.  But I can assure you, we will be celebrating with pride when we say goodbye to nappies. 

Until then, Buster remains our wee little man.

Back to school

The 2012 school year has begun and it didn't quite start off with the bang we were expecting.  This year Henry is in Year 1.  Returning to school after the long Christmas school holidays, we thought he would be excited to see his friends again.  Instead, first day back he was quite teary and wouldn't get out of the car.  Bless him, he said he was scared.  The anxiety of the first day back and knowing his best friend was still on holiday and he would be in a class with different kids was a bit much.  After much coaxing and almost begging, I got him out of the car and in through the school gates.  He clung to me until the bell rang, and once it had sounded a different Henry emerged.  It was the Henry from last year who was happy to be back at school and he confidently went to sit in his class line ready for assembly.  Phew, what a relief!

Then it was my turn to be anxious.  It turns out Henry was being put in a composite class with Kindergarten kids.  It is a class made up of 10 kids from Year 1 and 10 kids from Kindergarten.  My first thought was why is Henry back in a class with kinders.  He got an excellent school report last year and is a high achiever.  I recognised some of the other Year 1 kids in his class and knew they weren't underachievers either.  His teacher held an information morning for us parents to learn about what to expect during the year and she explained the kids were specifically chosen for the composite class because they were independent workers. 

School has only been back a couple of weeks and Henry is already blossoming.  I think he sees himself as a bit of a role model to the kinders in his class, and why not, he is a great kid. 

Milly is also back at preschool.  This year she is attending three days a week and is in a room of 20 kids where the focus is on school readiness.  She is super keen to start school and could have started this year.  We decided to hold her back a year because although she is socially ready, starting school isn't about surviving, it's about thriving.  Emotionally, she could do with another year at home.

Milly's lunchbox and snack bag.  She likes a love letter in her lunchbox and her snack bag to be decorated differently each day.

And what of Buster?..... well he is at home with me.  Three days a week he now has me to himself.  He'll start preschool next year and then I'll be free for a couple of days a week.  I won't know what to do with myself.  Oh yes, I do..... I'll just enjoy some peace and quiet.