Sunday, January 27, 2008
Summer Dinners
We have had a really good summer in Wellington, and the BBQ we bought with wedding present gift vouchers has already gone through a bottle of gas. Guy enjoys his dinners out on the deck. When the wind goes southerly we are quite sheltered and the we can hear the birds in the tree- filled valley, and the sounds of suburbia filtering up, it's a very pleasent way to have dinner. The other photo was taken in late November, inside, we were having lamb shanks and had cut some off for Guy, but he annouced, "I need a bone" then proceeded to give the impression of being a very small caveman, which of course he is! Katrina's vegetarian tendancies certainly haven't been passed on (recessive trait?)
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Little Drummer Boy
One of the lovely presents that Guy got for his 2nd birthday was this beautiful drum from his (great) Uncle Richard and Adrienne and the boys. It really is a nice drum because it has a deep tuneful 'Tum Tum Tum', which is much easier to listen to than the clatter of wooden spoons on stainless steel pots. Of course when you give a 2 year old a set of drum sticks, all sorts of things can become drums!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Paekakariki Express
On the 5th January, while Granny was helping out and Katrina was sleeping in, Guy, Jack and Granny got up early to drive to Paekakariki. The vintage train folks at Steam Incorporated, http://www.steaminc.org.nz/ where running an excursion through the Manawatu Gorge to Dannevirke. They were using their fleet of vintage carriages and a J class Steam locomotive.
Guy was very impressed to see the engine 'Chuffing along' making up it's train and backing down into the station. He was a little bit less brave when he fund himself standing next to the hissing black monster on the the platform. He clung very tightly to my arm while peering intently at the wheels and pistons.
The train was going to be away for 12 hours on it's return trip so we had not intended to travel. Realising the likely perceived injustice of bringing him up just to watch the train depart without him, I spoke quickly to the train manager. The excursion was picking up more passengers up the line so there were spare seats until those passengers boarded. For a donation to the coal fund we boarded the train to Paraparaumu,the next station. Here is Guy bouncing gleefuly on the seats as he watched the cars travelling alongside. One of which was his Granny who picked us up at Paraparaumu and took a very happy little boy back home. Cheers Steam Inc.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Sandpit
While we were in hospital with Guy, by fortunate coincidence we had Katrina's Aunt and Uncle staying with us, which turned out to be Godsend as they kept us (and Felix) fed and watered. Then when we came home Margaret came down to help us out. This allowed us to get back to some of the things we had planned to do over the Christmas break. First among these was to build a sandpit for Guy. We used recycled bricks and built it in a corner against the retaining wall on which the western wall of the house rests. Guy enjoyed the building, especially using the hose to soak the bricks and mixing the concrete. As he stirred the concrete he kept saying "I digging a BIG hole". Then we got a trailer load of sand, which we had to carry down two flights of steps from the road in fish buckets. Guy helped by rolling about in the diminishing pile of sand in the trailer. A bit of work but already, Guy's hours of fun in the sandpit have exceeded its build time several times over. The only problem now is the little shoal of sand he leaves in the bath each night.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Christmas Continued
As described, Christmas day wasn't so good but with the all the care he received from the hardworking staff at Wellington Hospital
, Guy was soon feeling better although still tired and pale. on the third nighht they let us take Guy home, and he got to open some of the wonderful presents that were witing for him under the tree. I alos snapped this photo of him and the tree on Christmas morning, just before it all went bad. When we got home the bananas in the fruit bowl had got very ripe, and so to use them up and celebrate being out of hopsital, Jack and Guy made a banana cake. Guy enjoyed mixing this as much as he did eating it. The weather on Christmas day was terrible, wind and rain and then by the day after boxing day it cleared in the evening and we saw this beautiful stack of lenticular clouds, soaring above the Rimutakas on the westerly gale.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Christmas in the Childrens Ward
Happy New year to all our friends and whanau. Christmas 2007 will be a memorable one for us as it was the first (and hopefully last) Christmas we've ever spent at the after hours medical service followed by admission to the childrens ward at Wellington Hospital and a 5 day stay there. Poor Guy had several days of vomiting in the week leading up to Christmas, which although unusual for him, didn't seem too concerning, however by Christmas morning he was very upset and vomiting after every meal. Thinking it was a bad stomach bug and worried about him dehydrating, we went down to the after hours medical centre. They referred us to the Accident and Emergency department, where after several long, tedious and tense hours, the hospital Paediatrician examined Guy and admitted him to hospital. Examining his tummy produced howls of pain and an X-ray revealed his little bowel was completely blocked up. However the week of being off his food and vomiting whatever went down had left him very tired and verging on dehydration, hence the trip to hospital.To administer the 'unblockeriser' he had a nasal gastric tube inserted, which was unpleasant but once in he was very good and left it alone. It took 5 days for things to get going and in the first couple of days he was very quiet and needed a lot of cuddling. Here is a photo of him, looking tired and pale but being very brave.
On the fourth day we knew he was coming right when, while sitting on Daddy's knee for a story, the lunch trolley rolled down the corridor. When the Nurse asked Jack if Guy would like any lunch, no sooner had she got the word 'lunch' out than Guy slid off my knee and ran into the kitchen saying 'I need a sandwich!' Since then his appetite and irrepressable personality have fully returned (along with the prolific 'unblocking'!), although it was a tense and scary few days there for us all.
We are now home and were feeling completely exhausted until Margaret (Jack's Mum) came to our rescue. She has kept us fed and watered and entertained Guy so that we felt like we managed to get a brief break over the Christmas period. Jack is back at work after only a few days at home after we'd left hospital, so roll on our February holiday!
